A review by christytidwell
Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South by Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, Richard Yarborough

2.0

Somewhat interesting as a part of African American political and literary history, but if it weren't on my PhD reading list I would never have finished it. It's not bad, but its techniques come from a genre I have not come to really appreciate--the sentimental novel--and its attempts at being a political novel (explicitly claimed in Hopkins' preface to the book) are seriously undercut by Hopkins' adherence to the genre conventions of the sentimental novel.