TW: racism, old colonial ideals of interracial children, the g slur and the n slur

NOTE: the copy I read was the 1930 Nelson Library edition of this publication

I remember loving this book as a kid, and now as an adult, finding a near 100 year old copy at a used bookstore made me want to revisit. This was eye opening.

Despite enjoying the story and writing overall, I gave this book a low rating. This was due to the problematic nature of society the author projects onto his characters and underlying racism and classism.

I found the use of slurs for Romani and Black people, while sadly not unexpected for the author's day and age (still not excusable), surprising because no edition of this book I ever encountered had these words (except for the g word which sadly is still commonly used today). Yet my 1930 copy unabashedly uses the N word (later editions changed it to slave). I looked up to see if there were any trigger warnings for the book or essays about this edit, but I've found litterally nothing. It's extreamly good the word has been edited out of future and current versions, but it's telling of an author and the acceptable social racism of the time period to see their original and early manuscripts.