This is thought to be the first novel written by a former slave. There is a long scholarly introduction by Harvard professor, Henry L. Gates describing the painstaking steps he took to try to prove the writer’s identity and the book’s authenticity: the report of the ink used, the evidence of a quill pen, the handwriting etc. is as fascinating as the story. There is also a list of the books in the library of the Bondswoman’s master and a comparison of passages in Dickens’s “Bleak House” with passages in her novel, which indicates she might have been influenced by her reading.
(Published 2003)
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