Beatrice Chancy

by George Elliott Clarke

Overview

The legend of Beatrice Cenci has intrigued writers such as Antonin Artaud, Stendhal, Mary Shelley, Alexandre Dumas, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robert Browning, and Kathy Acker. In Beatrice Chancy, a verse play set in Nova Scotia in 1819, Clarke boldly reimagines Beatrice as the daughter of a white master and a black slave.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781896095943
Publisher:	Raincoast Book Distribution
Publication date:	10/08/2002
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.75(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

George Elliott Clarke is a celebrated African-Canadian poet, anthologist and playwright. Dr. Clarke is the recipient of the $25,000 Portia White Award for artistic merit and contribution to the arts. He has taught English and Canadian Studies at Duke University in North Carolina, was the Seagram's Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies at McGill University, and is now teaching at the University of Toronto.

What People are Saying About This

Nikki Giovanni

Clarke...carries this story from our heads to our hearts to that gut feeling we all get when we have heard a devastating truth.

Editorial Reviews

This verse play by the award-winning black Nova Scotian poet George Elliott Clarke presents a poignant picture of slavery in colonial Canada. Set in 1801 at a Nova Scotia plantation owned by Francis Chancy, the drama centers on Beatrice Chancy, his black, beautiful, and cultivated 16-year-old daughter, born after the rape of a household slave. Beatrice's passionate love of a young black plantation slave results in her being raped by her own father. Pregnant, she plots parricide with her barren, long-suffering stepmother; both are hanged. The beauty of the lyric is a stark contrast to the drama entailed. Illustrations include prints of an antique Italian map of Nova Scotia, and background materials comprise an essay "On Slavery in Nova Scotia," early notices from the Halfax Gazette, the playwright's visions of the many altered sources of the story of Beatrice, and the casts of various stage and operatic productions. A powerful literary work; recommended for academic and larger public libraries.--Ming-ming Shen Kuo, Ball State Univ. Lib., Muncie, IN Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

For booksellers uncertain about shelving this with plays or poetry, neither is apt. Beatrice Chancy is a singular creative work that should be shelved under tour de force or must read. (Starred Review)

Quill & Quire