About this title: Set during a slave rebellion in the days before the Civil War, PROPERTY is narrated by Manon Gaudet, a petulant and unhappy woman who runs a sugar plantation in Louisiana with her husband. Hopelessly innocent when she marries, Manon gradually realizes that her husband is a tyrannical slave-owner, and that he has forced a slave named Sarah to be his mistress and bear his children (something Manon fails to do). Gradually, after a slave revolt and its attendant disruption, Manon also becomes obsessed with Sarah--and is perhaps not that different from the brutal husband she struggled against. ...
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385504089ISBN:038550408X
Description: Acceptable. FORMER LIBRARY BOOK. MAY HAVE COVER WEAR, SPINE CREASES, HIGHLIGHTING, UNDERLINING & PAGES YELLOWED FROM AGE. FASTER SERVICE FROM US! ! ! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 038550408X Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780375713309ISBN:0375713301
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Date Published: 2003-02-18
ISBN-13:9780385504089ISBN:038550408X
Description: Fair. This book has been bent a little; binding coming away from cover; This is an ex library copy. Every heavytail order includes with a sweet! We carefully hand clean and reinspect each and every item we ship. Our quality control process ensures items to be in the condition described or better. Heavytail is determined to earn your repeat business through old fashioned customer service. We love international orders. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385504089ISBN:038550408X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 208 p. Audience: General/trade. Full number line starting with 1 read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780375713309ISBN:0375713301
Description: Very Good. Text pages clean & tight with no markings or highlighting. Cover has scattered scratches. A mesmerizing inquiry into slavery's venomous effects on the owner & the owned. Extremely readable copy. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780385504089ISBN:038550408X
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Lightly used copy, minor shelf wear, mylar cover. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 208 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"Shocking and disturbing, yet compulsive reading about the master slave relationship that took place in America's Deep South in the early nineteenth century. At the centre of the story is the narrator Manon Gaudet a New Orleans girl who is married to the owner of a Louisiana sugar plantation. When he was courting her she thought he was mysterious and his aloofness due to his sensitivity. However she was soon to discover that she was married to a hideous monster, we never learn the Christian name of this racist bigot. The tension was heightened by the fact that they had no children of their own but her husband had a mad son, Walter whose mother was their slave girl Sarah and who lives as a member of the household. It is no wonder that Manon hates Sarah but at least she tries to escape slavery. Whereas all Manon seems to do is blame Sarah for all her problems, without trying to change things. Until this household drama extends into a bloody uprising of slave unrest causing Manon to gain her independence but only after a series of terrifying episodes. I did not really warm to any of the main characters although I have extreme sympathy with them for the terrible way that the slaves were treated. Manon even annoyed me in a way as I felt she did not help her own misery by treating her slaves the way she did. Slavery was diabolical and this story certainly makes that clear but it also reminds us that it was not just the slaves that were seen as ' Property' but also the wives in those times!"
"I first heard of Valerie Martin when I came across a review of THE CONFESSION OF EDWARD DAY. I read it in a single gulp, and searched for other works by this author. PROPERTY is mesmerizing, disturbing, evocative and haunting. Although none of the characters is what I would describe as "sympathetic" each is compelling and the relationships among them illuminates the human ability to compartmentalize, dehumanize the "other," and generally perceive the world through the narrow porthole of self interest. The story is told from the point of view of Manon Gauder, wife (and possession) of a Louisiana sugar plantation owner who feels her marriage has been destroyed by his relationship with her own "property" in the form of the slave Sarah who is viewed by both of them as little more than an animated creature available for their own exploitation. The author paints a world of privilege and abuse, of domination and subjection, of self delusion and self entitlement by which the possessor is corrupted and the "property" is embittered and enraged. Still, the reader is drawn into the world of Manon and even experiences a certain sympathy for her plight along with grief for her inability to see herself and to realize that she is as blind and heartless toward her slaves as her husband is, in viewing her slaves as mere "property." It reads like a thriller containing the heart of a psychological dissection. I couldn't put it down until I's read it twice."
"This was written by a coworker. First of all, I'd like to say how much I love my new job. It's a pleasure to work with people who crank out ambitious and critically acclaimed books in their off hours. At my last job there was a guy who was pretty good at bowling, and another guy who danced kind of crazy if you got him drunk enough. But it wasn't really the same.
Property's awesome; I was Valerie Martin's newest fan for precisely 48 hours, which was the time between my picking up this book and her charming the asses off of a room full of people during a reading at her new place of employment."
"As one of the judges for the Orange Prize said about this book; "Property is the opposite of exuberant...it looks at relationships of power and ownership among people living in a system which is manifestly evil. They are being damaged by their system, you can see it damaging them, yet they never question it". You won't catch Martin slipping up once- she stays true to her chosen time in history and the values lived by those involved in slavery."
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