The Confessions of Nat Turner

Jul 02, 2008 Leah rated it 1 of 5 stars

[Review written by my younger self]
Why is a novel that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 on my "Hate" list? Author Styron has no question about the important presence his novel has; he states that he is giving readers a fictional presentation of the actual history surrounding our title "character" in 1831. With this, Stryon takes on a certain authorial latitude that can be easily misconstrued with actual history.

I can understand the message Styron wishes to communicate. He presents the historical p...more [Review written by my younger self]
Why is a novel that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 on my "Hate" list? Author Styron has no question about the important presence his novel has; he states that he is giving readers a fictional presentation of the actual history surrounding our title "character" in 1831. With this, Stryon takes on a certain authorial latitude that can be easily misconstrued with actual history.

I can understand the message Styron wishes to communicate. He presents the historical precursor for the problems and prejudices that haunt urban African-Americans today. But, with this, is it necessary to add his own altering of the actual history of this slave rebellion?

Here are some of the true facts Styron presents either directly or indirectly: 60 white persons killed, 17 perpetrators hung, 12 more sent to Alabama to die in slavery, and 131 free and enslaved Americans killed by a mob. With 220 dead and America's laws at the time becoming increasingly harsh (think of the Fugitive Slave Law), how much more latitude does Styron need to express his point?

With such a novel that uses an actual person and event, how much responsibility does Styron hold to historical accuracy? Many would say that he holds none at all. There is, indeed, the anonymously-written Primary Colors, among others, that takes its own version of history and "tweaks" it for entertainment appeal. So let's consider Styron's purpose? Is it entertainment? In the book's afterword, Styron writes that the real Nat Turner was a person of "conspicuous ghastliness" and "a dangerously religious lunatic". So what does Styron want to do? He wants to change this person of demonic fanaticism with one of "stern piety".

Thus Styron wants to alter this man's personality. With this, the story becomes one of a tortured man who feels that being cut off from God is a fate worse than death. Throughout all his brutal and grotesque violence, he claims himself in the fictional parts of this novel to be a man of God. Has Styron acted responsibly in doing this? More importantly, does this alteration make it easier to swallow this historical event, and should that even be a consideration?

This event is just a small slice of the over 60 million slaves whose lives were lost. What if these and other figures were altered in other historical events? What if the numbers and events were altered regarding the over 12 million lost in the Holocaust? What if authors decide they want to take some authorial license over the recent events in Rwanda, Cambodia, and Kosovo?

I do not discount the fact that the actual historically-accurate circumstances regarding Nat Turner are of great significance today. But can readers benefit from a story that claims to present important history and yet is not wholly accurate? In a book entitled Ten Black Writers Respond, the title persons say that both they and their white counterparts would have better benefited from an unbiased assessment and chronicling of history as it is truly presented. In fact, in one of the most obvious historically-accurate omissions of Nat Turner being married with at least two children, activists and black writers accused Styron of adding firewood to the white racist view that black men are obsessed with white women.

By taking liberties with the story and the man, Styron seemed to brush off the fact that slaves' lives were actually worsened by Nat Turner and his rebellion. The fact that Turner seems almost as prejudiced against field slaves as well as masters is soon overshadowed by the fact that he later becomes a champion of slaves nationwide. Styron overlooks the fact that the real Nat Turner had a wife, and that his last few masters were actually relatively kind in a system of slavery that did not afford many kindnesses.

These overlooked historical facts could have only added to the human complexity that Styron was aiming for. Noting all of these fallbacks, it seems the author was seeking a preposterous self-aggrandizement by claiming unabashedly that his novel is a complete "meditation on history."

As a historical novelist, Styron did not do what historical novelists should do--i.e., investigate the facts. Therefore, Confessions is not an accurate portrayal of Nat Turner, and dangerously takes a controversial figure of race relations and distorts him. Only by presenting true accounts can historical novelists hope to honor and understand the complexity of the past and present this importance to their readers. (less)

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Jun 16, 2010 Jim rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, historical, fantasy

I'm tempted to give this 1 star, but it does hold some historical perspectives that are worth reading. Just be aware that Styron twisted some facets of history around & subscribed unsupportable motivations to Turner, a religious fanatic & a lunatic, by his own words to Thomas Ruffin Gray. Gray was the lawyer who sat down with Turner while he was awaiting execution & wrote the first 'Confessions'. It's available as a free download & should be read by anyone who reads this book, pr...more I'm tempted to give this 1 star, but it does hold some historical perspectives that are worth reading. Just be aware that Styron twisted some facets of history around & subscribed unsupportable motivations to Turner, a religious fanatic & a lunatic, by his own words to Thomas Ruffin Gray. Gray was the lawyer who sat down with Turner while he was awaiting execution & wrote the first 'Confessions'. It's available as a free download & should be read by anyone who reads this book, preferably before it so you don't get sucked in & fooled.
( http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/vie... )

Turner thought himself destined for great things due to visions that he ascribed to his god & filtered through a distorted religion. His twisted confession is a chilling look at life through the eyes of a serial killer, a seriously deranged man. His 'rebellion', actually a wild killing spree without any other real purpose. They killed at least 10 men, 14 women, and 31 infants and children. His name should go down in history along side the likes of Hitler, Jim Jones & David Berkowitz - nut job murderers.

Unfortunately, Styron's fictional account tends to excuse many of Turner's actions & even shows him in a heroic light. I don't see how this obviously intelligent & charismatic man (Turner) could have so badly bungled a true rebellion. His confession to Gray tells us that he was directed by the holy spirit toward some sort of judgment day. It reads nothing like a man who wanted his physical freedom (he'd escaped & come back on his own, unlike his father who escaped & never returned) but more like a deranged man aiming for a baptism in blood.

Reading some history on the reprisals that took place after this 'rebellion' makes for even more chilling reading. The immediate executions & beatings were horrible, but the effects on the anti-slave movement were devastating. Turner managed to destroy the growing sentiment that Jefferson had worked so hard to bring about & finally seemed to be coming to fruition in VA.(less)

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Jim According to several emails I've gotten, I'm an atheist & a bigot, unable to see how society drove Turner to his atrocities.

Turner condoned the k...more
Jun 16, 2010 06:26pm

Werner Jim, I completely agree with you! I'm reminded of the aftermath of the terrorist bombings on 9/11/01, when a few pundits suggested that the atrocity w...more
Jun 16, 2010 07:49pm

Petra X I hate the excusing of one's favoured group's crimes. I hate it even more when the media push it - the BBC always excuses Palestinian crimes, if it ev...more
Apr 29, 2011 07:36am

Jun 11, 2008 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Much has been made of this book, with criticism ranging from the extreme charge of racism to the milder implication that Styron, as a white man, could not capture Nat Turner's "blackness" the way a black writer could have. I don't wish to address this book within the context of these controversies. Styron may not have been able to capture Turner's blackness the way a black writer could have (as an Asian-American woman myself I will never know), but he did capture Turner the man in a way only a g...more Much has been made of this book, with criticism ranging from the extreme charge of racism to the milder implication that Styron, as a white man, could not capture Nat Turner's "blackness" the way a black writer could have. I don't wish to address this book within the context of these controversies. Styron may not have been able to capture Turner's blackness the way a black writer could have (as an Asian-American woman myself I will never know), but he did capture Turner the man in a way only a great writer can.

The figure of Nat Turner is a compelling one: even though we can sympathize with his cause, we are still somewhat appalled by the bloodbath he created and the terror that followed in his wake. His motivation, too, adds to our fascination with him: had he claimed to be attempting a political overthrow or simply to be acting out of revenge, he would not be so intriguing. Instead, however, he claimed to be acting on the direct orders of God. And it was this claim that must have burned like a brand into the hearts of the white slaveowners, many of whom had already bent their minds into knots in their attempts to justify black slavery from a Christian perspective. Nat the avenging prophet challenged not only the system of slavery, but also the divine justification for it on which slaveowners relied to assuage their own consciences.

Turner could easily have been presented as a deluded religious fanatic, but some instinct told Styron not to portray him so. And indeed, if we as a culture could convince ourselves that he was simply a religious fanatic I doubt we'd be as fascinated by him as we are. Instead Styron portrays him as dark and brooding, deeply conflicted, torn by ambivalences, driven by a love that eventually becomes indistinguishable from hate. He loves his fellow slaves, but despises them for their ignorance; he even loves some of his masters, but hates them for their inability to act on their convictions; he loves Margaret Whitehead, but hates her for making him love her in a world where such love is forbidden; he loves God deeply, but in the end comes close to hating Him for calling him to such a dreadful task; and, most of all, he loves himself, but hates himself for being caught between worlds - too educated to belong to the slave community, but too dark-skinned to belong to the white community.

Some have commented on Styron's failure to give Turner a wife, but it is precisely Turner's loneliness that is his defining characteristic. He does not belong with anyone, or to anyone. He does not fit in anywhere. It is this frustration that ultimately drives him to slaughter, but it is also this frustration that leads to his undoing. He sought to use his fellow slaves to destroy the white world to which he could never belong, but he also realized that, even with the whites gone, he could never belong to the rag-tag group of slaves who would remain. Critiques that Styron hasn't captured the "black experience," I believe, rather miss the mark: Styron wasn't attempting to speak of the black experience, but rather he was attempting to speak of the experience of a lone man who sat on the margin between slave and free, who refused to be trapped into the world of slavery even when he knew that the free world would never let him in. In the context of race relations, Styron's book can be seen as having done a great service in showing that, at those points where the boundaries between black and white, slave and free, begin to blend and blur, danger and destruction to both races lurk. In such cases there are only two options. We can do as the slaveowners did and redraw the boundaries even more rigidly, a task which is bound to fail as the boundaries once again begin to merge over time. Or we can eliminate the boundary altogether - a task which I am sure Styron would support, and one which we are still in the process of completing.(less)

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Dec 21, 2012 Warwick rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, virginia, fiction

This book caused quite a controversy when it came out in 1967, and judging from some of the reviews here and on Amazon, it's continuing to do so. I didn't know about any of that when I started it, but the more I read the novel, the more dissatisfying and even irresponsible it started to seem.

Some have traced the outcry which followed its release to the simple fact that a white Virginian author was writing his way into the mind of a 19th century black slave, but that is hardly the issue. The book...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Rita rated it 3 of 5 stars

1966.
Definitely worth reading. The title was familiar to me but I never actually knew anything about the Nat Turner rebellion [1831, southeastern Virginia Tidewater]. Styron does an impressive job of making the time and place come alive.

In the second half of the novel I got pretty sick of the author's obsession with portraying Turner as being obsessed with having sex with, or raping, white women. It's as valid a hypothesis as any other of what was going on in Turner's mind, but it's only a hypot...more 1966.
Definitely worth reading. The title was familiar to me but I never actually knew anything about the Nat Turner rebellion [1831, southeastern Virginia Tidewater]. Styron does an impressive job of making the time and place come alive.

In the second half of the novel I got pretty sick of the author's obsession with portraying Turner as being obsessed with having sex with, or raping, white women. It's as valid a hypothesis as any other of what was going on in Turner's mind, but it's only a hypothesis and it doesn't bear repeating so many hundreds of times -- that's just sensationalist writing in my opinion.

The violence, the cruelty, in the book are excessive, which is not to suggest they are not accurate. [How would I know?] Edward P. Jones's book has a lot less cruelty in it, though plenty. Styron does a good job of pointing out that "well-meaning" slave owners still treated blacks as inferior beings, so that their "good works" were nevertheless all part of the system, did not challenge the system.

Wonder if bell hooks would appreciate Turner's sermon on the need for self-esteem:

"Black folk ain't never gong to be led from bondage without they has pride! Black folk ain't going to be free, they ain't going to have no spoonbread and sweet cider less'n they studies to love they own selves. Only then will the first be last , and the last first. Black folk ain't never going to be no great nation until they studies to love they own black skin and the beauty of that skin and the beauty of them black hands that toils so hard and black feet that trods so weary on God's earth. And when white men in they hate and wrath and meanness fetches blood from that beautiful black skin then, oh then, my brothers, it is time not for laughing but for weeping and rage and lamentation. Pride, pride, everlasting pride, pride will make you free!" 303

A collection of essays published in 1968 is "William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond". One reviewer calls this an attack by "Black Power" intellectuals of Styron's portrayal as supporting the stereotype of black men as wanting to rape white women and being extra prone to sexual violence.(less)

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Aug 28, 2012 Hal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 12-reads

William Styron's "The Confessions of Nat Turner" most represents a real work of historical fiction, as opposed to what so often passes for the genre today. He ranks right up there in my opinion with C.S Forester, E.M. Forester and Sharon Kay Penman.

Unlike most authors of the genre, who merely write a novel and place it in an earlier era, Styron writes of a real man who lived and died. Relatively few records of the 1831 slave rebellion exist today. However, Styron worked from the sparse data that...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Sistermagpie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-lit, novels

Having finished this book, I'm hesitant about what I want to say about it. It was definitely interesting and I was drawn into the characters, but in talking about it I feel like I have to address a lot of meta ideas like the fact that Styron is a white man writing from the pov of a slave and changing historical events.

So just focusing on what he did rather than the implications of his having done it, Styron does have a lot of interesting things to say on what he imagines it would be like to be i...more

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Apr 12, 2012 Stasa Fritz rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book won the Pulitzer in the late 1960s. It was controversial as it is from the POV of a black man, written by a white man. Even today, that would be somewhat controversial, but in the era of Martin Luther King it was quite controversial.

Styron pulls it off, primarily because he lends a voice of authenticity to an actual event, the only real slave revolt in the U.S.

What follows is my MFA craft review (thus less focused on the content), but I tend to blur content and craft all the time.

The...more This book won the Pulitzer in the late 1960s. It was controversial as it is from the POV of a black man, written by a white man. Even today, that would be somewhat controversial, but in the era of Martin Luther King it was quite controversial.

Styron pulls it off, primarily because he lends a voice of authenticity to an actual event, the only real slave revolt in the U.S.

What follows is my MFA craft review (thus less focused on the content), but I tend to blur content and craft all the time.

The difficulty in analyzing this book lies partially in its subject matter and partially in the afterword that the author provides discussing the book. To remain a bit “pure” I have avoided reading the afterward until I am done with this response. In this way, if I have some insight as to the writing techniques used by Styron that he also mentions, I can to myself say that my observations were pure, if not startling.

In considering what I, personally would like to take from Nat Turner and apply to my own, current, writing it would be the feeling of authenticity and believability.

The obvious first technique is the use of not just first person, but largely journal-like structure. There is nothing startling or new in this, so I won’t explore it.

What immediately strikes the reader is the initial language is quite sophisticated. It is not the language of an uneducated slave, nor in fact of an uneducated white person, of 1831. Simultaneously, it is authentic in its feeling of immediacy, of ‘I am in a cell recounting my story’ by giving us a feeling of his quarters in a compact manner:

I rose up from the cedar plank I’d been sleeping on and sat halfway erect, in the same somnolent motion duplicating the instinctive mistake I’d made four times in as many mornings: swinging my legs sideways off the plank as if to plant them on the floor, only to feel metal bite into my ankles as the chain of the leg irons reached the limit of its slack, holding my feet suspended slantwise in midair. (10)

In one sentence we know this man is smart, he is chained uncomfortably and we wonder (initially) if this is really a slave speaking. Nat tells us many things indirectly and directly throughout the book, but the indirect method of telling (almost showing, but still indirect) is more interesting:

… I could hear his heavy breathing—a choked, clotted sound as if air were escaping through his very wounds. (10)

Is this man authentic, really a slave? How does Styron persuade us without telling us? By the next page we start to get a better feel for this man in his use of the term “Negros (11).” Two things in this single word. One, he uses the capitalization, two he uses the word. It dates this quickly as before the 1960s and yet used by a proud black man. I verified this thought process by a search on the etymology of “Negro” on http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?t..., with the following result:

 “Professor Booker T. Washington, being politely interrogated ... as to whether negroes ought to be called 'negroes' or 'members of the colored race' has replied that it has long been his own practice to write and speak of members of his race as negroes, and when using the term 'negro' as a race designation to employ the capital 'N' ["Harper's Weekly," June 2, 1906]”

By page 12 we start to find out where his education is centered, where his thinking is centered, “It had for many years been my custom to pray at this hour of the day, or to read from the Bible;” telling us he has been reading for years and his world view is biblically centered. What is important here is that this information is trickled out fast enough that we start to buy into the person quickly, but it is not an information dump. Suddenly, by the end of page 12, he speaks, “Marse Kitchen,” I said, “I’m hungry. Please. I wonder if you could fetch me a little bite to eat. Kindly please, young mastah. (12)” Thus, we are first introduced to the intelligent, introspective, educated man and then we see him put on the show when speaking. The order is important. The reveal is important. It further reveals his intelligence and his way of dealing with the world. Now, the character is both three dimensional and authentic.

This three dimensional quality is then enhanced throughout the book, both in the many, many, flaws of the man and in small human qualities that makes the reader like this man. He has a subdued sense of humor, humor in observation, which is repeated a number of times, but is illustrated early on when the lawyer enters the cell area, “Not that the odor that Gray put out demanded great sensibility. (14)”

The authenticity of the setting is not just Nat Turner’s character, but the careful choice of vocabulary. Just a sample of the words used: majuscule (79) was first used in 1820s and folderol (93) was also used first in the 1820s. These two are just a sample of the many instances he uses words that would, or at least could, have been used by the educated and somewhat high society of the time and where Nat then absorbs them. As a side note, it is one of the instances where the instant touch of a dictionary within an ereader is handy, as the dictionary gives the reader not just the definition, but a tiny bit of the etymology.

So, we have the sophisticated internal musings contrasted by the external spoken language of Nat, we have the word choice, and the order of revealing internal versus external dialogue. In keeping with my theme of authenticity, what else made this ring true? What made it not just authentic in time and possible, but authentic that Nat lead the only significant revolt of slaves documented. What fired him to do what others had not and is it believable?

What may seem wrong and is indeed the question the lawyer Gray keeps asking—“you admit to good masters and yet you did this?”--is what in the end makes it believable. Compared to many slaves Nat is NOT badly mistreated. Indeed, it is the opposite that is true and that is what makes this so believable. It is related to why the suicide rate is so high in industrialized nations and so low in poverty stricken nations. Styron doesn’t just “tell us” this, he spends the entire book showing us.

Just as the first 12 pages carefully order the “reveal” of Nat as a narrator and language, the first part of the book is devoted to the same setup and fall that Nat goes through. Order is important. The reveal is important. It gets us in Nat’s mind.

The order is Nat goes from a normal slave to a special slave who receives and education. He is gifted, but he is lucky (or perhaps unlucky) in that this is noticed and appreciated by an almost enlightened master. Almost is crucial also, as he is crucially flawed. Given that this is a confession told by Nat looking backwards and not a journal as it happens, Styron could have revealed many things in any order, but he does not. Thus, it is not just the plot devices of a confession and recounting, but the order and the slow sprinkling in of the self-awareness of Nat. Nat notes that as a boy he has contempt for the field slaves, but only after he first lets us feel his own learning, his own superiority, then he self analyzes. Order of the reveal is important. Thus, it is not until page 165, halfway through the book, that we learn that Nat has been promised his freedom. This immediately opens up the questions as to why he did not get it, or did he get it and lose it. But, by waiting this long, we feel it differently than if Nat had started out the narrative, “I was promised my freedom then that was snatched away from me and that put a burning hatred in me that festered for twenty years.” The novel would have had little impact if done this way.

The authenticity of the freedom promise is well done. Get the money back for the slave, make him work a certain number of years, etc. We see the fatal flaw in letting a young man, a boy, know this years in advance of when the promise is planned to take place. We are then led through the slow decline where we guess it will fail. We are brought back with some hope, only to have those hopes dashed miserably.

This alone is probably enough to fester at least the need to escape. And we do wonder why he does not escape, but then Tyron finishes building what he has laid the scaffolding for: religious fanaticism, in a carefully understated manner.

I am reminded, once again, of the discussion we had in Kent Meyers residency class on obsession. Is there an obsession that drives the story and the character. With Nat it is his fury and rage against all whites, but it is his religious obsession. His belief that God is guiding him to free the slaves. Unlike Moby Dick, where the obsession is already in place and we see it effect all actions, in Nat Turner we see the obsession build and it is only the last quarter of the book that the obsession then drives everything.

I found the building of the obsession more important than the final drive. We already know how it is going to end, in more ways than one, but the building of the obsession, the fanaticism, works well. The first few pages we get that he wants a bible, or has read it, but we don’t know he is obsessed. We also get dribbled in repeatedly that while in jail he is no longer capable of prayer, he has lost some of the obsession, which later explains to us why the narrative does not sound like the ravings of a lunatic. He has lost some of his lunacy.

One quote, or section, that illustrates much of what I have examined is Nat’s own reflection on his fury and hatred. This is two thirds of the way through the novel, so we fundamentally understand this already and Nat is summarizing it for us—again order is important, if we read this on page two it would lose its power.

… a Negro can only pretend hatred. Such hatred is an abstraction and a delusion. For example. A poor field Negro may once in a while be struck by the whip of an overseer riding on a tall white horse, that same Negro may be forced onto short rations for a month and feel his stomach rumble daily in the tight cramps of near-starvation, again this Negro might someday be thrown into a cart and sold like a mule at auction in pouring rain; yet if this selfsame Negro—surrounded from childhood by a sea of black folk, hoeing and scraping in the fields from dawn to dusk year in and year out and knowing no white man other than that overseer whose presence is a mean distant voice and a lash and whose face is a nameless and changing white blob against the sky—finds himself trying to hate white men, he will come to understand that he is hating imperfectly, without that calm and intelligent and unrepenting purity of hatred which I have already described and which is so necessary in order to murder. Such a Negro, unacquainted with white men and their smell and their blanched and bloodless actuality and their evil, will perhaps hate but with a hatred which is all sullenness and impotent resentment, like the helpless, resigned fury one feels toward indifferent Nature throughout long days of relentless heat or after periods of unceasing rain. (214)

We begin to see that Nat can never run away. He would be running to more white men. He has moved beyond wanting simple freedom. He is obsessed. The techniques described capture the obsession, the fury and the insanity of Nat in such a way that we buy into it. It is authentic.
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Mar 20, 2011 Mark rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: time-100, historical-fiction, pulitzer-prize

I should have guessed I was in trouble with this book when the words on the back associated the author with Faulkner. Not being a fan of Faulkner, I nonetheless tried to go in with a clear mind. My dislike of it had little to do with that and more to do with the nature of the novel. In a preface, Styron comments that this is meant less as a typical historical novel and more as a meditation on history. I don't think the author claiming such is sufficient to inoculate himself against criticism.

Thi...more

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Nov 03, 2010 John rated it 2 of 5 stars

Styron caught flack for the sexually-charged way he portrayed the hypothetical relationship between Nat Turner and the one person he killed with his own hands in the course of his uprising. The edition of this novel that I read (the 25th anniversary) contains an afterword by Styron defending himself against charges of racism for this imagined relationship. I tend to agree that the accusations were unfair, but my problem with this choice of Styron's is that it is an overworn cliché, and that is a...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

An amazingly rich novel by one of Faulkner's prodigal sons. About one of the only successful leaders of a slave revolt, the novel is all plantation torment and furious thunderstorms. Building from an oppressive yet bucolic setting in Nat's early years, the novel leads the reader through the vagaries of slavery that become all the more viscerally abhorrent as the narrative unravels. Now naturally, most people know how awful the institution of slavery was, but Styron is able to paint such a vivid

...more

An amazingly rich novel by one of Faulkner's prodigal sons. About one of the only successful leaders of a slave revolt, the novel is all plantation torment and furious thunderstorms. Building from an oppressive yet bucolic setting in Nat's early years, the novel leads the reader through the vagaries of slavery that become all the more viscerally abhorrent as the narrative unravels. Now naturally, most people know how awful the institution of slavery was, but Styron is able to paint such a vivid portrait of it, to weave such an inescapable web of its evil practices around his readers that one's understanding moves from abstract intellectual to painfully vivid and real.

Though initially met with approval from the black community, The Confessions of Nat Turner, very quickly became a literary pariah. It was labeled as exemplifying the white racist tendency to feminize the black male, also said to imply the idea that true freedom could never really be possible for blacks. I take issue with that position though because 1) I feel what was considered one of the most egregious elements of the novel, Nat's fantasies of raping a white woman, ring true, in an almost feminist sense, demonstrating rape as the ultimate act of domination and oppression. It makes sense that in a situation where one feels totally powerless against a totalitarian force that one would fantasize about a total role reversal. And besides, though Nat fantasizes, he doesn't have the stomach for violence because of his intellectual nature. Secondly, though the novel does show in blisteringly clear light the almost insurmountable scale of the institution of slavery, it IS promising, considering today's context with a black man as president, etc. that as a nation we have come so far in such a short period of time. Yet, because of the almost incomprehensibly tragic nature of the past wounds, it also inspires me to want to continue to fight for justice for all those who have suffered at the hands of institutionalized racism. Should be required reading.

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Jul 07, 2009 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

This Pulitzer Price winner was a historical novel, unlike the Fires of Jubilee. The latter was a historical account of facts that left nothing behind in its literary presentation; the former was a complex and skillfully composed fiction of how Nat Turner might have told the story of his life, including his attitudes toward whites, his lust/hate feelings for white women, and a rather low account of the mentality other blacks—none of which are documented, and certainly there are factual inaccuraci...more

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Jun 27, 2009 Tim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Of William Styron's four main works of fiction (meaning, in this case, full-length novels), the Pulitzer-winning "The Confessions of Nat Turner" is my least favorite. It's still pretty damn good; that should give you an idea of what I think of Styron.

People have thrown stones at Styron for years over his portrayal of Turner, who supposedly was acting on a mandate from God in leading a slave uprising. You know, white guy writing in first-person as a black man, taking liberties with history. The...more

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Apr 20, 2009 Claire S marked it as to-read

Recommended to Claire by: CCLaP 100

Shelves: human-poison-aired-out-fict, id-constructs-race-gender, a-4-gathering-info, award_pulitzer, cclap-100, classics, fictionalized-history, form_complexia, f_interpretations, f_truth-mixt-q, historical, meaning-life-etc, novel, pol-historical, pol-paradigm-shift-pssbl, politics-learning, pov-content_african-am, religion-morality, sobriety-spirituality, u-s-hist, u-s-hist_diversity-of-people, u-s-hist_slavery, u-s-hist_women, unplsnt, war-mltry-conflt-occ, class-relations, fin-econ

I'd come across references to this in the past, and never knew what was being talked about, and didn't learn myself. So finally now, thanks to the CCLaP 100 in particular, I'm learning about it.
http://www.cclapcenter.com/2007/12/pe...
Sounds just fascinating, so many content areas could be explored from this: race being the most important aspect of Nat's life, related to whether Styron had the 'right' to write about him (vs. other aspects, universal to whites, being most important); the ability...more

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Nov 27, 2010 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars

I've read Sophie's Choice a long time ago and before this book and I marvel at the fact that an author can ask us to accept so many questions and contradictions that are never resolved, and we are yet inevitably satisfied. In fact we close the book looking more closely at our own mysteries and suddenly start thinking of them as less than mundane.

In 1831, a black slave sits in a jail cell, after leading a slave revolt that let over 50 whites dead, contemplating his impending and running over the...more
I've read Sophie's Choice a long time ago and before this book and I marvel at the fact that an author can ask us to accept so many questions and contradictions that are never resolved, and we are yet inevitably satisfied. In fact we close the book looking more closely at our own mysteries and suddenly start thinking of them as less than mundane.

In 1831, a black slave sits in a jail cell, after leading a slave revolt that let over 50 whites dead, contemplating his impending and running over the contradictions that led him there. Sometimes the voice of God calls to him clearly, sometimes he ponders whether the voice of God is one that only exists in his head. He preaches hate and butchery, but cannot himself kill except for a mercy killing of one who he a strange attraction and yet repulsion for. His revolt lead to the retaliation of the white population against the blacks so that 200 blacks that had nothing to do with this revolt died. The small emancipation voice in the legislation fades and stricter slave laws are put into effect.

So, what was the point?

Nat Turner is caught up in this world of contradictions, capable of feeling love, he is also capable of quelling it to act out his revenge. His curious choice of eliminating everyone - not just the whites that have been cruel to their slaves, but their small children, their kind daughters - make him a monster. But his observations and insight also make him a man of compassion - and since ne'er the twain shall meet all of us are left wondering, what did he really expect to accomplish and why?

And the larger theme being, do these dangerous contradictions exist today? Which road to we take and what reasoning must go with it? Was Nat a folk hero or a lunatic?
Styron deftly forces us to decide for ourselves. And in the end, we somehow are compelled to make that choice, aware that that what really shows through Styron's stylishly winding prose is that the heat of life will keep on humming and confusing us, with its offal and its flowers.

Poignant prose. 5 out of 5 and a Pulitzer thrown in.

Highly recommended. (less)

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Jan 26, 2010 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a former literature student with little to no knowledge of the real Nat Turner, I approached and judged this novel on the strength of its narrative. Styron constructs a story within a story: the reader meets Turner as he prepares for trial. After the prosecutor reads Turner's "confessions," Nat gives the reader the background that leads to his rebellion. The story closes as Nat is taken to the gallows.

What I find interesting (again as a student of literature), is the way Styron plays with the...more As a former literature student with little to no knowledge of the real Nat Turner, I approached and judged this novel on the strength of its narrative. Styron constructs a story within a story: the reader meets Turner as he prepares for trial. After the prosecutor reads Turner's "confessions," Nat gives the reader the background that leads to his rebellion. The story closes as Nat is taken to the gallows.

What I find interesting (again as a student of literature), is the way Styron plays with the notions of story, confession, and motive. Exactly what are Nat Turner's confessions? The document read in court is a transcription of his words to an attorney, essentially his story in someone else's words. It does not take into account any of the complexities that Nat shows us in the story of his life: his initial realization that he is a slave; his hatred of field slaves; his homosexual experiences and lust for a white woman; his fervent belief that God is calling him to kill all the white people in his community. Nat "confesses" to all of these things at some point in his narrative. He feels guilt for one thing, then another. What is the reader supposed to believe are his crimes, his successes, his failures? The book's somewhat abrupt turn on the final page makes this hard to assess. Ultimately, Nat is unsure what his crimes are, if any. He pleads "not guilty" to the charges of murder and insurrection because he does not feel guilty (except for what he does feel guilty about).

I've read some other reviews and agree that the liberties Styron takes with history are difficult to swallow, especially regarding women. Nat's dedication to physical purity is a major part of the novel, especially when contrasted with his overpowering lust for a white woman. The fact that his wife was erased from the story is unsettling. If you expect an accurate depiction of Nat Turner's life, it appears you would be disappointed with this book. However, I think it does some things well: describing how the insanity of slavery damages everyone involved; revealing the carefully constructed layers of rationalization slaves and owners erect in order to live with that insanity, and what happens when those people can no longer rationalize. This is a powerful novel about the evils of slavery and one important man's journey through our history. That said, it does have problems that I will let more qualified historians deal with.(less)

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Jan 21, 2011 Patrick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can see that it would be easy to hate this novel. A white writer is Nat Turner, first person narrator. An extremely brave choice for any writer. I think I have a better understanding of why Spike Lee sniped the director's chair from a white guy for Malcolm X, at the start of the novel it's just tough to get past the fact that a white writer is spewing pages of plantation speech. However, once you do get past that the writing is wonderful. It is too bad that this will turn off readers because t...more I can see that it would be easy to hate this novel. A white writer is Nat Turner, first person narrator. An extremely brave choice for any writer. I think I have a better understanding of why Spike Lee sniped the director's chair from a white guy for Malcolm X, at the start of the novel it's just tough to get past the fact that a white writer is spewing pages of plantation speech. However, once you do get past that the writing is wonderful. It is too bad that this will turn off readers because the novel contains many of the important issues that surrounded slavery. The text deals with sexual exploitation of slaves (both male and female), the intermingling of free and bonded slaves, the variations in slave owners, the absence of any legal rights for slaves, including marriage vows, and the promises of freedom that are broken when a slave owner dies and property rights are fought for amongst the family. The piece does a thorough job of covering a wide range of the deprivations of slavery.

I didn't know much about the story, just bits and pieces, and Styron does his best Sir Walter Scott impersonation and fudges a few of the historical facts for the sake of the arc of the plot and the requisite unrequited love angle. Don't take this novel as history--I would recommend you read the original "Confessions of Nat Turner" by Mr. Gray, (that part of novel is real and the only record available of any dialogue with Mr. Turner, although there many points where you wonder if Nat would have said those things about his bondage) it is a short read and packed full of interesting information--whereas Turner was inspired by visions of the Lord throughout his life, the novel does not make this the basis of his plan and his one regret. The novel completely goes away from the interview that begins the story and the reader simply follows Nat thorughout his thirty-one years of life for the majority of the text. Gray is brought back at the end of the novel and seems like a plot device, until you read the background. (less)

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Feb 15, 2013 Kecia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: times_100_best, pulitzer_prize

This was a powerful book, one that will stay with me for a long, long time.

I was recently watchig the PBS series on the Abolitionists. In one of the programs they made a passing reference to the slave uprising led by Nat Turner. Wait? Nat Turner? Isn't that the name of one of the books on Time's 100 Best Novels list. Yes. I had never heard the story of Nat Turner. My curiousity sparked, I moved The Confessions of Nat Turner to the front of the line.

Before I started reading I surveyed reviews her...more This was a powerful book, one that will stay with me for a long, long time.

I was recently watchig the PBS series on the Abolitionists. In one of the programs they made a passing reference to the slave uprising led by Nat Turner. Wait? Nat Turner? Isn't that the name of one of the books on Time's 100 Best Novels list. Yes. I had never heard the story of Nat Turner. My curiousity sparked, I moved The Confessions of Nat Turner to the front of the line.

Before I started reading I surveyed reviews here on Good Reads. I quickly realized that there is a brohaha over the story. Styron fictionalized Nat's story. OK, that happens all the time. What's the big deal? When I went to the library to check the book out, I found it in the FICTION section. Isn't that a clue that this is not non-fiction? And while all of this occuring the news is full of similar stories, historians want the movie Lincoln changed to correct historical inaccuracies...because...I dunno, someone may think it's a documentary? Politicians want parts of Zero Dark Thirty changed because they say it is not accurate. Again, it's a movie! Then there was the Manly Library in Sydney who joked that they were moving Lance Armstrong's books to fiction. I once had an argument with my Dad over the movie The Last Temptation of Christ. He simply could understand the concept of a metaphor. Sigh.

What's a girl to do? This girl read Styron's novel as if it was a novel. Gasp! Seriously, I read it as fiction. But I also requested the actual confessions (or rather the historical version) of Nat Turner from the library. Enough of that.

There are those who believe in the unfallable righteousness of the United States, but our country's story has some really dark chapters. Perhaps no chapter is darker than the years in which humans could legally be held in bondage and treated as only 3/5ths human.

The story is told in the first person and I found it to be intensely personal. With each page I turned I was side by side with Nat. Listening to the story of his relegious fanatasim and the ever growing rage. Oh the rage! I felt the rage in my bones...but my 21st century privilege wanted Nat to back down. Live your life as an example Nat, not as an excuse.

This is a beautifully told and powerful novel. Nat (the fictional Nat) will stay with me for a long, long time.

(less)

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Jun 11, 2012 Dominic rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic-literature, pulitzer-prize

The Confessions of Nat Turner is my first Styron novel, and it proves that Styron is a true writer's writer. It is undeniable that he composes some utterly breathtaking prose. As for the story, which takes the scant historical fact of slave rebellion leader Nat Turner and turns it into a bold feat of writerly imagination, it is disturbing, haunting, and totally engrossing. In a way, Nat Turner is the link connecting two other masterworks of Southern Literature (a genre fast becoming my favorite)...more

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Apr 18, 2012 wally rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: styron

This will be the...3rd from Styron I've read, the 2nd recent, Set This House on Fire, and the first in the somewhat distant past, Sophie's Choice.

There is an Author's Note at the start, a note telling about an August, 1831 revolt that took place in a remote region of southeastern Virginia, the only sustained revolt in the annals of American Negro slavery. Sounds like this story here is based somewhat on that revolt. Styron says this is less a "historical novel" in conventional terms than a medi...more

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Jan 13, 2012 Dale rated it 5 of 5 stars

A controversial winner of the 1967 Pulitzer Prize

Here we are, 34 years later and The Confessions of Nat Turner is still in the news. Most recently, Henry Louis Gates, Jr made comments (positive ones, now. Originally negative impressions, years ago) about the book. The primary controversy is quite simple - how can a white man, a southerner, and the descendent of slave owners write a novel about one of the few slaves who actually stood up and demanded his freedom by leading a rebellion? Some have...more

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Oct 08, 2011 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

It's not for me to comment on the debate about this book stirred by Black Nationalists, much as I guess it wasn't for Styron to try to participate in a debate on black liberation in the 1960s when Black Nationalism was coming into its own.
Regardless, this is a great book, which maybe after all these years can get a reading. If it were written by an African-American writer it might be considered one of the American classics. So many of the points it makes could have been rallied to during the 196...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Howard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone over 16

Recommended to Howard by: Jacopetti & Prosperi

A real page turner, I'd recommend it to just about anyone over 16. Never less than interesting. A 5 star book in some ways, docked a notch for failing to convince me that the story could actually have happened the way it's told by Styron. The Nat Turner we get to know through 2/3 of the book is too decent and reasonable and shrewd to concoct and execute such a hopeless, lunatic plan of revenge against "all white people." Even his religious idiosyncrasies don't explain how he might have felt comp...more

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Feb 25, 2011 L rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was both more entertaining and more graphic than I was expecting it to be. I expected some kind of dry, fact-by-fact account of an event in the history of the U.S. Instead, this book brought Nat Turner to life for me. The author states in the foreword that he had very little to draw from when creating the novel; therefore, he took liberties.

I have no idea why this novel (fiction, mind you) is labeled "racist" by so many. I found myself caring for Nat and although not condoning his actions a...more

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Apr 15, 2009 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

An amazing story...written in such a way that the tension builds and builds and finally explodes in Turner's killing of Margaret Whitehead.

I suspect that this novel had the effect of a bomb when published...for so many reasons. Firsst of all, a white man writing from the point of view of a black man in the 1960s must have been controversial. Furthermore, the black man that Mr. Styron chose to inhabit was a man who stirs great emotion on both sides of the racial line.

What was most shocking and ef...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Jamie VW rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 03, 2012 Lynn Demarest rated it 4 of 5 stars

The novel is a first-person recounting of the life of Nat Turner, leader of a failed slave rebellion in 1831.

Despite its relatively flattering depiction of Turner -- during the rampage Nat manages to kill only one white, a mortally injured woman who begs him to end her suffering -- Styron was accused of bigotry. How anyone can get that impression from reading this story is beyond me, but I'm often befuddled by people.

Two things in the book came off as false. First, a slave owner is upset becaus...more

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Jun 07, 2009 Chad rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I won't really go into whether or not Styron has the right, as a rich white guy, to tell the story of the black slave, Nat Turner. Nor will I engage with those who cry foul at the historical accuracy of these "Confessions". Those that harp on such things are missing the point of this work.

To the extent that 'the point' is obvious (which it isn't, necessarily), Styron seems to have set out to explore the true story of a fascinating event in the history of American slavery, and to use it to descri...more I won't really go into whether or not Styron has the right, as a rich white guy, to tell the story of the black slave, Nat Turner. Nor will I engage with those who cry foul at the historical accuracy of these "Confessions". Those that harp on such things are missing the point of this work.

To the extent that 'the point' is obvious (which it isn't, necessarily), Styron seems to have set out to explore the true story of a fascinating event in the history of American slavery, and to use it to describe and illuminate the life and culture of that time, and whether it is right to do so or not, the psychological goings-on of a slave living in the midst of that dark era of US history.

The author makes no claims to definitive historical accuracy, and indeed, says in a very straight-forward introduction, that most of what is written is conjecture.

I judge this novel, then, based solely on how it says what it says, and what impression it leaves upon me. And on those merits, I grant it an easy 5 stars.

What does it say? Well, it mostly shows how horrible and degrading life was for slaves. The black characters in this volume are treated with such sub-human apathy, and have been for so long, that they themselves begin to buy into their less-than-human status. Nat begins to show open disdain for the less educated slaves, not because he hates who they are in any racist sort of way, but because they have accepted the popular white notion that they are inferior to white people. Nat, having unwittingly stumbled into a slightly higher condition of living, has a unique perspective, complete with literacy and a modest dignity that even he reluctantly relinquishes when he finds himself in certain social situations.

The most startling thing I found while reading was that not all the white characters were slave-driving villians. Many of the white characters are quite sympathetic in their liberal beliefs that slaves could possible be educated and raised to a higher status. Indeed, it is through such a benefactor that Nat attains his education. But rather than creating a dichotomy between 'good' white people and 'bad', it merely creates a burdonsome grey area, as even the sympathetic white characters do much to progress the cause of emancipation. After the slaughter that he instigates is over, this fictional Nat seems only to regret one of the killings, and that is of a beautiful young white girl who seemed to treat him with great kindness and respect. But even she treated Nat almost more as a pet than as a human being.

It is easy to see how a black man from the 1830's would find such vengeance in his heart after being given a chance to take an honest and raw look at the situation as it stood. The magic of this book is that William Styron leads the reader through these thought processes, and shows how the heroic and religious Nat Turner could come to the conclusions he did.

Finally, after reading this work, as well as the rather fascinating "The Bondwoman's Narrative" (a novel written by an actual escaped slave in the 1860's), and seeing how ingrained into popular thinking were slavery and its racist justifications, it is almost impossible to imagine that we, as a society, found our way out of it. It's no wonder that 150 years later, there is still dormant biases lying just under the surface.

Is this book historically accurate? Only in so far as Nat Turner was a real man and he lead a real rebellion and murdered real people. Does that take away from the power of this novel? No. "The Confessions of Nat Turner" is an enlightening read that shines a light on a very dark aspect of our national past. I'm very glad I read it.(less)

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Feb 27, 2012 Val rated it 1 of 5 stars

I enjoyed William Styron's Sophie's Choice very much, but Confessions was so dense. Maybe dense isn't the right term. Too many words. Too many asides. Too much. Just couldn't get into it.

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Feb 24, 2012 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

A gripping and multifaceted tale that contained many interesting and compelling observations. It was very curious that both the slave, Nat Turner, and his owners were Christian, and each used the bible to support their points of view. Nat found justification for armed and violent revolt in the bible, and the slave owners found a defense of slavery within the pages of the same holy book. Also, the novel forces the reader to realize just how astonishing it was that so few slave uprisings occurred...more

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