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Three Classic Novels: Tobacco Road, God's Little Acre, and Place Called Estherville
A collection of three controversial classics set in the rural South by a multimillion-copy-selling author.
With tens of millions of books sold, Erskine Caldwell was one of the most daring and popular novelists of the twentieth century. He wrote of bigotry, poverty, social injustice, and sexual squalor in the Deep South. This collection includes three of his bestselling novels.
Tobacco Road: Jeeter Lester and his Southern sharecropper family are struggling to survive before the Great Depression even begins. But as devastating poverty spreads to the families that once supported them, the Lesters slip completely into the abyss. Rather than hold on to one another for support, Jeeter; his wife, Ada; and their twelve children are overcome by the fractured and violent society around them. The basis for one of the longest running Broadway plays, Tobacco Road is a poignant account of a broken family facing great adversity.
God’s Little Acre: Desperation takes its toll on a deluded and impoverished Southern farmer obsessed with sex, violence, and the promise of gold. Meanwhile, his sons and daughters search in vain for their own instant happiness. With more than fourteen million copies sold, this international bestseller lampoons a broken South while holding a light to poverty’s devastating effect on people’s hopes and dreams.
Place Called Estherville: In the pre-civil-rights-era South, a biracial brother and sister, Ganus and Kathyanne, move to a small segregated Southern town to care for their aunt, only to be subjected to systematic racism, sexual violence, and prejudice.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.
With tens of millions of books sold, Erskine Caldwell was one of the most daring and popular novelists of the twentieth century. He wrote of bigotry, poverty, social injustice, and sexual squalor in the Deep South. This collection includes three of his bestselling novels.
Tobacco Road: Jeeter Lester and his Southern sharecropper family are struggling to survive before the Great Depression even begins. But as devastating poverty spreads to the families that once supported them, the Lesters slip completely into the abyss. Rather than hold on to one another for support, Jeeter; his wife, Ada; and their twelve children are overcome by the fractured and violent society around them. The basis for one of the longest running Broadway plays, Tobacco Road is a poignant account of a broken family facing great adversity.
God’s Little Acre: Desperation takes its toll on a deluded and impoverished Southern farmer obsessed with sex, violence, and the promise of gold. Meanwhile, his sons and daughters search in vain for their own instant happiness. With more than fourteen million copies sold, this international bestseller lampoons a broken South while holding a light to poverty’s devastating effect on people’s hopes and dreams.
Place Called Estherville: In the pre-civil-rights-era South, a biracial brother and sister, Ganus and Kathyanne, move to a small segregated Southern town to care for their aunt, only to be subjected to systematic racism, sexual violence, and prejudice.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erskine Caldwell including rare photos and never-before-seen documents courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library.
622 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 16, 2017
383 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
Erskine Caldwell
332 books224 followersErskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was holding the region up to ridicule.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 13, 2021
I bought this three book set because it was on the $2.99 Kobo sale. I hadn’t heard of any of the titles, or the author, so had no idea what to expect. Now I find that all three of these will be on my all time favourites list! They brought me so much emotion, from sad to happy, horrifying to hilarious. The writing was so descriptive, and it elicited such reaction, that at times it was hard to continue to read, especially during so many devastating situations in Place Called Estherville. Still, I found I couldn’t put it down and was sad when it ended. I also loved that each story had characters full of hope, even though their situations were dire. I’ve since been told that the audio books are equally as good, with fantastic narration! I will definitely be checking them out!
October 8, 2019
Well, to each his own. I saw at least one review from a fellow reader that gave only three stars. I resoundingly give these three books five stars, all three, each the same. These are American classics. They describe a different time and surely a different place (from what I knew growing up in Nova Scotia, anyway). I knew, or at least I thought I knew, a fair amount about the American south, depression time, Jim Crow laws, racial prejudice but these three books were a shock. They weren't all about racial issues, in fact Tobacco Road was focused on poverty, and extreme poverty at that. All three books had strong tendencies of incest, interracial sex and just plain "loose" sex. But these added considerable spice and interest, and authenticity. The speech, and the descriptions both went a long way to giving the reader a real sense of the old south. But not the plantation south, with colonnaded mansions and vine covered trees, but the hard, harsh working south. The most popular novel, God's Little Acre, I actually found the least plausible but it was nonetheless a good read. And I will admit to getting a tear in my eye as I read the very last page or two of A Place Called Estherville. It wasn't a happy ending but it was an ending that pleased and gave one the feeling that despite all the hatred and senselessness described in the novel, humanity will win out. Read these 85 year-old novels - you will not be disappointed (even if you're from the US south)!
