The White Witch of Rosehall
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/12/2017
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 5/12/2017 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I found this good-condition UK-edition softcover at the local library's ongoing book sale. It's a novel based on a Jamaican legend - or, perhaps, the legend is based on the novel {wry grin} - about a woman who murdered several husbands, including the owner of the Rose Hall Plantation (a real place).
The book - originally published in 1929 - is well-written and dramatic, but even allowing for the time period I found it hard to swallow the main character's rather easy acceptance of statements such as "they don't matter" (with regard to the slaves). There is some fair-for-its-day content, but it's hard to like a protagonist who not only falls for the highly-suspect thrice-widowed owner of the plantation (whom he's just seen encouraging the bloody beatings of several slaves), but who takes a handsome native woman to his bed as well - and then finds himself standing aside as a battle of witchcraft ensues between his two lovers. And at the climactic confrontation, when our hero has determined to turn the murderess over to the authorities, he finds himself defending her from an uprising of the former slaves (newly freed by legislation that the owners have tried to keep from them), because he can't bear to think of her suffering at the hands of the blacks rather than the law. So, yeah, lots of values-dissonance going on here, not to mention seriously bad judgement on the parts of many characters - not least the handsome native woman who falls for our hero as quickly as he fell for the "white witch"...
All that said, the descriptions of plantation life, in all its tropical color and arduous labor, with tantalizing scenes and horrifying ones, were fascinating - and if the author did not intend the audience to be on the side of the rebellious slaves, well, reactions to books do change over time!
[There's a TV Tropes page on the myth, with mentions of this book.]
The book - originally published in 1929 - is well-written and dramatic, but even allowing for the time period I found it hard to swallow the main character's rather easy acceptance of statements such as "they don't matter" (with regard to the slaves). There is some fair-for-its-day content, but it's hard to like a protagonist who not only falls for the highly-suspect thrice-widowed owner of the plantation (whom he's just seen encouraging the bloody beatings of several slaves), but who takes a handsome native woman to his bed as well - and then finds himself standing aside as a battle of witchcraft ensues between his two lovers. And at the climactic confrontation, when our hero has determined to turn the murderess over to the authorities, he finds himself defending her from an uprising of the former slaves (newly freed by legislation that the owners have tried to keep from them), because he can't bear to think of her suffering at the hands of the blacks rather than the law. So, yeah, lots of values-dissonance going on here, not to mention seriously bad judgement on the parts of many characters - not least the handsome native woman who falls for our hero as quickly as he fell for the "white witch"...
All that said, the descriptions of plantation life, in all its tropical color and arduous labor, with tantalizing scenes and horrifying ones, were fascinating - and if the author did not intend the audience to be on the side of the rebellious slaves, well, reactions to books do change over time!
[There's a TV Tropes page on the myth, with mentions of this book.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Daniel Webster Highway (See Text For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, May 13, 2017
GoryDetails at Daniel Webster Highway (See Text For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, May 13, 2017
Released 6 yrs ago (5/13/2017 UTC) at Daniel Webster Highway (See Text For Details) in Nashua, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I plan to leave this book in or near Not Your Average Joe's restaurant on DW Highway at around 4:45, on my way in to dinner. Hope the finder enjoys it![See other recent releases in NH here.]
*** Released for the 2017 April Showers/May Flowers release challenge, for the embedded "rose" in the title. ***
*** Released for the 2017 Mother's Day release challenge, for the embedded "Rose" in the title. ***
