Hagar's Daughter

by Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins

The story of the wife of a rich, white landowner who hides a dark secret she is of black origin.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Mystery, African American

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859 – August 13, 1930) was a prominent African-American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes. Her work reflects the influence of W. E. B. Du Bois.

She also wrote under the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen.

Reviews

[alysa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars

this was such a fun time. hopkins writes such amazing ideas and critiques of the world while making a crazy storyline filled with all kinds of fun twists that had my hand flying towards my mouth at many points. one of the only books i'd be very happy to see adopted into a five episode hbo series...

[Ardyth]

I downloaded this because I saw a blurb that this was the first story featuring an African-American detective.

This isn't really a detective mystery, though... more a gothic drama in the typical 19th century style. I want to be put out about that blurb, but I wouldn't ever have chosen to read a gothic drama & I enjoyed this page-turner quite a lot.

More than anything, this hit the beats I used to love in romance novels during my teens and twenties: hot, damaged men we hope will become a better version of themselves; evil men most people like but our heroine doesn't; family secrets; incredible sums of money on the line. But instead of London and Sussex, set it in DC and Maryland. And leave all the nudity off page.

Not perfect literature -- but pretty close to perfect pulp fiction.

[Jeanthesecond]

This is the first detective novel by an African American author. It’s pretty good. I can’t help comparing it to Wide Sargasso Sea in that it takes the sort of sometimes annoying hysteric emotions and needlessly menacing manors in Poe’s detective stories and makes the gothic meaningful in the explicit context of slavery and race.

[slauderdale]

This book was a trip! I won’t call it perfect, but it is an entertaining pastiche of sentimental and sensational literature portraying two seemingly unrelated (yeah, no one believes that for a hot second) plotlines: a Civil War era plantation couple assailed by the husband’s scheming younger brother, who uses the wife’s unsuspected racial background in a bid at nabbing the family fortune; and a pair of young lovers in Gilded Age Washington D.C., Jewel Bowen and her swain Cuthbert Sumner, who are targeted by a ruthless conspiracy to bilk Jewel and her senator father of their millions. Throw in an exploited stenographer, a moody “celebrated detective” and the unexpected and delightful Venus Johnson:

“But I'll balk him. I'll see him out on this case or my name ain't Venus Johnson. I'll see if this one little black girl can't get the best of as mean a set of villains as ever was born.”

Would that there had been more Venus Johnson! She owns the narrow span in which she occupies this book.

Meanwhile, all the supposedly dead people in this novel are very much alive and it’s even pretty clear who they all are. The only real mystery is how everyone has come to assume the various roles they have adopted in their later lives, but all is eventually revealed. I have to think the author was having a lot of fun writing this, because no way could she have written the whole Henson and Benson thing with a straight face.

Those who can’t stand dialect or antebellum stereotypes (kindly plantation owner, contented slaves and former slaves, tragic mulattos, etc.) are best advised to steer clear of this book. Those who persist may still be baffled by what Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (black author publishing serially in Colored American Magazine) was thinking some of the time. But those contemplating The X Press Black Classics edition should *definitely* reconsider. This is the edition I read, and it is marred by bad copy (bad syntax, with some omitted, transposed, or even reduplicated paragraphs: see Chapter 18 in particular) but also outright bowdlerism by a sneaky editor (editors?) who does not acknowledge their meddling, and introduces many errors in the process. In fact I think now that much of the sloppy syntax that bothered me was an accidental byproduct of intentional rewriting meant to mitigate all that pesky dialect: turning all instances of “yer” to “your,” for example, regardless of whether that was what the speaker actually meant.

I was already consulting an online version of the book for bits where context showed that something was missing, but I hadn't had a reason to double-check the black characters before. This is the paragraph that made me call actual shenanigans:

"You, Oliver, you; move yourself now, here me? Your pa's never 'round when he's wanted, and your sister's slaving herself like a nigger to help escape your. My Lord, how worthless men folks is. You've got a thesis, have you?" she continued, waxing more wroth each moment. "and your granny that's made of you like you was a baby may be dead up there in the treasury or mouldering in some alley and you hollering down these stairs to me that you can't go an' help her 'cause you're got a thesis. I 'spec's we've all made a fool of you a-getting you into college. you're jes' like your daddy; you're the born spit of him. My word, if you don't stir them long legs of yours out of this lively, I'll take you down sure's I'm your mammy; I'll take your down if you was as big as a house."
The X Press

"You, Oliver, you; move yourse'f now, hyar me? Your pa's never 'roun' when he's wanted, an' your sister's slavin' herse'f like a nigger to help ejekate yer. My Lord, how worthless men folks is! You've got a teaseus, have you?" she continued, waxing more wroth each moment. "An' your granny that's made of you like you was a baby may be daid up thar in the treasury or moulderin' in some alley an' you hollerin' down these stairs to me that you can't go an' holp her 'cause you's got a teaseus. I 'spec's we's all made a fool of you a-gettin' you into college. You's jes' like yer daddy; you's the born spit of him. My word, if you don't stir them long legs o' yourn out o' this lively, I'll take you down sure's I'm yer mammy; I'll take yer down if you was as big as a house."
https://digital.library.upenn.edu/wom...

