The Poison Place [Hardcover]

Mary E. Lyons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1997

It's a dark night in 1827 when Moses Williams, Charles Willson Peale's former slave, reveals to this daughter this startling account of jealousy, betrayal, and suspicion to be found with the walls of the famous Peale Museum. In a fascinating psychological profile and study of urban slave life in post-Revolutionary Philadelphia, Moses tells a remarkable story indeed.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8. As in Letters from a Slave Girl (S & S, 1992), Lyons enlarges upon the known history of a real person born into slavery. Moses Williams is owned by painter/museum entrepreneur Charles Willson Peale. Because he is close in age to Peale's oldest son, Raphaelle, Lyons creates a fictional friendship. As Rafe struggles to earn the respect and love of his father, Moses tries to earn his freedom. The story, told by Moses as an old man while he leads his daughter through Peale's museum, shows clearly the frustration of an intelligent and talented young man who is forced to endure invisibility and subhuman treatment even in relatively enlightened post-Revolutionary Philadelphia. The first-person voice conveys Moses's resentment toward the Peale family, Charles in particular, very clearly. Unfortunately, the device of answering his daughter's unheard questions and referring to the hazards as they move from room to room in the museum serves more to disrupt the story than to create immediacy. The mystery, whether Peale knowingly allowed Rafe to die slowly of arsenic poisoning from the taxidermy solution used to preserve animals for his museum, never moves beyond Moses's speculation. The story of the rivalry between Rafe and his father's favorite son, Rembrandt, is given equal treatment with Moses's longing for freedom, so the slave's struggle lacks strong focus and dramatic tension. However, once readers get into the rhythm of Moses's folksy voice, this is a quick-moving read, full of fascinating detail about extraordinary people in an extraordinary time.?Sally Margolis, formerly at Deerfield Public Library, IL
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

In a riveting work of historical fiction from Lyons (Catching the Fire, p. 1032, etc.), readers take a transforming tour through Charles Willson Peale's museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Moses Williams, a silhouette cutter and former slave, leads his daughter through each room and recants the story of his master's life, creating his own sketch of the jack-of-all-trades who produced portraits, plays, and a museum of art and taxidermy to make money he couldn't hold on to. Readers learn of a greedy and deceitful man (hardly recognizable as the man in Janet Wilson's The Ingenious Mr. Peale, 1996) whose relationship with his eldest son was a tragic battle of wills. Williams's own struggle from servitude to freedom, based in facts, unfolds in stark contrast to Peale's apparent scheming and frivolity. The authentic details and fertile atmosphere combine with lively characterizations until even Williams's daughter, always silent, ever listening, has a personality as she moves through chilly rooms where the smell of arsenic seems to linger in the air. (b&w illustrations and diagrams) (Fiction. 12-15) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Atheneum; 1st edition (October 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689811462
• ISBN-13: 978-0689811463
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,258,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfuly Written!, January 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Poison Place The (Mass Market Paperback)

I would highly recommend The Posion Place by Mary E. Lyons. It is truly a gem of a book. A fasinating story, told in the words of a formor slave, makes it come alive, and keeps you wondering, 'What happens next?' If you don't like historical fiction books, you should still try this novel. It's difinetly one in a class of it's own!