My Young Master: A Novel

In this vivid recollection, a former field hand narrates the world of a Kentucky plantation family as he remembers his boyhood on the blue‑grass farm of Guilford Gradley. The voice is intimate, recalling the church bells on a Sunday when the master and his wife passed by, and the mix of pride and humiliation that came with serving a man of militia fame. Through his eyes we see the rhythms of rural life—work in the fields, small joys of childhood, and quiet moments when the past feels both distant and present.

The narrator introduces the household: the stern master, his wife, and their three children—Miss Lou, married to a fastidious doctor, and the younger Miss May and her brother Mars. A striking episode occurs when the master, smoking his pipe in a library lined with books, presents the narrator to his son as a birthday gift, binding the boy to a future of loyalty and sacrifice. These early scenes set the tone for a story that explores duty, identity, and the lingering echo of a world that has long since changed.