- Hardcover: 336 pages
- Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (Nov 4 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385508565
- ISBN-13: 978-0385508568
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.8 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,644,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In 1810, Sarah Baartman sailed willingly from her home in South Africa to England with her English husband, believing that fame awaited her as an African dancing queen. Well, she certainly found fame. Based on the true story of a woman who was exhibited as part of a freak show in London's Piccadilly and upon her death at age 27 was publicly dissected in France, this novel by poet, sculptor and novelist Chase-Riboud (Sally Hemings) conveys Sarah's victimization so well that the reader is still cringing after the last page is turned. Sarah herself copes with the harsh reality of her husband's betrayal-she's essentially been sold into slavery-through denial and gin. Her best chance to escape comes when abolitionist Robert Wedderburn intervenes by bringing her contract before a judge in an attempt to rescue her. Sarah, however, won't go along with it, because she doesn't want to return to Good Hope, where her Khoekhoe tribe struggles against colonization. Wedderburn captures the reader's frustration when he tells Sarah: "You are the unwitting collaborator of your own exploitation, agent of your own dehumanization!" Indeed, there are many tough scenes to endure, as Europeans endlessly ridicule her body and elongated genitals (mutilated as part of a tribal ritual) and examine her as a scientific curiosity. What makes the story, and Sarah's life, more bearable are the tender scenes with Alice, Sarah's English governess who stays with her and truly cares for her. Kudos to Chase-Riboud for exploring this story of oppression and for humanizing a woman who was virtually regarded as an animal, according to the ideology of the day.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
As she did in her best-selling Sally Hemings (1979), Chase-Riboud dramatizes a true story. This time, she goes back to the Dutch colonies of 1810 to recount the life of Sarah Baartman, a South African woman who was coerced into becoming an exotic dancer by two parasitic men. Having already lost her family in the Dutch and English massacres, Sarah faced certain death by staying in South Africa. Unfortunately, her journey toward a better life results in another kind of exploitation--this time on the freak show circuit in London. Forced into a cage in African garb, which allows the crowd of onlookers to intimately inspect her body, Sarah is put on public display as an example of a primitive oddity. Sadly, the dehumanization of Sarah did not stop with her death. In 1816, her dissected body was exhibited in a French Museum. In 2002, after a long legal battle, her remains were finally laid to rest in South Africa. Praise to Chase-Riboud for her total immersion in the spirit of Sarah Baartman. Elsa Gaztambide
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
an amazing book,
By Me "crybabymommie" (Northern California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hottentot Venus: A Novel (Hardcover)
..this book should be on the reading list in every high school,how else are we to change the cruelty and racism that is inflicted and promoted by governments down thru history,the story of sexism is most painful as you become aware that society today is still staring at its "venus" in the form of many young and spititual girls and women today,in all countries of the world...the authors style is brave as she takes us from murder to our lonely Sarah shopping for beloved gloves and thru a death journey that is poetic in its justice.......please read this and urge others to
5.0 out of 5 stars
Do not miss reading this finest-kind novel,
By KatPanama "katpanama" (Readerville) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hottentot Venus: A Novel (Hardcover)
I stayed up late last night finishing a truly tremendously fine book: Hottentot Venus by Barbara Chase-Riboud. It's definitely in the do-not-miss category and is very close to being best book of the year (so far). Sometimes a novel can be too heavily loaded with detail but, in this one, the superb writing and language balance perfectly the detail. The book evokes its time (1789-1820 or so) richly and satisfyingly with a story that is more than a match for the times and the writing. To my eye, there's only one misstep and, likely, others wouldn't find it so.
4.0 out of 5 stars
One of the greatest stories ever told,
By Therese Madison (Rosedale, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Hottentot Venus: A Novel (Hardcover)
Hottenton Venus was quite superb! What a depressing part of history to know that this South African woman Sarah Baartman was victimized emotionally, physically and fiancially, by the hands of those "Eurpoeans" that were to uplift her.The author does a wonderful job in writing and speaking in many of her character voices, giving the reader an in-depth chance to know and analyze the characters. I felt an emotional attachment to Alice, she was a true person and very good to Sarah. The only slight problem in the book was some of the vocabulary used especially in reference to the Khoeke tribe. A tribe that today is lesser known.Some readers depending on their origin, or not, may feel very uncomfortable with Cuvier's studies in Anthropology and Evolution. No matter how depressing the subject matter, this a fascinating part of history that we should all know.
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