Emmanuel Appadocca, Or, Blighted Life: A Tale of the Buccaneers [Paperback]

Maxwell Philip (Author), William E. Cain (Author), Selwyn Reginald Cudjoe (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1997

This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A distinguished Trinidadian jurist of mixed race, Philip published this novel in 1854, when he was a 24-year-old law student, as a protest against slavery in the U.S. In particular, Philip decried "the cruel manner in which the slave holders of America deal with their slave-children," i.e., the offspring of white masters and black mothers. The charismatic, "high-spirited and sensitive" pirate Emmanuel Appadocca sets out to revenge himself on rich sugar planter James Wilmington for having dishonored Emmanuel's black mother and abandoned Emmanuel, his mulatto son. This pirate story, widely considered the first Caribbean novel, is part swashbuckling adventure, part "exquisite philosophy," a mixture of social critique and aristocratic claims on behalf of Philip's fellow Creoles. Philip delights in turning the age's most revered works to his own uses: the novel begins with an epigraph from Euripides (in the original), prefaces each chapter with lines from one of Shakespeare's plays, and looks most obviously to Sir Walter Scott for a model of Romance. In the land- and seascapes, Philips comes into his own, although few readers will relish his renditions of Caribbean dialects or his unthinking comic stereotypes of blacks. Despite the novel's artistic flaws, students of Caribbean politics and culture, addicts of seafaring novels and seekers of protest literature will find this rediscovered Trinidadian classic interesting. Commentaries by William E. Cain and Selwyn R. Cudjoe (both of Wellesley College) place the novel in historical perspective.

Copyright 1997 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Old salts obviously like books with two titles. Published in 1854, this claims to be the first Caribbean novel. The plot follows the title character, a young mulatto, who sets sail as a pirate to seek vengeance on the father who abandoned him and his mother. This edition, which contains scholarly notes, still makes for a rousing sea adventure.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558490760
• ISBN-13: 978-1558490765
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,930 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars My first pirate story, April 7, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Emmanuel Appadocca, Or, Blighted Life: A Tale of the Buccaneers (Paperback)

I recommend reading the forewords before starting the story. I started this book with some skepticism because I don't usually read adventure stories so I was surprised when it was so hard to tear myself away from it each night. I found the very start slow and the very end a bit incredulous (well, it's a pirate story after all!) but the other 98% of the story was riveting.
I found the foreword important because it helps to understand the author's frame of mind.