Eneas Africanus -- by Harry Stillman Edwards

 

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My late grandmother gave this to me several years ago, and it returned to me earlier this week while going through my late mother's books. My grandmother said it might give me some slight insight into the way things were in the South long before I was born. The book was published by J.W. Burke in Macon, Georgia in 1920.

Eneas Africanus was entrusted with recovering a stolen silver cup: a prized family heirloom. Over the course of eight years, he got it and returned to the Tommey family in Macon. The quest began in 1864, but he started a family on the road and returned with a wife and a few children.

The Tommeys received several letters during those eight years, and not all praised Eneas but reported varying opinions of his character. They provided interesting reading, too.

The book's second half is of a church trial, in which Eneas was accused of making his wife work on a Sunday by plowing some land. The trial read like a possible rough template for a Tyler Perry TV skit with Eneas being acquitted. Reading through the rural Southern talk was a little challenging, but the book is very short.

It could be considered an interesting read, but this was truly from another world, published over one hundred years ago in the Deep South. (less)