Author:Solomon Northup
Born a free man in New York State in 1808, Solomon Northup was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., in 1841. He spent the next twelve years as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation. During this time he was frequently abused and often afraid for his life. After regaining his freedom in 1853, Northup published this gripping account of his captivity. As an educated man, Northup was able to present an exceptionally detailed description of slave life and plantation society. Indeed, this book is probably the fullest, most realistic picture of the 'peculiar institution' during the three decades before the Civil War. Northup tells his story both from the viewpoint of an outsider, who had experienced thirty years of freedom and dignity in the United States before his capture, and as a slave, reduced to total bondage and submission. Very few personal accounts of American slavery were written by slaves with a similar history. This extraordinary slave narrative, new to Penguin Classics, has a new introduction by prize-winning historian and author Ira Berlin, an an essay by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
If the purpose of a published diary is to transport the reader into another person's life, then Isherwood's diaries succeed. They give you, fleetingly, the illusion of being him
—— Sunday TimesHis cultural highmindedness makes his lowdown stuff even more entertaining
—— Daily MailKatherine Bucknell continues to prove an ideal editor. We are told all we need, and nothing we don't. nothing is repeated, and references to living persons feel both substantive and discreet. The Sixties counts as a model accomplishment of the professional and scrupulous handling of an important literary manuscript
—— Literary ReviewThese volumes will shed much light not just on Isherwood the writer but on the 1960s in America
—— Contemporary ReviewMy favourite book of the year
—— Financial Times, Christmas round upKatherine Bucknell has done a tremendous job
—— D J TaylorMoving and extremely well-documented
—— Oxford MailExcellent... One often feels as if one is actually present at the scenes she describes. There can be no higher praise... Inconvenient People is as interesting a work of social history as you are ever likely to read.
—— Anthony Daniels , SpectatorFascinating and chilling, Inconvenient People reads like a series of Victorian novels in brief - only all the tales are true
—— Bel Mooney , Daily MailThis superlative study opens the door on the cruelty of the quacks who locked up lost souls
—— Edward Pearce , IndependentSeveral riveting cases Sarah Wise has unearthed for this fine social history of contested lunacy in the 19th century... Wise has given us a fascinating book that teems with rich archival research. The pictorial sources are an added boon and make for a wonderfully illustrated addition to the history of the 19th century
—— Lisa Appignanesi , Daily TelegraphRich, gripping and moving mix of social history, psychiatry and storytelling
—— Your Family TreeA dark and disturbing investigation...trenchant and disturbing book
—— John Carey , Sunday TimesThere is so much to interest and entertain in this book, which is enhanced by over eighty informative illustrations
—— Gillian Tindall , Literary ReviewA wonderfully engaging book
—— Jad Adams , Who Do You Think You Are MagazineFascinating book (4 stars)
—— Michael Kerrigan , ScotsmanWise reopens 12 uncontested lunacy cases from the 1800s, meticulously exploring the details of each and recreating the stories with a page-turning eye for a great narrative
—— IndependentSarah Wise knows how to grab the reader’s attention with phrases that would have done Bulwer-Lytton proud. But the book’s readability does not disguise its scholarship. This is a valuable contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century
I thrilled to Sarah Wise’s Inconvenient People, an enthralling study of those who fell foul of Victorian mad-doctors and greedy relatives
—— Philip Hoare , Sunday TelegraphIt makes for a harrowing read, but much of it is also hilarious, and as gripping as the most lurid Victorian melodramatic novel. Yet again, one closes a book with the impression that beneath the polished mahogany surfaces and shimmering silks of Victorian interiors lurked Hell itself
—— A. N. Wilson , Mail on Sunday