Crescent Carnival was published by Julian Messner in 1942 and was Keyes’s first major New Orleans novel, establishing the territory — Creole high society, old money, the rituals of Carnival — that she would mine for the next two decades. The novel spans three generations of the d’Alvery family, from the 1890s through the early years of World War II, using the recurring Carnival season as a structural device that connects the generations.
The first section is set in the 1890s, when the Carnival krewes were at the height of their social power and the d’Alvery family was at the center of New Orleans society. The second moves to the 1920s, when the family’s fortunes have declined and the old Creole order is being challenged by American money and modern values. The third brings the story to the present (1941–1942), when the youngest generation must decide whether to preserve the old ways or break free.
Keyes’s strength is in the texture of daily life: she knows exactly what people ate, what they wore, which rooms they received in, which krewe they belonged to, and which family connections mattered. Her weakness is in plotting — the novels are often sprawling and loosely structured — but her readers came for the immersive detail rather than narrative efficiency. Crescent Carnival established the template for her subsequent New Orleans novels and was a major bestseller during the war years.
Collecting Crescent Carnival
First edition (Julian Messner, New York, 1942): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $25–$60
- Without jacket: $5–$15