Social Life in Old Virginia Before the War, Annotated and Illustrated
Book Details
Author(s)Thomas Nelson Page
PublisherBooker House Publishing, INC.
ISBN / ASINB0090R3F74
ISBN-13978B0090R3F73
MarketplaceUnited Kingdom 🇬🇧
Description
SOCIAL LIFE IN OLD VIRGINIA BEFORE THE WAR
By Thomas Nelson Page
Originally published in 1897 by Charles Scribner’s Sons, Social Life in Old Virginia Before the War is a compilation the author’s reflections on the social and economic set-up of antebellum Virginia. Page maintains that his outline of "real life of the South in old times" confronts previous fallacious versions that do not tell the real truth about Southern culture where Southerners are represented as ignorant, coarse, and lazy people. Page’s narrative opens with an appealing idealized illustration of the “typical†southern mansion, gloriously situated on a hill, surrounded by lovely well-kept gardens of fragrant flowers. Panning from the central great house, he tells of flourishing fields of grain, perfumed orchards, and abundant vegetable and kitchen gardens. In his idyllic depiction, good nature and serenity flourish under the direction of the Lady Bountiful mistress of the plantation.
Throughout his storyline, Thomas Nelson Page eulogizes the southern assets of consideration, benevolence, high principles, honor, and elegance. He prognosticates that the South will indeed rise like a Phoenix from the ashes, but he does grieve that certain aspects of the Old South will be forever lost. Page concedes that the antebellum South was not perfect (but close), and goes on to propose that its vir-tues compensated for its imperfections.
Somewhere between the vile picture of the Southerner and the romanticized version, the truth of history lies. It is up to the reader to make this judgment.
Here, Booker House Publishing, Incorporated, a re-printer of classic books, presents Thomas Nelson Page’s Social Life in Old Virginia before the War in addition to color (if you have a color e-reader) photographs of some of the old Virginia “Great Houses†along with a capsule history of each.
By Thomas Nelson Page
Originally published in 1897 by Charles Scribner’s Sons, Social Life in Old Virginia Before the War is a compilation the author’s reflections on the social and economic set-up of antebellum Virginia. Page maintains that his outline of "real life of the South in old times" confronts previous fallacious versions that do not tell the real truth about Southern culture where Southerners are represented as ignorant, coarse, and lazy people. Page’s narrative opens with an appealing idealized illustration of the “typical†southern mansion, gloriously situated on a hill, surrounded by lovely well-kept gardens of fragrant flowers. Panning from the central great house, he tells of flourishing fields of grain, perfumed orchards, and abundant vegetable and kitchen gardens. In his idyllic depiction, good nature and serenity flourish under the direction of the Lady Bountiful mistress of the plantation.
Throughout his storyline, Thomas Nelson Page eulogizes the southern assets of consideration, benevolence, high principles, honor, and elegance. He prognosticates that the South will indeed rise like a Phoenix from the ashes, but he does grieve that certain aspects of the Old South will be forever lost. Page concedes that the antebellum South was not perfect (but close), and goes on to propose that its vir-tues compensated for its imperfections.
Somewhere between the vile picture of the Southerner and the romanticized version, the truth of history lies. It is up to the reader to make this judgment.
Here, Booker House Publishing, Incorporated, a re-printer of classic books, presents Thomas Nelson Page’s Social Life in Old Virginia before the War in addition to color (if you have a color e-reader) photographs of some of the old Virginia “Great Houses†along with a capsule history of each.
