The Half-caste: An Old Governess's Tale

by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (Creator)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Genres: Victorian, Classics, School, Fiction, Short Stories

246 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dinah Maria Craik (born Dinah Maria Mulock, also often credited as Miss Mulock or Mrs. Craik) was an English novelist and poet. She was born at Stoke-on-Trent and brought up in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.

After the death of her mother in 1845, Dinah Maria Mulock settled in London about 1846. She was determined to obtain a livelihood by her pen, and, beginning with fiction for children, advanced steadily until placed in the front rank of the women novelists of her day. She is best known for the novel John Halifax, Gentleman (1856). She followed this with A Life for a Life (1859), which she considered to be the best of her novels, and several other works. She also published some poetry, narratives of tours in Ireland and Cornwall, and A Woman's Thoughts about Women (1858).

She married George Lillie Craik a partner with Alexander Macmillan in the publishing house of Macmillan & Company, and nephew of George Lillie Craik, in 1864. They adopted a foundling baby girl, Dorothy, in 1869.

At Shortlands, near Bromley, Kent, while in a period of preparation for Dorothy's wedding, she died of heart failure on 12 October 1887, aged 61. Her last words were reported to have been: "Oh, if I could live four weeks longer! but no matter, no matter!" Her final book, An Unknown Country, was published by Macmillan in 1887, the year of her death.

Reviews

[Ioana · Rating 2 out of 5]

not el señor diciéndole que so se case con el French porque se va a quedar con su fortuna para luego él hacer lo mismo

[Angels · Rating 3 out of 5]

ENOUGH with the 'middle-aged man marrying young girl' trope, ENOGUH

[not even here · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh

read for school feb. 2021

[carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was actually pretty good like i was invested and i found it more accessible in its language however i am docking a star bc zillah and sutherland just had to get married in the last like three pages r u shitting me… why couldn’t they live together as a happy found family what’s wrong with that

[nalijah daniels · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great, read it for class

[Ania · Rating 2 out of 5]

se me olvidó actualizar ups

[Caitlin Hanrahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Craik’s take on Anglo-Indian women in the Victorian era is almost unique. This writer should be better known. The editor provides interesting context about the Empire and changing attitudes towards “race” as the Raj took hold.

[Freddy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was quite possibly the weirdest reading experience I’ve ever had. Because it’s not a very common story, this edition of ‘The Half-Caste’ which was the only one I could get was scanned ‘using character recognition software that includes an automated spell check. Our software is 99% accurate”. When they say 99%, they really mean it - there’s a weird typo every 100 letters or so, such as “youttg” instead of “young”.

That was weird enough, combined with the newspaper style printing of columns that meant it took about 4 minutes to read one page, but whereas I thought the whole book was ‘The Half-Caste’, it actually randomly transitioned into a completely different story by a different author with no warning whatsoever - it took me shamefully long to realise that I was now reading about a Scottish family in Cambridge.

Aside from this strange reading experience, the text feels very flawed. In comparison with ‘The Octoroon’, which did have quite a lot of radical, important messages for the 19th Century, this is just saying ‘yes people who aren’t white are inferior, but let’s at least be nice to them because they’re so unintelligent’. Very little redeeming qualities, and it also had the description ‘the stupidity of an ultra-stupid child’. The ending is meant to be happy when in reality it’s a man who fetishises half-white half-indian girls; ‘The Half-Caste’ really shouldn’t be read by anyone (and especially not my edition).

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short novella about a mixed-race woman, this book was considered "progressive" for its time. It's pretty racist to read through, as many books from that time period are. I read it for a class but did not enjoy it. The narrator is a too-stupid-to-be-real character. She is constantly surprised by things that are blatantly obvious.

[Anesa · Rating 3 out of 5]

entretenida pero bastante predecible yikes

[Cas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Grade: B

I had to read this for my uni degree.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5* Interesting plot, but it would have been more enjoyable if it has been further developed. As it was, the plot was rushed and characters were flat.

[Poulomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well that was racist

[Iván · Rating 2 out of 5]

read it for class; too rushed and very inconsistent characters

[Olivia Churchyard · Rating 2 out of 5]

How can so much happen, yet also be unbelievably boring?

Also, how racist do you want to be Dinah?????

[Lindsey]

Will report back on how it teaches...

[Lau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for uni, loved roasting it in my essay

[Annabelle Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storytelling-wise, not my favorite and not the most enjoyable. But interesting to think about.

(Dissertation re-read)

[Noelia ^^ · Rating 4 out of 5]

bien narrado, final de mierda

[Yello 🧸 · Rating 3 out of 5]

for class

[caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

the ending ruined it i fear… but good discussion of victorian values + tropes

[nena · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75

[Lucas Lorente · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever writing. It is politically aware and has good faith on matters such as gender inequality and racism. Sadly the plot and characters are quite uninteresting