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A review by book_concierge
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins
4.0
Digital audiobook narrated by the author and Ray McMillan
“I used to be called Frannie Langton before I was taken from Paradise to London and given by Langton as maid to Mr George Benham, who then gave me to his wife. It wasn’t my choice to be brought here, but very little in my life ever was. I was Langton’s creature. If I pleased him, I pleased myself. If he said something was to be, it was. But Langton was a man who’d named his own house Paradise despite all that went on there, and named every living thing in paradise too. What more do I need to tell you about him?”
This work of historical fiction looks at slavery, colonialism, drug addiction, medical experimentation and lesbianism in early 19th century England. Frannie is a slave / housemaid and narrates her story. Collins begins the novel in 1826, with Frannie writing her “confession” from prison in London. And then goes back to 1812 in Jamaica as Frannie remembers her youth as a slave on a sugar plantation, and her transformation and education as an assistant to her master. All this leads to her current situation: accused of murdering both Benham and his wife, Marguerite.
This is Collins’s debut novel and it’s an ambitious one. Frannie is a marvelous character – educated, observant, loving, strong and yet vulnerable. Her race dooms her to a life of servitude and a lack of opportunity, and yet she finds ways to feed her mind and her soul. I really can’t say more without giving away key plot points, but Collins drew me in and kept me in her grasp. The story was as addicting as the laudanum that Frannie and her mistress relied on .
The author narrates along with Ray McMilan. Collins does a fine job of bringing Frannie to life, while McMilan’s role is to narrate the official court transcripts that are sprinkled throughout the story.
“I used to be called Frannie Langton before I was taken from Paradise to London and given by Langton as maid to Mr George Benham, who then gave me to his wife. It wasn’t my choice to be brought here, but very little in my life ever was. I was Langton’s creature. If I pleased him, I pleased myself. If he said something was to be, it was. But Langton was a man who’d named his own house Paradise despite all that went on there, and named every living thing in paradise too. What more do I need to tell you about him?”
This work of historical fiction looks at slavery, colonialism, drug addiction, medical experimentation and lesbianism in early 19th century England. Frannie is a slave / housemaid and narrates her story. Collins begins the novel in 1826, with Frannie writing her “confession” from prison in London. And then goes back to 1812 in Jamaica as Frannie remembers her youth as a slave on a sugar plantation, and her transformation and education as an assistant to her master. All this leads to her current situation: accused of murdering both Benham and his wife, Marguerite.
This is Collins’s debut novel and it’s an ambitious one. Frannie is a marvelous character – educated, observant, loving, strong and yet vulnerable. Her race dooms her to a life of servitude and a lack of opportunity, and yet she finds ways to feed her mind and her soul. I really can’t say more without giving away key plot points, but Collins drew me in and kept me in her grasp. The story was as addicting as the laudanum that Frannie and her mistress relied on .
The author narrates along with Ray McMilan. Collins does a fine job of bringing Frannie to life, while McMilan’s role is to narrate the official court transcripts that are sprinkled throughout the story.