February 24, 2022
These three short novels about life in the South during the Depression are emotionally difficult reading. Tobacco Road covers the life and death of incredible poor, illiterate, white folks plagued by pellagra, and probably hook worms with no energy to get the cotton planted.
In God's Little Acre, the father of the family has gold fever and spends time digging large holes in the land. He is also plagued by daughters too attractive for their own good. The cotton mill is locking out union workers and the son-in-law is obsessed with turning the power back on and taking it over.
Estherville is a catalogue of all the ways the white citizens exploit and abuse two teen-age black orphans who are new in town.
In God's Little Acre, the father of the family has gold fever and spends time digging large holes in the land. He is also plagued by daughters too attractive for their own good. The cotton mill is locking out union workers and the son-in-law is obsessed with turning the power back on and taking it over.
Estherville is a catalogue of all the ways the white citizens exploit and abuse two teen-age black orphans who are new in town.
September 30, 2017
first 2 books interesting description of a southern poor family ,but in a weird, sometimes boring kind of way. Couldn't finish 3rd book
Read
November 26, 2019Two of the three are good. I gave up on Estherville halfway through.
January 20, 2020
A wonderful southern classic recounting difficult times.
October 26, 2020
I like this story. Characters are very interesting as well as the gold plot but hard to be comfortable in such a backwater, poor country world. However, that's probably the author's intention.
Read
September 30, 2024Too dark & hopeless. I can't finish this series of books.
September 17, 2021
Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road is Erskine Caldwell's third novel and his most famous. Listed by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels written in the English language. (#91) Published in 1932, it is the story of the Lesters. Jeeter and Ada Lester had a lot of children. All the children, with the exception of Dude and Ellie Mae, have left home, never to return and do not keep in touch with the parents. Jeeter can never remember how many children they had, and only some of their names.
One of the girls, Pearl was 13 when Jeeter sold her to Lov for the grand sum of $7. Dude is a 16 year old half wit and Ellie May at 18 ought to have been married off, but her hair lip makes her less than desirable.
The story begins with Lov, his turnips and the problem he has with Pearl, she won't sleep with him and has run off.
The Lester's are slowly starving to death and can't come up with the money to buy seed and fertilizer. Jeeter is a cockeyed optimist and still hopes where there is no hope. He'll start clearing the land for planting, tomorrow.
Bessie, a slutty preacher widowed lady marries Dude. He marries her because she has purchased a new car for $800 with a horn. He likes honking the horn. It takes less than a day for Dude to have his first traffic accident. He destroys a front headlight and fender, no matter the car still runs, and he kills a black man. No matter, they leave him lying in the dirt. Further accidents will occur with defying frequency.
Some may find this novel funny. I don't. Caldwell thinks the novel is a taste of realism. I hope not. The characters are all stupid beyond what I could imagine. Is this how rural south dirt poor Americans lived in the 1930's. I hope not.
God's Little Acre
For fifteen years, Ty Ty Walden has been digging deep enormous holes on his land rather than farming. He has gold fever. Shaw and Buck, two of his grown sons are there right along side of him, digging and dreaming the impossible dream.
Buck is married to Griselda, the prettiest girl in all of Georgia, likely the prettiest gal God ever created, according to Ty Ty. He lusts after his daughter-in-law. Rosamond and Darling Jill are Ty Ty's daughters.
Pluto wants to marry teenager Darling Jill, she's busy sowing her wild oats, which means copulating whenever there is an opportunity. Pluto is running for sheriff, but is too busy running after Darling Jill to campaign.
Rosamond marries a city boy, Will. They live in Scottsville, a mill town, but the mill has closed down. Although Will doesn't have gold fever nor any interest in farming, he also chases an impossible dream. He's going to turn on the power at the mill and get the mill running again.
Jim Lester, Ty Ty's oldest son has an impossible dream as well. He's going to kidnap Griselda. Buck kills Jim Lester. Invading the mill causes Will to be shot and killed.
Chasing impossible dreams and humping indiscriminately, the way dogs do, is essentially what this novel is about. Along with, of course, depicting poor Americans of the South to be degenerates.
A Place Called Estherville
First published in 1949, although not as famous as Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre, A Place Called Estherville sold 1.7 million copies. It's the story of Kathyanne and Ganus Bazemore, a biracial brother and sister. They move from the country to the Estherville to care for their ailing aunt.
Kathyanne and Ganus are naive but well behaved. They know their place in white society. Their place is, of course, to be at the mercy of the whites. Because this is an Erskine Caldwell novel sex and violence fill the pages and the cruelty, desperation and unfairness are obvious.
Tobacco Road is Erskine Caldwell's third novel and his most famous. Listed by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels written in the English language. (#91) Published in 1932, it is the story of the Lesters. Jeeter and Ada Lester had a lot of children. All the children, with the exception of Dude and Ellie Mae, have left home, never to return and do not keep in touch with the parents. Jeeter can never remember how many children they had, and only some of their names.
One of the girls, Pearl was 13 when Jeeter sold her to Lov for the grand sum of $7. Dude is a 16 year old half wit and Ellie May at 18 ought to have been married off, but her hair lip makes her less than desirable.
The story begins with Lov, his turnips and the problem he has with Pearl, she won't sleep with him and has run off.
The Lester's are slowly starving to death and can't come up with the money to buy seed and fertilizer. Jeeter is a cockeyed optimist and still hopes where there is no hope. He'll start clearing the land for planting, tomorrow.
Bessie, a slutty preacher widowed lady marries Dude. He marries her because she has purchased a new car for $800 with a horn. He likes honking the horn. It takes less than a day for Dude to have his first traffic accident. He destroys a front headlight and fender, no matter the car still runs, and he kills a black man. No matter, they leave him lying in the dirt. Further accidents will occur with defying frequency.
Some may find this novel funny. I don't. Caldwell thinks the novel is a taste of realism. I hope not. The characters are all stupid beyond what I could imagine. Is this how rural south dirt poor Americans lived in the 1930's. I hope not.
God's Little Acre
For fifteen years, Ty Ty Walden has been digging deep enormous holes on his land rather than farming. He has gold fever. Shaw and Buck, two of his grown sons are there right along side of him, digging and dreaming the impossible dream.
Buck is married to Griselda, the prettiest girl in all of Georgia, likely the prettiest gal God ever created, according to Ty Ty. He lusts after his daughter-in-law. Rosamond and Darling Jill are Ty Ty's daughters.
Pluto wants to marry teenager Darling Jill, she's busy sowing her wild oats, which means copulating whenever there is an opportunity. Pluto is running for sheriff, but is too busy running after Darling Jill to campaign.
Rosamond marries a city boy, Will. They live in Scottsville, a mill town, but the mill has closed down. Although Will doesn't have gold fever nor any interest in farming, he also chases an impossible dream. He's going to turn on the power at the mill and get the mill running again.
Jim Lester, Ty Ty's oldest son has an impossible dream as well. He's going to kidnap Griselda. Buck kills Jim Lester. Invading the mill causes Will to be shot and killed.
Chasing impossible dreams and humping indiscriminately, the way dogs do, is essentially what this novel is about. Along with, of course, depicting poor Americans of the South to be degenerates.
A Place Called Estherville
First published in 1949, although not as famous as Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre, A Place Called Estherville sold 1.7 million copies. It's the story of Kathyanne and Ganus Bazemore, a biracial brother and sister. They move from the country to the Estherville to care for their ailing aunt.
Kathyanne and Ganus are naive but well behaved. They know their place in white society. Their place is, of course, to be at the mercy of the whites. Because this is an Erskine Caldwell novel sex and violence fill the pages and the cruelty, desperation and unfairness are obvious.
January 20, 2021
For anyone that has read Erskine Caldwell, you know what to expect. Issues and topics on the South covering alcohol, sex, race and religion are always on Caldwell’s list.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews