Book Description
Our Nig is the tale of a mixed-race girl, Frado, abandoned by her white mother after the death of the child's black father. Frado becomes the servant of the Bellmonts, a lower-middle- class white family in the free North, while slavery is still legal in the South, and suffers numerous abuses in their household. Frado's story is a tragic one; having left the Bellmonts, she eventually marries a black fugitive slave, who later abandons her.
Wilson combined and subverted two literary styles, the sentimental novel and the slave narrative, in writing Our Nig, which was drawn from her real-life experience. Her sardonic treatment of abolitionists in the novel has long perplexed scholars and readers; Foreman and Pitts explain this puzzle in their Introduction and recount Wilson's life and career after the 1859 publication of Our Nig.
Customer Reviews:
Slave of Northern Abolitionist but free.......2007-05-07
This book was written by a woman who was supposed to be a free Black woman. In fact she was treated like a slave, a Black wage slave. She was oppressed by a family of who were Northern Abolitionists. Yet, she was treated like a slave. Succeeding generations of whites studying the book denied her and her class the ability to write such a book: they claimed the book had to have been written by a white person and that it was a novel, not real.
Millions of Black women who have slaved in white kitchens and cleaning white homes during and since slavery have a spokesperson in Harriet E. Wilson. This book helps us understand not just to pity them, but to understanding their ability to fight back with their minds.
buy it with the Foreman & Pitts introduction.......2005-05-08
Though I currently have the 1983 edition with the introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr (whose name is in the introduction for almost every important Af-Am text in circulation, it seems), I plan on getting this latest edition.
Until recently, biographical details on Wilson were limited. Indeed, they seemed to trail off soon after the publication of her book (a death certificate for her son six months after its printing has suggested to some that her call for support went unheard). This introduciton offers new and happier information, showing that Wilson lived a long life--in part as a successful lecturer on the Spiritualist circuit.
In any edition this is a great book. Really, "great" isn't superlative enough to cover how important and interesting it is. But if you're going to buy it, get this edition.
The North Wasn't Much Better.......2000-09-15
The female child of a white female outcast and a black freeman, the author gives a detailed account of what it was like being raised by a white family in the pre-Civil War North of the United States (a household where she was abandoned by her mother at 3). This biography gives a general idea of what a Negro's life in the North was like -- and it was not much different from that life of a slave in the South. The mistress of the house was brutal beyond measure, but many of the other family members were reasonably kind (though not kind of enough to put a stop to the abuse), and it makes one shudder to think of what could have happened in a family who had nothing but Negro-haters in it. Still, she recounts how she got a small measure of schooling, and how she eventually became a Christian (something which the lady of the house -- a Christian herself -- opposed) and her eventual marriage. An upsetting story, it is nevertheless of much more value than "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as it was told from the point of view of the victim and not a sympathetic white.
Book Description
Seminal autobiographical novel, believed to have been the first published by an African-American woman, describes the life of a young mulatto girl named Frado, who, after the death of her mother, is exploited first by a terrifying Northern family for whom she worked and then by an opportunistic husband.
Download Description
In A Two-Story White House, North. Showing That Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There.
Book Description
Generally recognized as the first African American novel published in the United States, Our Nig offers a harrowing portrait of the sadistic maltreatment of Alfrado, a young, African American female working as a bond servant.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from African American Review, published by African American Review on December 22, 2004. The length of the article is 1965 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Harriet E. Wilson. Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black.(Book Review)
Author: Eric Gardner
Publication:
African American Review (Refereed)
Date: December 22, 2004
Publisher: African American Review
Volume: 38
Issue: 4
Page: 715(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Product Description
The Remedies Black Letter provides students with an easy-toread, yet comprehensive, view of the subject of remedies. The program serves as an effective study aid because it includes, not only black letter principles, but also questions and answers designed to help students prepare for their exams.
Book Description
As a linguist, Julia Kristeva has pioneered a revolutionary theory of the sign in its relation to social and political emancipation; as a practicing psychoanalyst, she has produced work on the nature of the human subject and sexuality, and on the "new maladies" of today's neurotic. The Portable Kristeva is the only fully comprehensive compilation of Kristeva's key writings. The second edition includes added material from Kristeva's most important works of the past five years, including The Sense and Non-Sense of Revolt, Intimate Revolt, and Hannah Arendt. Editor Kelly Oliver has also added new material to the introduction, summarizing Kristeva's latest intellectual endeavors and updating the bibliography.
Book Description
When Rousseau first read his Confessions to a 1770 gathering in Paris, reactions varied from admiration of his candor to doubts about his sanity to outrage. Indeed, Rousseau's intent and approach were revolutionary. As one of the first attempts at autobiography, the Confessions' novelty lay not in just its retelling the facts of Rousseau's life, but in its revelation of his innermost feelings and its frank description of the strengths and failings of his character.
Based on his doctrine of natural goodness, Rousseau intended the Confessions as a testing ground to explore his belief that, as Christopher Kelly writes, "people are to be measured by the depth and nature of their feelings." Re-created here in a meticulously documented new translation based on the definitive Pleiade edition, the work represents Rousseau's attempt to forge connections among his beliefs, his feelings, and his life. More than a "behind-the-scenes look at the private life of a public man," Kelly writes, "the Confessions is at the center of Rousseau's philosophical enterprise."
Customer Reviews:
Great edition of this classic.......2000-04-04
What can one say about The Confessions? I would recommend this particular edition because of the inlusion of the letters to Malesherbes, which can shed some light on the process Rousseau's writing of The Confessions. We can also see where the text differs from what actually happaned: there are some discrepiences in his re-telling of the same event. There is as well an excellent introductory essay.
Book Description
Either Way He Was A Condemned Man.
So here I sit, writing letters that have no hope of reaching you until I am free to deliver them myself. With luck, that will be soon. For your eighteenth birthday is coming, and I intend to be there, like I promised . . .
For years, a trumped-up charge -- and a Central American prison cell -- kept Jax Winchester from claiming the girl he loved. Now he was a free man. Or was he?
For only the memory of Kelly O'Brien -- and the letters he'd composed to her -- had kept him going. But once he was released, he knew he was still a prisoner -- in a jail of his own making. The way out this time? Keep that promise he'd made to Kelly all those years ago -- and claim her for his own . . .
Customer Reviews:
Not great... but quick and easy.......2007-02-01
This is not one of Brockmann's best. There is no alpha male. The scenes don't cause any intense angst or out-loud laughter. And the hero's sister's, Stefanie, speech is somewhat annoying.
With all that said... it's still a cute story. And it's a super quick read. The letters are sweet. And the fictional character, Jared, within (you'll understand if you read it) is charming. I wish someone like T. Jackson Winchester the Second never stopped loving me. :-)
So if you're looking for a basic love story, this is your book.
There's a reason it took ten years to get published.......2006-10-25
T. Jackson Winchester II (or Jax) has nursed a crush on his best friend's younger sister for over ten years. When she was 16, the college senior took her to her prom, and admitted his feelings for her, promising that when she turned 18 he would propose. Caught in a compromising situation, her brother freaks and sends Jax away, threatening to have him arrested for touching his sister. When her 18th birthday comes and goes, and Jax has never contacted her, Kelly moves on and marries a philandering guy. They divorce a couple years later and suddenly Jax is back at her door asking for another chance, but Kelly is not willing to give him one - once burned and all that jazz. Unbeknownst to her, Jax is now a novelist, specializing in historical romances, under an assumed name.
What Kelly does not realize is that Jax, a promising investigative reporter with a lead on a great story is sidetracked and jailed in a Central American prison for nearly two years. Part of his therapy upon release was to write a series of letters to Kelly to get his feelings out. The letters will soon be published in a memoir, but Jax has yet to tell her about them.
Brockmann's novel of lost love was shelved for ten years before being published and it really shows. The dialogue is stale (what young woman from this century says "dreadful?"), the plot thin, the heroine too wishy washy, and the hero a bit of a wuss (tell how he managed to survive a brutal Central American prison). Add to that the annoying "conversations" he has with the characters of his dreadful novel. Unless you are a big Brockmann fan and want her entire collection - get this one from the library and save a few bucks!
