Moreover, the novel famously (or infamously, depending on your perspective) recycles a host of other texts, from Brown's own autobiographical writings to Grace Greenwood's poem 'The Leap from the Long Bridge,' to Englishman John Relly Beard's biography of Toussaint L'Ouverture. In the first place, Clotel is not really a book at all, but rather a series of books in which Brown would reinterpret his basic story over fourteen years: Clotel or the President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States (published in London in 1853) Miralda or, The Beautiful Quadroon.A Romance of American Slavery, Founded on Fact (serialized in the New York Weekly Anglo-African from 1860 to 1861) Clotelle: A Tale of the Southern States (published as part of James Redpath's series of dime novels for Union soldiers in 1864) and Clotelle or The Colored Heroine (1867).

She teaches American literature at the University of Ferrara, Italy.Perhaps no book cries out for a digital edition like William Wells Brown's novel Clotel. Giulia Fabi is the author of Passing and the Rise of the African American Novel. During his prolific literary career, Brown was a pioneer in several different genres, including travel writing, fiction, and drama. 'A remarkable beginning for African-American fiction.'Ībout the Author William Wells Brown (1814-1884) was born a slave, escaped to the North and then to England, and became one of the most prominent abolitionists of his time. 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 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.

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. 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. The Virginian who buys Clotel falls in love with her, gets her pregnant, seems to promise marriage-then sells her. The story begins with the auction of his mistress, here called Currer, and their two daughters, Clotel and Althesa. Book Synopsis First published in December 1853, Clotel was written amid then unconfirmed rumors that Thomas Jefferson had fathered children with one of his slaves.