Clotel: or, The President's Daughter (Penguin Classics)

Author: Brown, William Wells

Brand: Penguin Random House

Color: Black

Edition: Penguin Classics

Binding: paperback

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 320

Release Date: 30-12-2003

Part Number: 9780142437728

Details: First published in December 1853, Clotel was written amid then unconfirmed rumors that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with one of his slaves. The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls in love with her, gets her pregnant, seems to promise marriage—then sells her. Escaping from the slave dealer, Clotel returns to Virginia disguised as a white man in order to rescue her daughter, Mary, a slave in her father’s house. A fast-paced and harrowing tale of slavery and freedom, of the hypocrisies of a nation founded on democratic principles, Clotel is more than a sensationalist novel. It is a founding text of the African American novelistic tradition, a brilliantly composed and richly detailed exploration of human relations in a new world in which race is a cultural construct.

• First time in Penguin Classics
• Includes appendices that show the different endings Brown created for the various later versions of Clotel, along with the author's narrative of his "Life and Escape," Introduction, suggested readings, and comprehensive explanatory notes

EAN: 9780142437728

Package Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 1.9 inches

Languages: English