Douglass' Women: A NovelSimon and Schuster, 2010 M06 22 - 368 pages The critically acclaimed author of Voodoo Dreams delivers an inspired work of historical fiction about the warring passions that drove the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass and two women -- one black, one white -- who loved him. Douglass' Women reimagines the lives of an American hero, Frederick Douglass, and two women -- his wife and his mistress -- who loved him and lived in his shadow. Anna Douglass, a free woman of color, was Douglass' wife of forty-four years, who bore him five children. Ottilie Assing, a German-Jewish intellectual, provided him the companionship of the mind that he needed. Hurt by Douglass' infidelity, Anna rejected his notion that only literacy freed the mind. For her, familial love rivaled intellectual pursuits. Ottilie was raised by parents who embraced the ideal of free love, but found herself entrapped in an unfulfilling love triangle with America's most famous self-taught slave for nearly three decades. In her finest novel to date, Jewell Parker Rhodes vividly resurrects these two extraordinary women from history, portraying the life they led together under the same roof of the Douglass home. Here, fiery emotions of passion, jealousy, and resentment churn as the women discover an uneasy solidarity in shared love for an exceptional and powerful man. Douglass' Women fills the gaps and silences that history has left in an unforgettable epic full of heartache and triumph. |
Contents
| 14 | |
Section 2 | 18 |
Section 3 | 23 |
Section 4 | 35 |
Section 5 | 40 |
Section 6 | 61 |
Section 7 | 65 |
Section 8 | 113 |
Section 15 | 165 |
Section 16 | 179 |
Section 17 | 190 |
Section 18 | 195 |
Section 19 | 205 |
Section 20 | 215 |
Section 21 | 217 |
Section 22 | 257 |
Section 9 | 118 |
Section 10 | 122 |
Section 11 | 127 |
Section 12 | 146 |
Section 13 | 153 |
Section 14 | 158 |
Section 23 | 283 |
Section 24 | 325 |
Section 25 | 333 |
Section 26 | 345 |
Section 27 | 357 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolitionist ain't America Amy Post ANNA DOUGLASS Annie arms asked baby beautiful Bedford body bones breath Brown child colored cried door dreams dress eyes face feel felt folks Freddy Junior Freddy's Frederick Bailey Frederick Douglass friends Garrison girl hair hand hard head hear heard heart Helen Pitts Herr Douglass Hessie inside Jewell Parker Rhodes John Brown kissed kitchen knew laughed lips live looked Love be true Mam's Mama Mama and Papa married mind Miss Assing Mister Bailey Miz Assing Miz Baldwin mother must've never nigger night Oluwand Ottilie Assing Papa parlor passion Penny-man pulled Rochester Rosetta ship shouted slave slavery sleep smiled speak stared sweet talked tell things thought told touched voice waiting wanted whispered wife woman women words would've write
Popular passages
Page 16 - Bailey." I said bowing neatly. Just like at a dance. Suddenly, I felt embarrassed. "Good-bye, Miss Murray." He looked at me quizzing, like he don't understand me at all. Then, he bowed at the waist like he had all the time in the world. "Boy. Come here, boy," somebody was already calling.
Page 12 - til this man, this slave looked at me from the bow of an unfinished ship. I hadn't enough backbone to tell this white man: "I'm coming. Don't hurry me.
Page 11 - I couldn't stop myself. Mam taught me: "Never irritate white folks. Do your work. Collect their money." But this one time I didn't want to scurry. I wanted to move slow, sashay my gown, and have this man I didn't know, think I was pretty. No — Lovely. I wanted to be lovely. Twenty-eight and never had a man look at me with love.