Property [Paperback]

Valerie Martin (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 13, 2004

Valerie Martin’s Property delivers an eerily mesmerizing inquiry into slavery’s venomous effects on the owner and the owned. The year is 1828, the setting a Louisiana sugar plantation where Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his mistress.
Exploring the permutations of Manon’s own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The slave owner featured in Martin's new work happens to be a woman, and she's very unhappy that her favorite piece of "property" has become her husband's mistress.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Set in Louisiana in 1828, Martin's latest novel depicts the psychologically charged relationship between a wealthy white woman and the slave she detests. Manon Gaudet is bored and dissatisfied with her stifling marriage to a man she loathes. She takes much of her resentment out on her slave, Sarah, who is her husband's unwilling mistress and the mother of his only two children. Manon hates the children, especially the eldest, Walter, who is allowed to run wild on their estate. Her husband (who is never given a name) tries to reach out to Manon, but she rejects his attempts with disdain and condescension. The claustrophobic estate only makes Manon resent her life more, and she is grateful when she is unable to conceive a child. When a group of runaway slaves descends upon Manon's home, their attack brings the simmering tensions between Manon and Sarah to a head, resulting in a dramatic confrontation that only serves to heighten Manon's obsession with subjugating Sarah. The book is taut and atmospheric and effectively chronicles an obsessive fixation. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 196 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375713301
• ISBN-13: 978-0375713309
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing story of a property owner in antebellum Louisiana April 22, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This is an interesting story of two antebellum women (one white, one black) in Louisiana, both of whom are "property". The main character in this story (told from her point of view), Manon Gaudet, is a young, white, married woman living on a sugar plantation in Louisiana in 1828. I think that the author does an excellent job illustrating how desensitized white property owners (of human chattel, that is) had to have been in order to justify the existence of slavery to themselves. Manon is NOT a likeable, nor even a sympathetic character. She hates her own status as "chattel", yet she never seems to make the connection that she is no different from the slave Sarah, nor any other slave on her husband's plantation, nor does she ever understand the slaves' desire to be free despite her own yearnings of freedom from the slavery of her marriage. (Women were "chattel", i.e., the property of their husbands, and had absolutely no rights of their own once they married. The money or property that a woman brought to the marriage in the form of a dowry became her husband's upon their marriage. If he gambled or drank it away, or spent it all on a mistress or prostitutes she had no legal recourse because a wife was not considered a person in the eyes of the law. She could not sue to get it back, nor could she even protect it from creditors if her husband was in debt. There was no way for her to try to change the system because women were not only not educated in the same way that men were educated, but were prohibited from the professions such as doctor or lawyer, and, even more importantly, they could not vote! Married women were not even permitted to own property until the mid-19th century, and even then, once this law was passed, subsequent legislation was passed which chipped away at this basic principle.) The status (or lack thereof) of women (married women in particular) is a secondary theme running throughout the book, and just when the readers begin to feel a bit of sympathy for Manon, the author shifts to show readers how devoid of feelings Manon truly is. She actually thinks that the white plantation owners have done a huge favor for the blacks by making them slaves! She shows again and again that she considers them inferior beings in every way (much the way men consider women inferior beings), and then wonders why slaves show resentment when their own families are torn apart by masters who sell off children, "spouses", or parents. The way she and her aunt or even her husband discuss how much another human being will bring at market is appalling. Readers could substitute "chair" or "painting" or even a "tract of land" for the slave--there was no sense that they ever understood that it was a human being they were discussing! The human being is reduced to an item, which loses value depending upon age, gender, etc. Her view of slaves and her failure to see them as other than something which exists only to meet her every need is chilling.
Her husband was no better, sexually abusing the young male slaves, getting Sarah pregnant twice, and ignoring his own children.
Sarah had the fewest choices of all, and her attempt to run away failed, but not before she not only experienced freedom, dignity, and respect in the North but also learned what it was like to be a white man in the world, something that Manon and other females in her family will never experience. Even though Manon understands that these experiences have transformed Sarah, she still wonders about the madness of Northerners who are beginning to agitate about the evils of slavery, and questions why they would treat a black person with respect and dignity. None of her experiences have taught her this most important lesson.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Car Accident - Grotesque but Captivating May 15, 2003

By A. B. Cost

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

'Property' relays the life experiences of Manon, the white wife of a Louisiana plantation owner during the time of slavery. Manon is disgusted by her husband but is hardly more sympathetic herself. The book expresses the hypocrisy and evils of slave ownership through Manon's petty distinctions between her vulgar, brutal husband, and her idealized view of her father. Ultimately, there are no hero's of this tale. Each character is uniquely flawed and human, and the beauty of this book is its realistic recreation of the time period without appealing to sentimentality or melodrama.

This is an excellent book, and a very easy read. Like any good depiction of the human grotesque, reading 'Property' feels like watching a car accident, you are disgusted and appalled, yet you can't look away.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual and Extraordinary! March 29, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Unusual and extraordinary - these are the first 2 words that come to my mind when trying to describe this book. I've never read anything like it (...and to think, I read it only 2 sittings!)!

This was a fictional slave narrative in the most unusual sense ... from the point of view of a remorseless female slave owner. It examines the psyche of the oppressor, making one even more sympathetic toward the oppressed! Valerie Martin skillfully created a fascinating portrait of an insolent and self-centered young woman and, in doing so, delved into that "peculiar institution" that denied freedom to whole race of people and was tolerated for so long in this country! VERY POWERFUL! I would definitely consider reading more of Ms. Martin's work.