Chauvet, Marie. Dance On the Volcano. New York. 1959. William Sloane Associates. Translated from the French by Salvator Attanasio. 376 pages. hardcover. Jacket design by Charles Walker.
DESCRIPTION - 18th-century Haiti: gaiety hid smouldering violence, the 'dance on the volcano.' Lovely young Minette sang her way to fame - to tragedy and great love. . . If you read for history, here are the political and emotional tides, the passionate men and women who brought about the Slave Rebellions of Haiti which were sparked by the French Revolution. If you read for drama, it is in every mood and movement of the story, Minette was the first colored person to entertain a white audience in Port-au-Prince, She became a great star. She also became passionately involved in the fight for freedom. The Comedie du Port-au-Prince was desperate for new talent when Minette made her appearance. The daughter of a freed slave and a white planter, she had a voice in a thousand. And she was lovely, with her creamy skin and great, slanted eyes. Excited crowds applauded her to fame. But she met the pain and humiliation of prejudice, too; met them with pride. She reached out for love - and thought she had found it in Jean Baptiste Papointe, a man of color who had risen to the status of a rich planter with slaves of his own. Warped by his struggle against bitter prejudice, he could be hard and cruel. But he needed Minette's love. These two and the people around them give the rich texture of living history to this exceptionally fine story. It is based on contemporary records, Through them Mme. Chauvet, Haitian herself, recaptures the vivid life of the island - the white creoles, the people of color, the French military - along with the tragedy and hopes and heroism of the time. Marie Chauvet lived with her husband and children in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where she was born. She was interested in writing all her life and was firmly launched on a literary career long before it was considered suitable for a girl. Her first love was the theatre, and as a child she wrote a number of plays performed in private by her young friends, with the author acting as director and stage manager. Mme. Chauvet's professional start came, however, with a prize-winning short story.
The 1st British edition:
Chauvet, Marie. Dance On the Volcano. London. 1959. Heinemann. Translated from the French by Salvator Attanasio. 329 pages. hardcover. Wrapper design by Peter Edwards.
DESCRIPTION - Racial taboos were rampant in Haiti at the end of the eighteenth century: European colonists, rich and powerful, bought and sold slaves in the market-place. Between the colonists and the slaves were the ‘mixed-bloods', to which class belonged the sisters Minette and Lise, daughters of a slave and her white master, and gifted with extraordinary voices. A creole neighbour who heard Minette singing determined to get her an engagement with the theatrical troupe of the town. It is the first time ever that a person of negro blood appears on the stage at the theatre of Port-au-Prince and the outcry from the ‘Whites' is loud and scathing. But in spite of the prejudices and prohibitions, Minette rises steadily to glory, regarding each triumph as one way of avenging the suffering of her people. She rises against the dark and troubled scene like a bright songbird. Refusing to become the mistress of any white man, she falls in love with a young and rich freedman who, however, treats his own slaves with the same cruelty as a white master. So Minette is forced to continue her fight alone. All the picturesque life of a colony at the end of the ancient regime appears here in this warm and colourful novel. Through the roar of applause in the theatre and the rattle of gunshot in the sugar-cane fields, we follow the passionate adventure of Minette. The author, Marie Chauvet, herself a Haitian, is inspired by authentic historical fact: Minette really did live, did sing at the theatre of Port-au-Prince, did dedicate herself and her glorious voice to the cause of freedom against hatred.
And now in a new translation...
Chauvet, Marie. Dance On the Volcano. Brooklyn. 2016. Archipelago Books. Translated from the French by Kaiama L. Glover. 493 pages. paperback.
DESCRIPTION - Set in late-18th century Haiti, Dance on the Volcano follows the extraordinary career of Minette, who uses her prodigious voice to cross racial barriers. Her talent brings her an opportunity to perform at the Theater of Port-au-Prince, an honor previously reserved only for whites. However, once the curtain falls she finds herself back to life as normal. Praised but unpaid, applauded but shut out, Minette develops a political and racial conscience that that will not rest as long as slavery still exists on the island. Her involvement soon leads her to butt heads with the man she loves, a free black man as cruel to his slaves as many white landholders, and to cross paths with the future heroes of the revolution. Born in Port-au-Prince in 1916, Marie Vieux-Chauvet is widely considered one of the greatest writers of the francophone Caribbean.
Marie Vieux Chauvet (1916–1973) was a Haitian novelist. Born and educated in Port-au-Prince, her most famous works were the novels Fille d'Haïti (1954), La Danse sur le Volcan (1957), Fonds des Nègres (1961), and Amour, Colère, Folie (1969). The trilogy Amour, Colère, Folie was published by Gallimard press in Paris with the support of Simone de Beauvoir. The trilogy was perceived as an attack on the Haitian despot François Duvalier. Fearing the dictator's legions of Tonton Macoutes, her husband bought all the copies of the book he could find in Haiti, and Chauvet's daughters bought the remaining copies from Gallimard in Paris a few years later. She died in the United States of America.
See if zenosbooks.com has any books for sale by this author
