Commentaires client les plus utiles
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3.0étoiles sur 5
A FORBIDDEN PASSION..., Oct. 7 2009
This is an intriguing book by the author, with a story line that is simple enough. Frances Scott, an impoverished thirty-four year old, gently reared daughter of a cleric, is left to fend for herself by her dead father. Her uncle, Lord Scott, has been assisting her and has found her work as a governess, a job that she loathes. When an upstart tradesman, Josiah Cole, proposes matrimony, she jumps at the chance. It is a marriage of the utmost convenience.
What she does not know is that her husband and his spinster sister, Sarah, trade in slaves, as well as other commodities. When a shipment of slaves comes in, Frances is expected to train the slaves to be servants that can then be sold to wealthy families. After all, having an African servant was all the rage in late eighteenth century England. Her instruction of her captives is a slow process, giving Frances an opportunity to get to know her slaves and the cruelties that have been inflicted upon them. She is, however, without resources to help them.
Along the way, she falls in love with Mehuru, her major domo, and he with her. Therein lies the rub. In eighteenth century England, it was unheard of for a lady of gentle breeding to do so, and Frances has not the strength to follow her heart. Meanwhile, her ambitious husband is oblivious to all that is going on in his household, and involves himself in one scheme after another, trusting on some new found friendships that are suspicious at best. When he finds that his "friends" have merely taken him for a ride, all hell breaks loose.
Much of the dialogue between Frances and Mehuru is pretty laughable, reading like a bad Harlequin romance. Their love affair simply does not ring true. Moreover, the characters in the book are too one dimensional and are pretty much caricatures. Overall, the book is a choppy, uneven affair, but a still a moderately enjoyable one, if one is a fan of the author. Others may not be so forgiving. Still, there are parts of the book that are somewhat interesting, and I was sufficiently intrigued to get the Masterpiece Theatre production of the book for which the author herself wrote the screenplay.
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4.0étoiles sur 5
Enjoyable Read, Avril 9 2008
This was an enjoyable, light read. It brought to light some of the many issues surrounding the slave trade. This book was well written and the characters came alive while reading.
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5.0étoiles sur 5
Well-researched historical novel, Juil 4 2007
This is one of my favorite books. In addition to being an enjoable read,, one would learn well-researched historical facts about slave trade that deprived Africa of its sons and daughters of talents.
Its consequences could be seen even today. This book lends a human dimension to this historical tragedy. We hear the slaves telling their stories around the kitchen table of their masters. We hear their cries, their laughter, their longing for their families and their homeland. The novel also shows the shallow thinking of those slave masters. Even the protagonist of the story, who is supposed to be a sympathetic figure, is superficial in her thinking and even hypocritical.
She wanted to have it all: wealth, status, and empty aristocratic titles. Then she sought love and lust from the very people she enslaved and stripped from basic human rights including the right to have non-English names; and she insisted on keeping them slaves up to the very end. The African man is a great personality. He shocked his masters with his intelligence and wisdom and the speed with which he excelled in their language.
He drew strength from the memories of his homeland. He drew warmth from the bright sun shining in the sky of his hometown while suffering the dark clouds of his new life.
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