Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Our Nig by Harriet E. Wilson

3 reviews

lukerik's review

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emotional funny informative inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I thought this might be of historical interest, and so it was. It’s quite clearly a novel. Names have been changed to protect the guilty and Wilson reports conversations she couldn’t possibly have heard; but it’s plainly an autobiographical novel, centring mainly on Wilson’s early years as an indentured servant and giving a picture of a way of life now happily abolished. 

I didn’t expect it to actually be any good. I hate 19th Century American fiction. However, she really knows how to tell a good story. Some people treat her well, but she also records the complacency of others without bitterness, and the cruelty of her mistress, who seems to have had some kind of behavioural difficulties. I’m not saying she’s the world’s greatest stylist, but despite living in America in the 19th Century she manages to write a prose line of some dignity. There are excesses no-one should be exposed to, like this death bed scene: 

‘He seemed to sink into unconsciousness. They watched him for hours. He had labored hard for breath some time, when he seemed to awake suddenly, and exclaimed, “Hark! Do you hear it?” 
“Hear what, my son?” asked the father. 
“Their call. Look, look, at the shining ones! Oh, let me go and be at rest!” 
As if waiting for this petition, the Angel of Death severed the golden thread, and he was in heaven.’ 

There’s just no need for it, is there? On the other hand there are little beauties like this interaction with her mistress: 

‘”Put that plate down; you shall not have a clean one; eat from mine,” continued she. Nig hesitated. To eat after James, his wife or Jack, would have been pleasant; but to be commanded to do what was disagreeable by her mistress, because it was disagreeable, was trying. Quickly looking about, she took the plate, called Fido to wash it, which he did to the best of his ability; then, wiping her knife and fork on the cloth, she proceeded to eat her dinner. 
Nig never looked toward her mistress during the process.’ 

And just generally Wilson has a fine sense of irony. There’s a picture of her on Wikipedia. You can see she was a live wire. 
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f18's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
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aconfundityofcrows's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Excellent and not what I was expecting. This is another early African American fiction novel. Probably the third ever published after the novels Clotel and The Garies & Their Friends (Not counting the novella “The Heroic Slave” written by Fredrick Douglass). Overall a really sad semi-autobiographical story though so worth keeping in mind if you are interested.
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