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Floodtide
The story of handsome, ambitious Ross Pary, born in a lowly Natchez shackand the ravishing Morgan Brittany, who taught him, who taught him all the delights of love at a price no man could pay!
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1950
3 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Frank Yerby
123 books115 followersBorn in Augusta, Georgia to Rufus Garvin Yerby, an African American, and Wilhelmina Smythe, who was caucasian. He graduated from Haines Normal Institute in Augusta and graduated from Paine College in 1937. Thereafter, Yerby enrolled in Fisk University where he received his Master's degree in 1938. In 1939, Yerby entered the University of Chicago to work toward his doctorate but later left the university. Yerby taught briefly at Florida A&M University and at Southern University in Baton Rouge.
Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels.
Frank Yerby rose to fame as a writer of popular fiction tinged with a distinctive southern flavor. In 1946 he became the first African-American to publish a best-seller with The Foxes of Harrow. That same year he also became the first African-American to have a book purchased for screen adaptation by a Hollywood studio, when 20th Century Fox optioned Foxes. Ultimately the book became a 1947 Oscar-nominated film starring Rex Harrison and Maureen O'Hara. Yerby was originally noted for writing romance novels set in the Antebellum South. In mid-century he embarked on a series of best-selling novels ranging from the Athens of Pericles to Europe in the Dark Ages. Yerby took considerable pains in research, and often footnoted his historical novels. In all he wrote 33 novels.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 28, 2016
This is one of the books our family has had for years. Since I've decided to read all the books in our personal library, I had to read this one. I'm not fond of historical romances and it was hard to get through this book as Frank Yerby, having written during a time when so much detail was written, made reading this book, for me, even more difficult. My family has many of his books and I have read as least three. I will read them all because what's the purpose of having so many books if one hasn't read them?
May 9, 2020
Don't be fooled. This is not a light southern romance. Sure, the soap opera is front and center, but it is told with the background of slavery, a woman's cruelty, and betrayal. Frank Yerby pays homage to Southern honor and shows that it is also dishonorable. Yerby writes about the South with an edge to it.
December 22, 2021
I found nothing redeeming in this story or these characters. I did not like one major character. The one I thought I did like managed to lose me, too.
There is an evil woman who toys with everyone else and not one person stands up to her. They let her ruin their lives. Not one man has a backbone against her. She tortures and murders without any consequences.
The other major female character enjoys being a martyr and goading others into lost causes.
The racism is really bad. I realize the story takes place before the civil war and accurately depicts the worst of slavery, that is understandable. But I think I would have preferred the slave owners who saw their slaves as inhuman to the one we focus on who believes slavery is wrong and wants to free his slaves and teach them to read and write but also says they are children and need to be cared for and finds it hard to understand how a black man would want his wife and child and pine for them when he could just choose another.
The characters did not come across as genuine. I cannot believe a woman could be so evil and not one person would say no to her and let her get away with murder. I cannot believe a woman would so espouse a cause that she would send the people she loved to wage a losing battle for it. I cannot believe a woman who would put a societal way of life she never lived above her marriage to the man she wanted. I cannot believe a man so twisted by first one woman than another that he does not have a brain of his own. I cannot believe a man who would put his daughter at risk for some ideal.
I will say that beyond one element of the story, I could not predict where it would go next. It did have action, adventure and romance. But I found it very hard to read and was so glad when it finally ended.
There is an evil woman who toys with everyone else and not one person stands up to her. They let her ruin their lives. Not one man has a backbone against her. She tortures and murders without any consequences.
The other major female character enjoys being a martyr and goading others into lost causes.
The racism is really bad. I realize the story takes place before the civil war and accurately depicts the worst of slavery, that is understandable. But I think I would have preferred the slave owners who saw their slaves as inhuman to the one we focus on who believes slavery is wrong and wants to free his slaves and teach them to read and write but also says they are children and need to be cared for and finds it hard to understand how a black man would want his wife and child and pine for them when he could just choose another.
The characters did not come across as genuine. I cannot believe a woman could be so evil and not one person would say no to her and let her get away with murder. I cannot believe a woman would so espouse a cause that she would send the people she loved to wage a losing battle for it. I cannot believe a woman who would put a societal way of life she never lived above her marriage to the man she wanted. I cannot believe a man so twisted by first one woman than another that he does not have a brain of his own. I cannot believe a man who would put his daughter at risk for some ideal.
I will say that beyond one element of the story, I could not predict where it would go next. It did have action, adventure and romance. But I found it very hard to read and was so glad when it finally ended.
July 23, 2016
El cielo esta muy alto, es una novela histórica, donde se une la ficción con la realidad.
