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Title: Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo" and "Laura"
Author: Leonora Sansay
Number of pages: 320
Genre: history, romance
Book Number/Goal: 21/50
My Rating: 3/5, 1/5
Review:
This book contains 2 unrelated stories. The first is an epistolary novel which takes place during the Haitian Revolution. The protagonist (a white French woman) describes the mayhem and atrocities she had witnessed or heard of during her travels, periodically focusing on the issues of her sister who belongs to society's elite but is unhappy in marriage and suffers from her abusive husband. She also recalls various episodes from the "peaceful" period of St. Domingue's colonial past.
The book was written in the beginning of 19th century (it's partly autobiographical) so the writing style is old-fashioned and somewhat hard to follow. As a work of fiction, it's rather unexciting, and the characters are neither interesting nor memorable. But the informal way of describing events and details helps to imagine the time period more vividly.
The second story is a simple, boring romance, practically unreadable and good only as a sample of literary fiction of that period. I browsed it anyway because it was bundled together with the 1st story, and rated it separately because it was so inferior.
Author: Leonora Sansay
Number of pages: 320
Genre: history, romance
Book Number/Goal: 21/50
My Rating: 3/5, 1/5
Review:
This book contains 2 unrelated stories. The first is an epistolary novel which takes place during the Haitian Revolution. The protagonist (a white French woman) describes the mayhem and atrocities she had witnessed or heard of during her travels, periodically focusing on the issues of her sister who belongs to society's elite but is unhappy in marriage and suffers from her abusive husband. She also recalls various episodes from the "peaceful" period of St. Domingue's colonial past.
The book was written in the beginning of 19th century (it's partly autobiographical) so the writing style is old-fashioned and somewhat hard to follow. As a work of fiction, it's rather unexciting, and the characters are neither interesting nor memorable. But the informal way of describing events and details helps to imagine the time period more vividly.
The second story is a simple, boring romance, practically unreadable and good only as a sample of literary fiction of that period. I browsed it anyway because it was bundled together with the 1st story, and rated it separately because it was so inferior.