Letters to Kelly by Suzanne Brockmann (Large Print Hardcover).......2006-09-30
This is one of my favorite Brockmann books. Jax falls in love with a girl too young for marriage. He promises to be there for her on her 18th birthday - but then he doesn't show up. She has no way of knowing that he didn't forget his promise to come for her, but instead is being held prisoner in another country with no way to reach her. By the time he is freed, she has gone on with her life and married someone else. What is the hero to do but step aside and wish for her happiness? But when he learns that she is no longer married, he charts a course to win back her heart ... No one does this type of romance better than Brockmann - here's another for your keeper shelf!
Description from the book back cover:
Either Way He Was A Condemned Man ... "So here I sit, writing letters that have no hope of reaching you until I am free to deliver them myself. With luck, that will be soon. For your 18th birthday is coming, and I intend to be there, like I promised ..." For years, a trumped-up charge -and a Central American prison cell - kept Jax Winchester from claiming the girl he loved. Now he was a free man. Or was he? For only the memory of Kelly O'Brien - and the letters he'd composed to her in his mind - had kept him going. But once he was released, he knew he was still a prisoner - in a jail of his own making. The way out this time? Keep that promise he'd made to Kelly all those years ago - and claim her for his own ...
Not the typical Alpha Male but a hero just the same.......2005-06-20
I loved this book. not even an hour after finishing it, I wanted to read it again. I won't be redundant and summarize the plot, that's already been done a few times by other reviewers. This is love story in the truest since of the word. It's about a love that has stood the test of time and distance and brutal, hard circumstances. I rooted for Jax the whole way through but I understood Kelly's distrust. The only thing I wish I could have seen at the end was one more scene where Kelly broke her brother Kevin's jaw. This one is a keeper.
Must Read Book! Heart Warming & Heart Wrenching!.......2005-02-27
LETTERS TO KELLY was such an incredible reading experience.
The story is about a journalist (Ty) who went into a Central American country just to get an exclusive interview and instead ended up becoming a political prisoner after being set up on trumped up false drug charges. He was imprisoned, beaten, starved for almost 2 years before Amenesity International managed to help him get released. During all this time he was held in this hell hole, he managed to keep his sanity by writing imaginary love letters to his sweetheart (Kelly) at home, whom he promised to marry when she turned 18. Not a day went by that he didn't tell Kelly how much he loved her, missed her and promised to marry her. Unfortunately her 18th birthday came & went and he was still imprisioned. It broke his heart that he couldn't be with her and it broke Kelly's heart that she thought Ty had abandoned her. Kelly never knew about his Central America assignment, all she knew was that he just dropped out of sight after a prom date and the empty promises of loving her. When he was finally released, Kelly had already married another guy and he was devastated. However, when that marriage fell apart, Ty couldn't believe his luck given a second chance and pursued Kelly relentlessly.
The story was so well written. Usually I get really fustrated when a couple is apart for a number of years and even more fustrated when the truth that keeps them apart is not revealed for really stupid reasons (like pride). However such was not the case in this story, everything made sense, however I did want to shake the heroine at a few points when she refuses to love the hero back when it was so apparent how much he loved her.
This was such a tortured hero, I fell in love with Ty from the beginning to the end. This book will warm your heart and bring tears to your eyes, so read it with a full box of tissues next to you.
Average customer rating:
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Mrs Duberly's War: Journal and Letters from the Crimea, 1854-6
Frances Isabella Duberly
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0199208611 |
Book Description
Mrs Duberly's journal is one of the most vivid eye-witness accounts we have of the Crimean War. Fanny Duberly, then aged 25, accompanied her husband to the Crimea in 1854, and remained there until the end of the fighting, the only officer's wife to remain throughout the entire campaign. She survived the severe winter of 1854-55, witnessed the battle of Balaklava and the charge of the Light Brigade, and rode through the ruins of Sebastopol. Spirited and courageous, she was known by sight to British and French soldiers across the battlefields, regarded often with enthusiasm and sometimes with disapproval. Witty and beautiful, she enjoyed flirtatious friendships with many of the most important men of the campaign. Her Journal kept during the Russian War was published in 1855 and caused a sensation. Although widely praised as the 'new heroine for the Crimea', Fanny was also censured, ridiculed, and even parodied in Punch. She had stepped into a man's world, and written about it in a way that seemed to some at the front an invasion of privacy and to others at home an abandonment of gentility. A best-seller at the time, the Journal was not reprinted after its second edition of 1856, and this is the first edition since that time.
