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Beatrice Chancy
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.
160 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2001
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About the author
George Elliott Clarke
75 books90 followersA seventh-generation Nova Scotian, George Elliott Clarke was born in 1960 in Windsor Plans, Nova Scotia. He is known as a poet, as well as for his two-volume anthology of Black Writing from Nova Scotia, Fire in the Water. Volume One contains spirituals, poety sermons, and accounts from 1789 to the mid-twentieth century; Volume Two collects the work of the Black Cultural Renaissance in Nova Scotia, which, in Clarke's words, "speaks to people everywhere about overcoming hardships and liberating the spirit." Currently on faculty at Duke University, he is now writing both a play and an opera on slavery in Nova Scotia, a reformulation of Shelley's The Cenci. He has won many awards including the 1981 Prize for Adult Poetry from the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia, he was the 1983 first runner-up for the Bliss Carman Award for Poetry at the Banff Centre School of Arts and 1991 winner of the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry from the Ottawa Independent Writers.
Books: Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues (Pottersfield, 1983); Whylah Falls (Polestar, 1990, 2000); Provencal Songs (Magnum Book Store, 1993); Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems, 1978-1993 (Pottersfield, 1994); Provencal Songs II (Above/ground, 1997); Whylah Falls: The Play (Playwrights Canada, 1999, 2000); Beatrice Chancy (Polstar Books, 1999); Gold Indigoes (Carolina Wren, 2000); Execution Poems (Gaspereau, 2001); Blue (Raincoat, 2001); Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature (UofT Press, 2002)
Books: Saltwater Spirituals and Deeper Blues (Pottersfield, 1983); Whylah Falls (Polestar, 1990, 2000); Provencal Songs (Magnum Book Store, 1993); Lush Dreams, Blue Exile: Fugitive Poems, 1978-1993 (Pottersfield, 1994); Provencal Songs II (Above/ground, 1997); Whylah Falls: The Play (Playwrights Canada, 1999, 2000); Beatrice Chancy (Polstar Books, 1999); Gold Indigoes (Carolina Wren, 2000); Execution Poems (Gaspereau, 2001); Blue (Raincoat, 2001); Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature (UofT Press, 2002)
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 27, 2017
Potent. Heartbreaking. Terrifying and Terrible.
January 21, 2010
How I Came To Read This Book: My Can Lit university course was divided into Prairie (yawn) and Maritime literature – this play fell into the latter.
The Plot: Beatrice is the daughter of a brutal slave master and his black slave in 19th Century Nova Scotia. Admired by many and considered a great beauty, her father / master rapes her, and Beatrice and her mother conspire to murder said father/master. Pretty simple right?
The Good & The Bad: This play contains some of the most lovely sections of prose I’ve ever read, like a modern-day Shakespeare, particularly when describing Beatrice. Speaking of the playwright, the story also channels many of the elements of Hamlet / MacBeth to make for a great albeit familiar storyline of revenge, murder, incest, and power. The Canadian setting, particularly as we’ve typically been considered a peaceful, non-slave nation, makes for a striking showcase of a dark period in our history that’s perhaps often overlooked. It can be a bit challenging to read at times because it’s not just written in plain old English, but in general this was a good play.
The Bottom Line: An interesting piece of Canadian playwriting.
Anything Memorable?: I wrote my final paper in the course on this book, and I didn’t do very well on it. Let this be a lesson to thee – ALWAYS pick the book that has the most supporting critical literature on it, you will ALWAYS do better with more sources to reference and learn from. Beatrice Chancy is unfortunately a little-known play.
50-Book Challenge?: Nope.
The Plot: Beatrice is the daughter of a brutal slave master and his black slave in 19th Century Nova Scotia. Admired by many and considered a great beauty, her father / master rapes her, and Beatrice and her mother conspire to murder said father/master. Pretty simple right?
The Good & The Bad: This play contains some of the most lovely sections of prose I’ve ever read, like a modern-day Shakespeare, particularly when describing Beatrice. Speaking of the playwright, the story also channels many of the elements of Hamlet / MacBeth to make for a great albeit familiar storyline of revenge, murder, incest, and power. The Canadian setting, particularly as we’ve typically been considered a peaceful, non-slave nation, makes for a striking showcase of a dark period in our history that’s perhaps often overlooked. It can be a bit challenging to read at times because it’s not just written in plain old English, but in general this was a good play.
The Bottom Line: An interesting piece of Canadian playwriting.
Anything Memorable?: I wrote my final paper in the course on this book, and I didn’t do very well on it. Let this be a lesson to thee – ALWAYS pick the book that has the most supporting critical literature on it, you will ALWAYS do better with more sources to reference and learn from. Beatrice Chancy is unfortunately a little-known play.
50-Book Challenge?: Nope.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews