The Sins of the Father

by Thomas Dixon Jr., Steven Weisenberger (Introduction)

" Today, Thomas Dixon is perhaps best known as the author of the best-selling early twentieth-century trilogy that included the novel The Clansman (1905), which provided the core narrative for D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking and still-controversial film The Birth of a Nation. It was The Sins of the Father, however, that Dixon regarded as the most aesthetically satisfying child of his Ku Klux Klan saga. In this novel he telescopes the trilogy's sprawling historical canvas into one tightly scripted narrative. A best-seller in 1912, the novel's themes of interracial sex and incest outraged many upon its publication.

A century later, Dixon's work is undergoing a critical reevaluation. A new introduction by Steven Weisenburger lends a valuable historical and critical perspective to this important and divisive classic of American literature.

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1912

About the author

Thomas Frederick Dixon Jr. was a Southern Baptist minister, playwright, lecturer, North Carolina state legislator, lawyer, and author.

(wikipedia)

Reviews

[Patricia Dietz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has one strength--a powerful character-driven plot full of surprises. It becomes a real page-turner. At the end, the main character shoots himself in the head and my relief was enormous. Somebody should have shot him much earlier. This is, not surprisingly given the author's time period, locale and other works, an obsessively manipulative example of race hatred. There were several redeeming characters, but if I'd had a blue pencil before this went to print, it would have come out a hundred pages or so of pure racist propaganda shorter! AND I'd have totally cut the last line or two. His son had it right, the father's mouth-frothing racism tried to dress itself up as pure and logical, but only someone already blinded by this kind of prejudice could read this with any comfort. To the author's credit, he did set up a strong case in guilt and lousy choices for the father's extremism. Expect lots of melodrama, typical of the 1800s. So after all my complaints, it has an emotionally driving plot that kept me up till 2 AM last night to reach the end.

[Da1tonthegreat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sins of the Father represents Thomas Dixon Jr.'s foray into the tragic mulatto trope. Cleo, one of the principal characters, is a high yellow octoroon, who is 1/8 black and 7/8 white. Your opinion on this sort of thing will depend on your view of the one drop rule. As a racial realist, there's got to be some point where the black has been bleached out. Objectively speaking, someone who is 15/16 white like Cleo's daughter Helen is not even close to pure black, and in an either/or situation they would most logically be considered white.

But not in this book, which is more of a Gothic novel than anything else, arguably a very early example of Southern Gothic. Criteria include a crazy woman, adultery, suicide, a frail woman literally dying from shock and shame, surprise incest, secrets and lies, and love turned to hatred. The massive amount of miscegenation in the Old South lurks behind the racial history of that land, and it's not grappled with very effectively in this novel. Compared to some of Dixon's other works, this one is disappointing.