La historia comienza con un joven, Ross Pary, que desea mejorar su vida y la de sus hermanos, y lograr salir adelante y vivir en la cima de la colina; pero ahí entrarán en escena, personajes que marcarán su suerte o desgracia, Lance y su esposa Morgan, Conchita Izquierdo, etc.
Este libro, escrito por Frank Yerby, escritor afroamericano, que aunque sus críticos dijeran lo contrario, él siempre en sus hablaba sobre la esclavitud, la secesión y las guerras; él mismo fue perseguido desde niño por los Ku Klux Klam en EEUU, tiempo después se exilió en España, en protesta al racismo reinante.
Este libro sólo es ficción en los personajes, pero no en la historia.Podemos leer la cruda realidad que se vivía, desde el punto de vista de un joven sin recursos que sueña con crecer y dejar de vivir en lo bajo de la ciudad, sin embargo, al final, Ross logrará crecer, pero como ser humano y considero que a pesar de las desgracias que se le presentan, lo mejor es que logra entender que la esclavitud, no debe existir, que todos merecemoa ser libres, sin importar nuestro color de piel.
Morgan, es la para mí la protagonista de la historia, es una mujer espantosa, terrible, y sólo al final, demuestra que tenía sentimientos.
Conchita, una chica cubana que logra despertar en Ross, la lucha contra la esclavitud y contra la guerra a Cuba. Ella es muy especial en esta historia.
Y aunque es un personaje secundario, su breve historia me lleno de lágrimas los ojos. Brutus, que también le ayuda a ver a Ross, que todos somos iguales.
La novela es cruda, real, triste, verdadera y te hace reflexionar sobre lo que ocurrió y ocurre, con el racismo, con la vida, con la locura, y son tantas cosas, que algunas chocan dentro de uno y otras despiertan.
Si bien es muy descriptivo, muchas veces es para bien.
Y la verdad que me gusta por más dura que sea, ya que tiene un mensaje muy claro sobre la libertad, en todos los sentidos.
Es un novela que hay que leer con lentitud, hay cosas demasiado dolorosas pero reales y veo una puntuación injusta para este libro, ya que trata muchos temas de gran importancia.
La historia comienza con un joven, Ross Pary, que desea mejorar su vida y la de sus hermanos, y lograr salir adelante y vivir en la cima de la colina; pero ahí entrarán en escena, personajes que marcarán su suerte o desgracia, Lance y su esposa Morgan, Conchita Izquierdo, etc.
Este libro, escrito por Frank Yerby, escritor afroamericano, que aunque sus críticos dijeran lo contrario, él siempre en sus hablaba sobre la esclavitud, la secesión y las guerras; él mismo fue perseguido desde niño por los Ku Klux Klam en EEUU, tiempo después se exilió en España, en protesta al racismo reinante.
Este libro sólo es ficción en los personajes, pero no en la historia.Podemos leer la cruda realidad que se vivía, desde el punto de vista de un joven sin recursos que sueña con crecer y dejar de vivir en lo bajo de la ciudad, sin embargo, al final, Ross logrará crecer, pero como ser humano y considero que a pesar de las desgracias que se le presentan, lo mejor es que logra entender que la esclavitud, no debe existir, que todos merecemoa ser libres, sin importar nuestro color de piel.
Morgan, es la para mí la protagonista de la historia, es una mujer espantosa, terrible, y sólo al final, demuestra que tenía sentimientos.
Conchita, una chica cubana que logra despertar en Ross, la lucha contra la esclavitud y contra la guerra a Cuba. Ella es muy especial en esta historia.
Y aunque es un personaje secundario, su breve historia me lleno de lágrimas los ojos. Brutus, que también le ayuda a ver a Ross, que todos somos iguales.
La novela es cruda, real, triste, verdadera y te hace reflexionar sobre lo que ocurrió y ocurre, con el racismo, con la vida, con la locura, y son tantas cosas, que algunas chocan dentro de uno y otras despiertan.
Si bien es muy descriptivo, muchas veces es para bien.
Y la verdad que me gusta por más dura que sea, ya que tiene un mensaje muy claro sobre la libertad, en todos los sentidos.
Es un novela que hay que leer con lentitud, hay cosas demasiado dolorosas pero reales y veo una puntuación injusta para este libro, ya que trata muchos temas de gran importancia.
November 27, 2014
Ross Pary starts out as dirt poor but is determined to make himself into somebody. Along the way he falls in love with several women, including the already married (and completely nuts) Morgan. Set before the American Civil War, a good part of the action actually takes place down in Cuba where they're having some kind of peasant revolt.
