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Title: Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization)
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Manufacturer: Louisiana State University Press
List Price: $20.95
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) by Louisiana State University Press Offers a very good understanding of the times | I was disappointed that Percy's nephew felt the need to apologize for his uncle's comments about black people.
Of course Percy wouldn't be considered politically correct today, and he was certainly a racist in the context that he saw blacks as inferior, but that's the beauty of the book; it gives an unvarnished look into the way upper class white Delta people saw the world that surrounded them.
I have just finished writing a book about a 1940s sheriff in South Texas and found Lanterns on the Levee invaluable in helping me understand the Jim Crow era. | | Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) by Louisiana State University Press Warmth, Elitism, and Wit | There have been several excellent reviews of this book. I agree with most of them. This book is worth reading even if only as an exercise in literary appreciation. There was once a time, Camelot I suppose, when people actually did think and speak with poise, elegance and most impressively, wit. I value the works of D. K. Chesterton for the same reasons. Percy certainly fits that mold.
I, like Nolan Bond (see his review), am also descended from those red-neck hill people that Percy puts firmly on the bottom of the social ladder. I am old enough to know that they possessed many of the same values and qualities he did though without the aristocratic poise. My Dad, Grand-father and Great Grand father would have been tolerated by his family but never quite accepted as equals. However, what Percy does is so solidly evoke the admirable qualities of a life which is intent upon transcending the vulgar, that even his elitism is charming. His remembrances of his father are so vivid and so superior to the statement of his own life, that I can admire his dad even where I just chuckle at Percy himself.
But you have to let that go. It is the wit that makes the book worth buying. The capacity to use the language as it ought to be used, understated when most deadly, evocative when most descriptive, charming throughout, which makes one yearn to have one more real conversation before death and boredom actually prevail.
Percy is without illusion about himself. He is fearless in his appreciation of those qualities transmitted to himself as well as in his own failure to rise to the nobility they require. He never matches his dad, in his own eyes or otherwise. But along the way, he reminds us that poverty is not impediment to quality, and that true freedom begins with an internal conviction. Percy does not hesitate to consider that some men are superior to others - in that he was free of certain bonds which enslave us. He was thereby able to transcend all cultures and be at home, and appreciative, in them all.
It is a life worth living, even if it wasn't always comfortable. | | Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) by Louisiana State University Press Over hyped | | I've heard great things about this book, but it simply doesn't live up to the reviews. It isn't vivid, isn't absorbing, isn't all that interesting. It is a decent piece of period biography, and if you're interested in the Percy family or the region or time period, it might be worthwhile. Otherwise, give this one a pass. | | Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) by Louisiana State University Press Not Impressed | | This is my first book about planters and plantation life. It was my expectation that the author would give more specific information about plantation finances and management. This subject is hardly touched upon. He does briefly give his opinions about slavery, but there is nothing unique about it. Basically, this is a nice, slow look back at a bygone time, but it left me wondering how the heck did these people come about, and maintain or eventually lose their wealth. | | Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) by Louisiana State University Press Elusive find: an autobiography of literary quality | | Percy's approach to life can be summed up by a quote from the book: "It is a very nice world-that is, if you remember that while morals are all-important between the Lord and His creatures, what counts between one creature and another is good manners." Percy's book is a rare member of that most elusive category of books - the autobiography of true literary quality. Percy's touch is honest without being journalistic; poetic without appearing over-embroidered; and in his own eccentric person he provides the subject matter which is required to make such a work interesting. He steps out of the late 19th/early 20th century Mississippi delta as a character that could not have existed anywhere else. Affected, genteel, kind, elitist, romantic and with a view of race more in keeping with British Imperial "white man's burden" line of thought than anything American in origin - Percy the character remains fascinating even as the modern reader disagrees with his positions. A clearly and well told tale of an extinct breed (the gentrified southern aristocrat), a lost land (the Mississippi delta of the turn of the 20th century), and a buried epoch (the pre desegregation era). An excellent book - well worth reading not only to better understand a particular aspect of American history but for the pleasure of reading a well written book, regardless of the subject matter. | | Lanterns on the Levee: Recollections of a Planter's Son (Library of Southern Civilization) by Louisiana State University Press Book Description | | Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, within the shelter of old traditions, aristocratic in the best sense, William Alexander Percy in his lifetime (1885–1942) was brought face to face with the convulsions of a changing world. Lanterns on the Levee is his memorial to the South of his youth and young manhood. In describing life in the Mississippi Delta, Percy bridges the interval between the semifeudal South of the 1800s and the anxious South of the early 1940s. The rare qualities of this classic memoir lie not in what Will Percy did in his life—although his life was exciting and varied—but rather in the intimate, honest, and soul-probing record of how he brought himself to contemplate unflinchingly a new and unstable era. The 1973 introduction by Walker Percy—Will's nephew and adopted son—recalls the strong character and easy grace of "the most extraordinary man I have ever known." AUTHOR BIO: William Alexander Percy was the author of four books of poetry, and he practiced law in Greenville until his death, one year after the publication of his autobiography. Awarded the Croix de Guerre with gold star for his service in World War I, he also was one of the leaders in the succesful 1922 fight against the Ku Klux Klan in Greenville and headed the local Red Cross unit during the disastrous Mississippi River flooding of 1927. |
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