Book Description
Ulrich von Liechtenstein's extraordinary account of his adventures as a knight-errant is one of the most vivid images of chivalric life to have come down to us. His knightly autobiography was written in the mid-thirteenth century, and gives an account of the 'journey of Venus' which he undertook in 1226 in honour of his lady, in which he claimed to have broken 307 spears in jousts against all comers in the space of a month. Some of it is obviously quietly exaggerated, written for his friends' entertainment many years later, and he is not above a sly dig at the conventions of courtly love, but he completely accepts its basic ideas. It is full of lively episodes and good stories, as well as verses in honour of his lady; if the tale has been polished up for effect, it is nonetheless a thoroughly entertaining account of how a knight saw his ideal career in the jousting field. If the name is unexpectedly familiar to modern readers, it is because it was borrowed by the hero of the film 'A Knight's Tale'; Ulrich would have certainly approved of his exploits. Introduction by KELLY DEVRIES.
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The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats: Volume IV: 1905-1907 (Collected Letters of W B Yeats)
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0198126840 |
Book Description
This volume covers a tumultuous period in Yeats's public and personal life, beginning with the acrimonious collapse of Maud Gonne's marriage to Major MacBride (who not only accused Yeats of being her lover but also threatened to shoot him). Dramas at the Abbey Theatre were hardly less intense, both on and off the stage: the euphoria which followed the successful opening of the new theatre quickly dispersed in a relentless cycle of quarrels and schisms. Yeats's attempts to turn an enthusiastic but ill-disciplined amateur society into a professional company led to a permanent division in the company, while the vagaries of Annie Horniman, the irascible patron of the theatre, put the whole movement under permanent tension. Violence actually broke out in January 1907 when the audience rioted at the production of John Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, believing it to be a libel on Ireland. Through all this we see Yeats maturing as an artist: discussing the writing and revising of his poems and plays, preparing the first elaborate American edition of his poems, and undertaking an ambitious eight-volume Collected Works through which he hoped to define his artistic personality. The letters not only record this energetic and often bruising period, but also bear witness to Yeats's indomitable fighting spirit and artistic integrity.
Book Description
Felicia Hemans was the most widely read woman poet in the nineteenth century English-speaking world. Broadview's edition shows why she was one of the few standard poets to be found in middle-class homes on both sides of the Atlantic, despite being routinely disparaged as a "merely" feminine poet.
Included here is poetry representative of her entire career, from often-anthologized works, such as "The Homes of England" and "Casabianca," to several long poems in their entirety, such as "The Forest Sanctuary."
Also included are selections of her prose and letters, a comprehensive introduction, and selections of views and reviews showing her changing and controversial place in culture into the twentieth century. All selections are edited, annotated and introduced.
Customer Reviews:
IMPORTANT.......1998-06-18
Felicia Hemans was the second most popular British poet of the nineteenth century (behind only Byron); it is crucial that her work be read and examined in order to understand our literary history. Hemans's poems are heartfelt and insightful, often focusing on the difficulties and rewards of womanhood but also grappling with loss, politics, and the natural world as did her male contemporaries. Along with the more general reader of poetry, instructors of British literature should give this text serious consideration. The poems are accessible and complicated.
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- Pears on a Willow Tree
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- Politics of Modernism: Against the New Conformists (Radical Thinkers)
- Prologos De La Biblioteca De Babel/ Introduction to the Library of Babel (Biblioteca De Autor / Author Library)
- Quakers in the founding of Anne Arundel County, Maryland
- Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear Power
- Reaching Back
- Sabbath's Theater
- Saints and Villains (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
- Sexing the Cherry (Winterson, Jeanette)
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