02923cam a22003973u 4500 76784 UtSlPG 20260610134758.0 m cr n 260607r20251908utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d 08029332 UtSlPG en iso639-1 PS Craddock, Charles Egbert, 1850-1922 The fair Mississippian Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg, 2025 1 online resource : multiple file formats text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier Release date is 2025-08-31 Richard Tonsing, Peter Becker, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) "The fair Mississippian" by Charles Egbert Craddock is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set on an isolated Mississippi River plantation, it follows Edward Desmond, a brilliant but newly impoverished scholar who becomes tutor to the wealthy widow Honoria Faurie’s three sons. The story promises class friction, wounded pride, and a possible attraction between tutor and mistress, threaded through with a local “haunting” and the social theatrics of neighboring planters. The opening of the novel shows Desmond’s fall from promise after his father’s death and his reluctant arrival at Great Oaks, where Mr. Stanlett’s tactless chatter about Honoria’s fortune (tied to widowhood) and a parrot’s mocking song sharpen Desmond’s sense of humiliation. He meets the unexpectedly young and commanding Honoria, then lies awake to hear furtive footsteps on the stairs; Reginald explains the household’s ghostly legend. At breakfast Honoria’s birthday and Chub’s earnest “trading‑boat” gift reveal the family’s dynamics. Desmond asserts discipline, vetoing a holiday, choosing the library as a schoolroom, and quelling globe‑spinning and sulks; he spars with Reginald over the value of Greek and begins to win a measure of order while spending his nights reading and writing in solitude. As winter wears on, neighbors Colonel and Mrs. Kentopp arrive; Desmond even resists being summoned mid‑lessons, signaling the boundaries he intends to keep. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally published: Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908 Inheritance and succession -- Fiction Love stories Widows -- Fiction Plantation life -- Fiction Tutors and tutoring -- Fiction Mississippi -- Fiction Justice, Martin, 1869-1961 https://archive.org/details/fairmississippia00murfuoft https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76784 117509 117509