YMMV which is the more offensive. Maybe The X Press edits are more readable for some people, but I’d rather know what the author wrote in the first place and judge the result accordingly. And if you’re going to rewrite text in the public domain, classic or otherwise, please at least be up front about it (and try not to introduce fresh errors in the process? “escape your,” "here me," errant capitalization, etc.) I know people hated on Allen Gribben for his expurgated Mark Twain editions, but at least he stated what he was doing up front.

What to read instead of The X Press edition? I ended up pretty much completely transferring to the UPenn text online once I recognized how unreliable my print copy was, but that’s still taking it on faith, really, isn’t it? It’s not like I’m reading it in the original pages of Colored American Magazine, nor can I do so (at least not in its entirety, yet, but see: https://coloredamerican.org/) If I had it to do over again, I would probably go for the Broadview Edition, and in fact I might still end up tracking down a copy of that edition as it includes appendices with “advertising, other writing by Hopkins and her contemporaries, and reviews [that] situate the work within the popular literature and political culture of its time.” That sounds pretty good to me.

[Jay Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class!!
Not as slow and (for a lack of a better term) boring than I had assumed it would be. Older pieces are not my favorite at all but this had a murder, trial, adultery, a 20 year time jump, and an interesting way to show what many dealt with in a really awful time period of American history. Not bad by any means, but not my cup of tea.

[Heli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote my Bachelors thesis on this book. So that is how interesting I found it. But as I have already written so much about it in that said thesis I don't feel capable of writing a good review here. An underrated book that is well worth a read!

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so much fun! I read the first chapter a few weeks ago and was expecting it to be kind of heavy and slow to read, but actually it was a super fun and campy quick read. So many plot twists! I would read a whole book of Venus Johnson: Girl Detective

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is incredibly boring, but also incredibly interesting. I didn't think that was possible, but every second I was reading this I wanted to stop, but when I wasn't reading I wanted to know what was going to happen!

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wild ride! This book is basically the 1902 version of Get Out - e.g. a Black author takes a genre dominated by white authors (in this case Victorian melodrama), and uses it to lampoon both conservative Southern racism and liberal Northern racism. An utter delight.

[Alanna R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a book that was insufferably boring in the middle and had the exact kind of ending I always hate, genuinely not bad! Struggled through it for a while and then speed-read most of it in a sitting, which is the way I would recommend it. Would make a great movie, with some alterations.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deus ex machina! ALL the soap opera twists and "eating [one's] heart out" moments! This is a travesty of writing and should fall into the annals of history as a "Oh, honey, you tried" book.

[Tiffany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this mostly for its place in detective fiction history—first known instance of an African-American female detective), although her page time is pretty limited.

[Macy · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book was fucking amazing, so revolutionary for its time. also heart wrenching. but i’m not one for spoilers, so read it and be sad yourself.

[Rachel]

An important work—in American fiction in general, but especially in 19th century detective fiction—that I wouldn’t feel right giving a “rating” to, but definitely glad that I’ve finally read!

[Thebookanaconda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would really recommend this book - very thought provoking. An author who really deserves more attention.

[Soph Skorupski · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love the diva who wrote this like yk what? let's make every character be a different character just for fun LOL

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a shame that more people aren't aware of this novel, as it ranks, for me anyway, among the great turn-of-the-century American narratives. Hopkins interrogates history and race and gender with perspicacity, but does so amidst the conventions of popular fiction. Some very memorable turns, and Venus--essentially the first black detective in American literature--is a wonderful creation.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

What made this book well worth reading is the fact that it was written at the turn of the century by an African-American novelist. Thus, the perspective it gives on racism in America following the civil war demands a level of credibility not found in many other books on this topic. Nonetheless, there were too many improbabilities and inconsistent characters to recommend this book.

[Humphrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is what one might consider melodrama or sensation fiction, but it's quite smart and a real hoot. History ends up repeating itself, mistaken identities -- to others as well as to characters' own selves -- abound, and the novel presents a couple different paths to interpretation. Fun stuff.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75