The Keepers of the House
 First edition | |
| Author | Shirley Ann Grau |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
Publication date | 1964 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
The Keepers of the House is a 1964 novel by Shirley Ann Grau set in rural Alabama. It covers seven generations of the Howland family that lived in the same house and developed a community around themselves. Through these characters, the novel examines the long-established white families of the Deep South of the United States, their responses to changing social values and norms, and the hypocrisy of racism. In 1965, The Keepers of the House was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Plot summary
The first William Howland served in New Orleans and the South during the
The fifth William Howland was the last man bearing the name to live in the house. His wife died young, leaving him with a young daughter, Abigail, and an infant son, William, who died a year after his mother. Abigail married an English professor who abandoned her with a child, also named Abigail, when he went off to fight in World War II. When she died, William Howland was left to take care of his granddaughter Abigail. He also brought Margaret, a new African-American housekeeper, to the house to live with him. Throughout the county, she was known as his mistress and the mother of his other children. What no one knew, however, was that William had secretly married Margaret to ensure that the children were legitimate. Once their children came of age, William Howland and Margaret sent them north so that they could pursue lives as Whites.
The secret of the marriage came out only after the younger Abigail was married to John Tolliver, an up-and-coming politician, who was running for governor. In the turbulent racist atmosphere of the South, Tolliver aligned himself with the Klan and made racist statements against Blacks. This infuriated Robert Howland, the eldest son of William and Margaret, who was living in obscurity in
Both William Howland and Margaret had died, but a mob gathered to vent its anger about the mixed marriage on Abigail and the Howland house. They kill the livestock and set fire to the barn, but Abigail succeeds in driving them away from the house with her grandfather's shotguns.
At the end of the book, Abigail takes her revenge on the people of Madison City. Over the past generations, her family had come to own most of the county, making her one of the richest people in the state. Over the course of a single day, she takes revenge on the locals for betraying her grandfather by shutting down the hotel and bringing most of the local economy to ruin. Once she has done that, she places a call to Robert, with the intention of informing his new family that his mother was Black.
Major themes
Reception
Grau's bitter condemnation of racist rhetoric, made at the height of campaigns of the
References
- ^ a b Bass, Erin Z. (October 31, 2013). "The Undramatic Life of Shirley Ann Grau". Deep South Magazine. Deep South. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
