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aeeklund's review against another edition
5.0
How the actual hell have I never heard of this book before?
Clotel: or, the President's Daughter is a masterpiece of historical fiction that rings with historical truth. Based on facts and narratives that William Wells Brown collected on his own journey out of slavery, Clotel unashamedly looks many facets of slavery in the eye and calls them out as the horrors they are. I wish like crazy that this book had been taught to me in school. I learned far more from it than I did from many of the narratives set before me. And it reaches through time to judge America now.
I intend to write more analytically when I can properly collect my thoughts. This book deserves it.
Clotel: or, the President's Daughter is a masterpiece of historical fiction that rings with historical truth. Based on facts and narratives that William Wells Brown collected on his own journey out of slavery, Clotel unashamedly looks many facets of slavery in the eye and calls them out as the horrors they are. I wish like crazy that this book had been taught to me in school. I learned far more from it than I did from many of the narratives set before me. And it reaches through time to judge America now.
I intend to write more analytically when I can properly collect my thoughts. This book deserves it.
nikki_readsss's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
metalheadmaiden's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
sgunther's review against another edition
2.0
This book is a bit of a mess. To call it a novel would be a stretch, let's be honest—the many characters' stories barely overlap (titling it Clotel is excusable only because they are all related to her); Brown's use of apparently authentic newspaper excerpts is incongruous to the fictionality of the rest; and the accompanying anecdotes would do better in some kind of essay. But it is not uninteresting, and it is very telling of its time period in ways one wouldn't necessarily expect.
lukescalone's review against another edition
4.0
This is the first novel published by an African-American slave. Of course, the narrative of Frederick Douglass was autobiographical and, if I'm not mistaken, was published before this. Nevertheless, William Wells Brown's book is quite an achievement.
The novel itself is about a mixed-race enslaved woman named Clotel, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and a fictional enslaved woman named Currer. The book itself comes out of swirling rumors that Jefferson had children with one of his slaves, which we today know is true thanks to DNA evidence. The ultimate case made by Brown is that slavery is so insidious that not even the children and grandchildren of a man so illustrious as the president of the United States is immune to it: The story ends with
A lot of the stories within this text are actually true, but were fictionalized in order to show us the lengths that enslaved people will go to free themselves. While less rooted in Christian morality than [b:Uncle Tom's Cabin|46787|Uncle Tom's Cabin|Harriet Beecher Stowe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414349231l/46787._SY75_.jpg|2478635], it still has a strong presence here, rightfully so. Some of the argumentation isn't quite so subtle as other works but, as an explicitly abolitionist text written by such an accomplished individual, that doesn't matter so much.
The novel itself is about a mixed-race enslaved woman named Clotel, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson and a fictional enslaved woman named Currer. The book itself comes out of swirling rumors that Jefferson had children with one of his slaves, which we today know is true thanks to DNA evidence. The ultimate case made by Brown is that slavery is so insidious that not even the children and grandchildren of a man so illustrious as the president of the United States is immune to it: The story ends with
Spoiler
the drowning of Jefferson's daughter.A lot of the stories within this text are actually true, but were fictionalized in order to show us the lengths that enslaved people will go to free themselves. While less rooted in Christian morality than [b:Uncle Tom's Cabin|46787|Uncle Tom's Cabin|Harriet Beecher Stowe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1414349231l/46787._SY75_.jpg|2478635], it still has a strong presence here, rightfully so. Some of the argumentation isn't quite so subtle as other works but, as an explicitly abolitionist text written by such an accomplished individual, that doesn't matter so much.
fictionesque's review against another edition
2.0
Brown out here throwing some major shade at hypocritical Christians.
jenniferavignon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
homosexual's review against another edition
5.0
My Booktube
Link to the Reading Black Classics Vlog
TW/CW: suicide, slavery, n word usage
4.5/5 rounded up. I will go ahead and warn everyone that this novel is like 50/50 narrative and facts. Meaning that a lot of this novel is the author presenting newspaper/facts to you in order to make his point known. This is an abolition novel and so it focused a lot on the facts of slavery and characters going on multi-page monologues about topics. I didn’t find it unbearable, but I can def see how others will.
One of my bigger issues with this is the fact that we are not following Clotel for long enough. Or the narrative isn’t as focused on her as I was expecting. It is split more or less evenly between her, her sister, and their mother (or more so the people that end up buying their mother). And you follow all 3 of these POVs and the descendants of them and see how being enslaved affected all of them and the choices they make.
However: I did end up liking the split narratives once I got used to getting all the POVs. Though I wish Currer, the mother, got more page time instead of the people that end up enslaving her. But I can see what the author was doing with Georgiana. And I think that argument that was made is one of the stronger parts of the novel.
While I do wish there was more of a focus on the narrative, I can’t deny that the more “fact” based sections were extremely educational and I appreciated the book for that. It touches on a lot of things I did not know about.
Link to the Reading Black Classics Vlog
TW/CW: suicide, slavery, n word usage
4.5/5 rounded up. I will go ahead and warn everyone that this novel is like 50/50 narrative and facts. Meaning that a lot of this novel is the author presenting newspaper/facts to you in order to make his point known. This is an abolition novel and so it focused a lot on the facts of slavery and characters going on multi-page monologues about topics. I didn’t find it unbearable, but I can def see how others will.
One of my bigger issues with this is the fact that we are not following Clotel for long enough. Or the narrative isn’t as focused on her as I was expecting. It is split more or less evenly between her, her sister, and their mother (or more so the people that end up buying their mother). And you follow all 3 of these POVs and the descendants of them and see how being enslaved affected all of them and the choices they make.
However: I did end up liking the split narratives once I got used to getting all the POVs. Though I wish Currer, the mother, got more page time instead of the people that end up enslaving her. But I can see what the author was doing with Georgiana. And I think that argument that was made is one of the stronger parts of the novel.
While I do wish there was more of a focus on the narrative, I can’t deny that the more “fact” based sections were extremely educational and I appreciated the book for that. It touches on a lot of things I did not know about.