The Grandissimes in Bloomington, MN

When The Grandissimes was first published in 1880, the book was criticized for its portrayal of forbidden love and the clash of cultures following the Louisiana Purchase through Reconstruction. Since then, the novel has been considered a masterful critique of racial and social inequality that resonates with readers even today, and Cable's work has been compared to that of writers as varied as Honore de Balzac, John Kennedy Toole, and Henry James.