September 19, 2012
I enjoyed Yerby's The Saracen Blade better, but I enjoyed reading this novel published decades ago. His writing style is reminiscent of Frances Parkinson Keyes.
November 28, 2022
Another typical Yerby tale of rags to riches (incredible wealth) of a morally upright man dealing with evil in the form of men and woman, and love gained and lost. Yerby weaves an interesting historical story dealing with slavery, Southern Plantation life, war & violence, justice, world travel, and builds dynamic & weak characters. Ross Pary's dealing with the truly evil & scheming Morgan Brittany and her actions is the stuff of nightmares. Morgan breaks Yerby's standard of good looking people are valiant and ugly people are evil. Victim, sinner and savior, Ross Pary's evolution includes slips as he succumbs to temptation and shows bravery when necessary. Yerby knots and unties the loose threads into a satisfying resolution.
January 3, 2026
Didn't bring a book to Thanksgiving. Grabbed this one off the shelf.
It was entertaining.
It felt like the book did it's main character a disservice by only following it when he was faced with a character he hated. When he was an honorable man.
Interesting conversations within about politics, though hard to say how well they reflect the time the story was set in our written in.
It was entertaining.
It felt like the book did it's main character a disservice by only following it when he was faced with a character he hated. When he was an honorable man.
Interesting conversations within about politics, though hard to say how well they reflect the time the story was set in our written in.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2016
I have a general guideline to finish all books I start reading. But this one had many things wrong with it that I wasn't aware of at purchase.
I frequent old, dusty, well-loved bookshops and sometimes, often, buy books I have never heard of and know nothing about just because they either look or sound interesting.
Floodtide did not have a book jacket nor the subtitle that I later read on this site "The story of a man's fall into lust" or something similar that would have kept me from purchasing the book.
It was also set in the south in 1850 and I had a very difficult time reading the graphic descriptions of slaves and their inferiority. As well as the graphic details of war later on.
One of the main characters, Morgan, was more than forward and gleeful of injustices. I realize she was written to be a shocking portrayal of what a well-bred, open-minded, and not-at-all-concerned-with-propriety woman may have been like in the 1850s. However, even in 2016, should a woman behave this way, it would still be controversial because immorality will always be wrong.
Is the novel well written? Yes.
Are the characters compelling and even relatable? Yes.
Is the plot established in a way that both makes sense and engages the reader to want more? Mostly.
Historical fiction will always be a favorite genre of mine, but Floodtide will not.
I frequent old, dusty, well-loved bookshops and sometimes, often, buy books I have never heard of and know nothing about just because they either look or sound interesting.
Floodtide did not have a book jacket nor the subtitle that I later read on this site "The story of a man's fall into lust" or something similar that would have kept me from purchasing the book.
It was also set in the south in 1850 and I had a very difficult time reading the graphic descriptions of slaves and their inferiority. As well as the graphic details of war later on.
One of the main characters, Morgan, was more than forward and gleeful of injustices. I realize she was written to be a shocking portrayal of what a well-bred, open-minded, and not-at-all-concerned-with-propriety woman may have been like in the 1850s. However, even in 2016, should a woman behave this way, it would still be controversial because immorality will always be wrong.
Is the novel well written? Yes.
Are the characters compelling and even relatable? Yes.
Is the plot established in a way that both makes sense and engages the reader to want more? Mostly.
Historical fiction will always be a favorite genre of mine, but Floodtide will not.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2015
This is a historical romance, however I found the period of time and the introduction to a period and events of the US history that is not often looked at. The expectations of the US to continue to expand and annex Cuba was a something I did not know about. I also have to spend some time looking up places and vegetation the book talks about, as well as taking time to look at historical maps for a better understanding.
Read
June 23, 2013"Practically everything (they) believe about us isn't so, and nine-tenths of what we believe about ourselves..."
"If I could make you do what I wanted you to, I'd hate you. But I'll keep on trying. That's the nature of a woman."
"If I could make you do what I wanted you to, I'd hate you. But I'll keep on trying. That's the nature of a woman."
probably-never-gonna-read-it
August 10, 2008I have no idea where I got this book. Weird.
August 31, 2010
Post Civil War love story.
January 11, 2014
a delight
July 5, 2012
This was a thrilling quick-read! My only qualm with the whole book was where it left me. Huge open ending. Overall I really enjoyed it!
May 14, 2014
Very happy this came into my collection. Great story. Enjoyed how it ended and the characters were well written.
May 16, 2015
Reread of Floodtide. Originally read as a teen. Yerby at his best with deep underlying societal issues amid romantic entanglements ...
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews