The Infamous Rosalie

by Evelyne Trouillot, M.A. Salvodon (Translator), Edwidge Danticat (Foreword)

Lisette, a Saint-Domingue-born Creole slave and daughter of an African-born bossale, has inherited not only the condition of slavery but the traumatic memory of the Middle Passage as well. The stories told to her by her grandmother and godmother, including the horrific voyage aboard the infamous slave ship Rosalie, have become part of her own story, the one she tells in this haunting novel by the acclaimed Haitian writer Évelyne Trouillot.

Inspired by the colonial tale of an African midwife who kept a cord of some seventy knots, each one marking a child she had killed at birth, the novel transports us back to Saint-Domingue, before it became Haiti. The year is 1750, and a rash of poisonings is sowing fear among the plantation masters, already unsettled by the unrest caused by Makandal, the legendary Maroon leader. Through this tumultuous time, Lisette struggles to maintain her dignity and to imagine a future for her unborn child. In telling Lisette's story, Trouillot gives the revolution that will soon rock the island a human face and at long last sheds light on the invisible women and men of Haitian history.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, France, College, Book Club, Historical, Read For School

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Evelyne Trouillot was born, lives and works in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her first novel Rosalie l’infâme was awarded the Prix Soroptimist de la romancière francophone, in Grenoble, France in 2004. Evelyne Trouillot has published several more novels and three collections of short stories, two books of poems, one in Creole and one in French. She has also written an essay on the situation of children and human rights in Haiti Restituer l’enfance. Her first play Le bleu de l’île received the Prix Beaumarchais, ETC Caraibes in 2005. Her novel La mémoire aux abois, presents a compelling view of the dictatorship that Haiti suffered during the Duvalier era. It received the Prix Carbet de la Caraibe et du Tout Monde in 2010. Her latest novel Absences sans frontières tells the story of a family separated by migration, but strengthened by their love and respect for one another. In 2014, Trouillot published a book of poems in France, Par la fissure de mes mots. In 2015, her latest novel Le rond point was awarded la Bourse Barbancourt, in Haiti. La memoire aux abois was translated by Paul C Daw into English under the title Memory at Bay and published by University of Virginia Press in 2015.
Several short stories by Trouillot are available in English, such as http://wordswithoutborders.org/articl....
you can see Evelyne Trouillot interview about le rond point on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak8zW...

You can read Edwidge Danticat's interview with the author at http://www.theroot.com/views/bomb-roo....

Reviews

[Stacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My heart is with Haiti today as they deal with yet another devastating earthquake. And even more so because last night I started & today I finished a short novel from Haiti for Women in Translation Month.

I found this excellent article that discusses the importance of a work like this.

... "Trouillot highlights how women’s experiences under slavery varied from men’s; she also brings to life current historiographical debates. Poetically written and intensely readable, The Infamous Rosalie is a model historical novel; it fills gaps in the archives by layering creative speculations onto historical data. And Lisette herself is an ideal companion through the plantation, so fully fleshed out that it is easy to imagine her as real." ...

Absolutely so well done. A hard & stunning book.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading up on Haitian writer Evelyne Trouillot, I came across a great interview she did with Edwidge Danticat:

http://bombsite.com/issues/90/article...

In discussing a short story of hers, she had this to say:

"We think we know our history when in fact we only know a part of it. We do not talk about the enslaved men and women, we talk about the heroes, and since most of the heroes in the traditional history books are men, we talk mostly about great men. I rather like the big mass of enslaved people, the ones I called the “invisible,” since nobody wanted to pay attention to them. And of course, there were many invisible women."

She brings those women vividly to life in The Infamous Rosalie.

As for the novel itself - I hope to put together a more eloquent review, but it's more poignant and more full of genuine pain than anything I've read recently. She knows the history of Haiti (here still Saint-Domingue) intimately, and she spares nothing; however, she brings deep, vital humanity to the "invisible" women she hoped to pull from the shadows of the brutal past - there's inspiration to be found in the horror. I hope more of her works are available soon.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some things I loved about it:

It's just about a person's experience in slavery, and that's enough: it doesn't need to be about her successful revolution, or Haiti's revolution. Lisette will die before that revolution happens, or she will be very old. It's enough just to explore the inner life of a person who is finding ways of resistance, ways to live in a world that does not actually want her to be a person.
It's unabashed in bringing to beautiful, terrible life the perspectives of women, who intimately understand the ins and outs of the institution they're enslaved in. The white men in the story have no idea what is going on in the enslaved people's heads, but by virtue of being unfree, the enslaved people completely, bitingly, mournfully understand the psyches of their masters. The story is centered on the experience of the enslaved people, but you understand the mechanics and twisted personal psychology without having to waste sympathy or empathy on the enslavers.
How short it is. Beautiful quick writing that is a little deceptively easy to breeZe through. It's a lovely reminder that sometimes I need to slow down. When I did with this novel, it was worth it!

[Richard Magrath · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a harsh, sad look at slavery from the perspective of a young woman, Lisette, living as a house-slave on the island of Saint Domingue in 1750. Trouillot writes that she immersed herself "in the historical time of the great fear of poisoning on the island of Saint Domingue and all the excesses it brought out in the relationships between human beings as well as the tragedies and horrors, atrocities and indignities, that define the institution of slavery." It is so heart-wrenching to read about the horrors of slavery and the desire all have for freedom. At one point Lisette expresses, "How can we feel both alive and dead in the kingdom of the dead, unhappy and eager to live, lost in the darkness of despair and aware of each ray of light." To desire life and freedom and happiness, and to be treated as property by owners who thought nothing of physically and sexually abusing those who were bought and sold. "I am seized by the crushing truth that I am nothing but an object at the mercy of whites...." At roughly 130 pages, this is a powerful novella that is sure to stay with you as a reader.

[Luccas Hallman]

“We accept pain like a familiar fog that from time to time lifts to let in a new mourning. The most recent loss is superimposed on the proceeding one, until a newer loss comes to replace it. Grief accumulates, and in the end we don’t know for whom we are crying, since our pain comes from so many sources. Yet on the list of the disappeared there are some who leave their shadows behind, only to return from time to time to remind us that they’ve lived and that we’ll no longer see them.”

[Eve Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVEEEEE—okay water motif and oral storytelling and Haitian beauty

[Hanaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

“These words come back to remind me that I am a slave, and it is in this truth that my strength lies. Whether a field slave or a house slave, man, woman or child, the slave is a creature who has lost his soul between the mill and the sugarcane, between the ship’s hold and its steerage, between the crinoline and the slap in the face. Shame stains our every gesture. When we place our feet, undeserving of shoes on the ground, when we let our exhausted bodies fall on cornhusk mattresses, and when we swing the bamboo fahs, we crush our souls under the weight of our shame. Only our gestures of revolt truly belong to us.”

130 pages deep, The Infamous Rosalie, titled after the slave ship Rosalie during the Middle Passage, tells the tale of Lisette, a house slave in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) living in the shadowing stories of her grandmother, godmother and the disappearing lives surrounding her. The author, Haitian herself, was inspired by the tale of an Arada midwife who killed 70 babies to protect them from the life of a slave and kept the knotted umbilical cords.

The stories are told with detail, harrowing but necessary, given the atrocities humankind (read: colonizers) enacted sickeningly proudly. Slaves were subjected to horrors on simply a whiff of suspicion that they may be involved in plots to poison their masters. I couldn’t stomach reading Lisette’s voice recount the stories of death and disappearing potential for the sake of…??? The white man? And his gluttony?

Evelyne Trouillot writes:  “I wasn’t intending to write a historical novel. May I be forgiven, then, for the few discrepancies and creative liberties I’ve taken. I only seek to acknowledge my characters’ humanity. Yet I must refuse any responsibility for the torture and punishment described in the text. They are all unfortunately true, born of the cruel and perfidious imagination of those who proclaimed themselves to be civilized.”

This is a historical novel everyone needs to have on their shelves. Be reminded, history isn’t about the heroes – that stories of those who did and did not survive must also be told. This isn’t a story of celebration but of revolution through life and death.

[Purple Iris]

I am beyond glad that this book has been translated into English. I don't love the translation, though. I wonder if it's even possible to fully appreciate a translation if you've read and loved the original. How do you read a translation without "hearing" the original in your head? And I'm sure translating this was no easy task. The original is written in very complex, intricate language. I imagine the translator was trying to be as faithful as possible to the original, but at times, it felt like it made the English text heavier than it needed to be, and confusing. Still, it's by no means a bad translation. The power of the story is not lost, even upon rereading.

Love the last paragraph of the author's afterword:

I wasn't intending to write a historical novel. May I be forgiven, then, for the few discrepencies and creative liberties I've taken. I seek only to acknowledge my characters' humanity. Yet I must refuse any responsibility for the torture and punishment described in the text. They are all unfortunately true, born of the cruel and perfidious imagination of those who proclaimed themselves to be civilized.

[〰️ Alba 〰️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absències, brutalitat, colpejos, duresa, esclavatge, fúria, gana, mort, necessitat, orgull, pèrdua, resistència, supervivència, turment… Hi ha tantes paraules que se m’han clavat durant aquesta lectura!

Molts fragments d’aquesta novel·la són dolorosos. Però, tal i com diu Trouillot, les tortures realitzades van ser reals. Per tant, malgrat el dolor crec que és interessant conèixer històries plenes de somnis, amors j anhels de llibertat com la de la Lisette.

En molts dels fragments es descriu el color de pell dels personatges. Inicialment no hi trobava cap sentit. Però em vaig adonar que ho analitzava com a persona blanca. Des d’aquest punt de vista suposo a que és quan he vist la importància de la posició en la que s’escriu. És trist, però la mirada varia en funció del color de pell, encara ara.

[Zoé · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know it's a translation, but the languages was so precise, so lovely and poetic I found myself putting post-it notes in so many passages. It's a heartbreaking story with a solid narration.

[Carine B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une lecture intéressante mais aussi terrible sur la condition des esclaves durant l’époque de la grande terreur à Saint-Domingue. On y retrouve la cruauté des hommes qui se pensent supérieurs mais surtout la résilience de ces peuples arrachés à leur terre natale ou né en esclavage. Des hommes et des femmes courageux, fiers et animés par ce profond désir de liberté.

[ೄ Amets ⚢ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"el meu amor sense termes no coneixerà mai un altre límit que el seu desig insaciable de llibertat" / "tindré la temeritat de jutjar un negre o una negra que ha reclamat el dret de mirar-se en l'aigua del riu sense entrebancar-se amb la seva vergonya?"

[Opeyemi Olagunju · Rating 4 out of 5]

literally said wow when i put the book down

[Titelle Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹⭐️.

Maintenant, tous les mots que j’allais dire se sont évanouis. Que dire ? Cette histoire a touché tout mon être à chaque passage, mes yeux se brouillaient de larmes, mon cœur se serrait. Voir ces femmes, mes sœurs, mes tantes, et mes grands-parents subir cette cruauté, être réduites à l’esclavage, voir leur liberté prise en otage…

Alors, je me dis que je dois me battre chaque jour pour les honorer, parce qu’elles n’ont pas eu la chance d’être libres. Je continuerai à vivre pour elles.

Et à chaque fois que l’envie d’abandonner me frôlera, je penserai à elles.

Ce livre ne quittera jamais mon cœur, une cicatrice douce que je garderai toujours en moi. Il m’habite, me façonne, me rappelle d’où je viens et pourquoi je dois avancer.

Ces femmes, ces hommes—qu’ils soient Créoles, Ibo, Nago ou Arada—grâce à eux, je suis fière d’être une Négresse. Grâce à eux, notre terre, Haïti, porte en elle la force et la dignité de ceux qui ont refusé de plier.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

tired to read this in the original french. i was unsuccessful, but glad to read it in translation. it is gripping. the first few pages illustrate the injuries --physical and psychological--inflicted by the system of slavery. Early in the novel, the protagonist, Lisette, witnesses Paladin's execution:

I inhabit the final spasms of Paladin, whose face, before it was turned into a mask of horror by the sizzling stake, I’m unable to reconstruct. I inhabit the fingers of this same man as he plucks the strings of his banza on a night of calendas, with the music enchanting us. I inhabit the streaks that disfigure him, from his shoulder to his ribs, long tracks of raised welts swollen with memories of the hot branding irons, and their imprints, of belonging and suffering. I inhabit the chica, dancing under the bower, prisoner of the advancing hour and the stars that herald the end of our illusory freedom. I am the wind, tethered to the ground (2-3).

A few sentences later, there is a line about the ash from Paladin's execution landing on Lisette.

[Hilary Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given what we are experiencing in the U.S, perhaps glimpsing now the legacy of slavery, this historical tale echoes and rattles. While the particulars seem unique to Haiti, the cruelty of plantation owners and dehumanization of slaves stolen from Africa is not. And yet, the main character is so deep and the author paints the emotional palette so expertly, that the book emerges as a testament to the humanity of the slaves who were determined to grab at freedom and ultimately rebel.

I must comment on the absolutely superb translation, as I felt as if I could taste the rolling quality of the original language. Sometimes books translated into English can be clunky; this one is just the opposite.

[Marina Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this novel in my Afro-Caribbean Literature class when I was a senior in college. It has haunted my mind ever since. Almost 7 years later, I'm reading it again. It hit even deeper. Evelyne Trouillot's masterpiece is a quick and easy must-read for EVERYONE. She gives us a glimpse into the daily lives of enslaved people as they search and reclaim dignity, intimacy, and ancestry. She prompts us to love each character and sympathize with the ways in which they exercised autonomy during one of the most horrific eras of world history.

[Dorothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a harrowing tale and may give you nightmares. The story is compelling and fascinating.

What is even more compelling is the storytelling itself. Evelyne Trouillot is a master. All ends nicely woven and complete and the descriptions, the writing, the scenes are as memorable as when I read Tolstoy - Anna Karenina.

I heard of this book through a French email I've subscribed to on Books by Women. I would never have come across it any other way. It's a gem.

[Charlotte Blessing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an intense story, told from the viewpoint of voices often not heard from in historical fiction.
Add this book to your list if you are interested in reading works set on the Island of Hispaniola.

This was a new writer to me and I must say I love her style of writing. Beautiful word imagery, on par with Allende.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novella inspired by the history of a midwife around the time of the Haitian revolution who killed 70 babies to prevent them from living in slavery. First person narration by a young house slave preparing for marronage. Original in French.

[Wiley R · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the English translation and it was not well written, but it was a fairly interesting book. The ending felt like a let down, though.

[Sonia Bertran Claravall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difícilment puc posar 5 estrelles a un llibre tan curtet com és L'infame Rosalie. Les meves ànsies de més, en llegir històries crues, emocionants i fins i tot a certs moments tendres, protagonitzades per personatges tan fascinants i propers com els de la novel·la, em provoquen un sentiment un pèl agredolç en finalitzar una lectura com aquesta. Per molt rodó que sigui el final i tot el que hagi gaudit del llibre. Per aquest únic motiu poso 4 estrelles, en comptes de 5, a la història de la Lisette i els seus companys de resistència.

[Aidan Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some very beautiful and poetic runs that it goes on. Humanizes the reality of the slave experience in pre-revolution Haiti. Themes of generational trauma within the institution of slavery are important and strike a definitive emotional chord. Beautifully written, but felt like there were some translation errors here and there that muddled my understanding of some details.

[Sissel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could read this book, but it is just something about mixing first person narrator with present tense that just makes it impossible for me. But this doesn’t seem to be a problem for other people, so give it a try

[Abi Bowering · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre tellement triste, pleine de douleur. Mais l’écriture si lyrique me calme pendant les vagues de haine. Alors c’est un peu une contradiction qui m’intéresse entre le contenu et le style d’écriture. J’aime bien le développement des personnages qu’on voit avec les yeux de Lisette.

[Jonah Gold · Rating 4 out of 5]

short and sweet. it’s important to read stories of haiti pre revolution. lisette is an ominous narrator who handles the horrors of colonialism inquisitively and fiercely. i enjoyed the most the playing with the timeline through generational story telling the author does. the ending was fierce too

[Fanny Prevost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intéressant roman, d'une zone géographique et un moment historique peu exploités littérairement. Certes, difficile à lire à certains passages à cause des atrocités que les esclaves subissaient, mais le récit est entraînant et les personnages présentent une force féroce qui devient bouleversante.

[Jordan Holoman · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no fluff in this book! It's a quick read, and every sentence is important.

[Mongooze1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful

[Purple Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still beautiful and powerful. Love the new cover.