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The bondswoman
HALF-NAKED AND IN CHAINS...
a long-legged black woman stands on the auction block. Her name is Hillaby. Torn from her home in Barbados and thrust into the grim world of colonial Plymouth, she looks into the eyes that leer at her with Pruitanical rage and greedy lust. One man answers her gaze. He is Robert Stanhope, a landowner of strong character and sexual appetite, who buys her to save her from certain death -- an dto make her his mistress.
In her master's arms, Hillaby finds a passion as unquenchable as her own. But her desire for freedom is even greater than her desire for Robert, and the two lovers are soon locked in a tumultuous duel of romance and domination, humiliation and sexual need.
Hillaby is THE BONDSWOMAN -- a fiercely proud woman who fights for her self-esteem in an age when all women, black and white, are treated as slaves.
a long-legged black woman stands on the auction block. Her name is Hillaby. Torn from her home in Barbados and thrust into the grim world of colonial Plymouth, she looks into the eyes that leer at her with Pruitanical rage and greedy lust. One man answers her gaze. He is Robert Stanhope, a landowner of strong character and sexual appetite, who buys her to save her from certain death -- an dto make her his mistress.
In her master's arms, Hillaby finds a passion as unquenchable as her own. But her desire for freedom is even greater than her desire for Robert, and the two lovers are soon locked in a tumultuous duel of romance and domination, humiliation and sexual need.
Hillaby is THE BONDSWOMAN -- a fiercely proud woman who fights for her self-esteem in an age when all women, black and white, are treated as slaves.
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 9, 2017
Despite the cover (which is so delightfully tawdry), this isn't a romance novel. It's not a bodice ripper. It's not plantation porn. Rather, it's an unreliable narrator study combined with Shakespearean tragedy & a bit of colonial religious philosophy.
Our heroine is Hillaby, a mixed-blood gal from Barbados. She's purchased on the Plymouth auction block by Robert Stanhope, who's one of the more disturbing examples of a narrator who's completely & totally obsessed with how great he is. He shares the page time with Hillaby herself, allowing the reader to witness their reluctant love degenerate & ruin multiple lives in the process.
The problem is that Robert is a hypocritical douchebag with an ego the size of Jupiter. He's SO MUCH BETTER than the mere animals of humanity & therefore his self-serving plans aren't self-serving at all, but rather an indication of how awesome he is. The rest of Plymouth might see him a coldblooded asshole, but who cares? They're ignorant peons with no right to breathe the same air. He'll screw his slave & then his wife will give him a son because God has decreed him exactly that fabulous!
...You think I'm exaggerating? Not at all. Robert is genuinely frightening in his unequivocal assurance of his own superiority.
Needless to say, I hated him & hoped someone would impale his head on a pike. :D He's such a blatant dickhead that the author's juxtaposition is clear; he's the black to Hillaby's white (no pun intended). The reader can't help echoing other characters' shock that she would try to paint him in any kind of positive light, which she insists on doing -- not because he isn't a hypocritical douche, but for the sake of the love they so briefly shared despite said douchery. She's an interesting character, most definitely, but she's eclipsed by the chainsaw fodder that is Robert, & her voice gets lost as the reader treks through his seemingly endless journal.
To that end, I offer a strong caveat. Do not read this book unless you appreciate the art of unpleasant and/or unreliable narrators. Seriously. You'll do yourself an injury if you enter Robert's head with anything less than a shaker of salt, & the bleak WTFery of the ending is too much when piled upon an already humorless book. There are also several pages of Quakerism that try to balance Robert's darkness, yet end up sounding like an authorial mouthpiece.
4 stars. It's well-written overall (despite losing steam in the last third) & I tore through at a rapid pace...but it isn't something I'm keen to read again.
Our heroine is Hillaby, a mixed-blood gal from Barbados. She's purchased on the Plymouth auction block by Robert Stanhope, who's one of the more disturbing examples of a narrator who's completely & totally obsessed with how great he is. He shares the page time with Hillaby herself, allowing the reader to witness their reluctant love degenerate & ruin multiple lives in the process.
The problem is that Robert is a hypocritical douchebag with an ego the size of Jupiter. He's SO MUCH BETTER than the mere animals of humanity & therefore his self-serving plans aren't self-serving at all, but rather an indication of how awesome he is. The rest of Plymouth might see him a coldblooded asshole, but who cares? They're ignorant peons with no right to breathe the same air. He'll screw his slave & then his wife will give him a son because God has decreed him exactly that fabulous!
...You think I'm exaggerating? Not at all. Robert is genuinely frightening in his unequivocal assurance of his own superiority.
Needless to say, I hated him & hoped someone would impale his head on a pike. :D He's such a blatant dickhead that the author's juxtaposition is clear; he's the black to Hillaby's white (no pun intended). The reader can't help echoing other characters' shock that she would try to paint him in any kind of positive light, which she insists on doing -- not because he isn't a hypocritical douche, but for the sake of the love they so briefly shared despite said douchery. She's an interesting character, most definitely, but she's eclipsed by the chainsaw fodder that is Robert, & her voice gets lost as the reader treks through his seemingly endless journal.
To that end, I offer a strong caveat. Do not read this book unless you appreciate the art of unpleasant and/or unreliable narrators. Seriously. You'll do yourself an injury if you enter Robert's head with anything less than a shaker of salt, & the bleak WTFery of the ending is too much when piled upon an already humorless book. There are also several pages of Quakerism that try to balance Robert's darkness, yet end up sounding like an authorial mouthpiece.
4 stars. It's well-written overall (despite losing steam in the last third) & I tore through at a rapid pace...but it isn't something I'm keen to read again.
January 31, 2018
I agree with my friend's Sarah's review (I will link when I'm on my computer soon). This book is a lot better than I was expecting. I also appreciate an unreliable narrator.
July 29, 2018
Hacia mucho no leía novela histórica, pero esta me encanto, porque la protagonista lejos de ser una victima como esclava tiene una voluntad y sabiduría de oro y hará todo lo necesario para ser libre. Ella me encanto hasta el final, al final me decepciona un poco por la fortaleza con que l relato avanza y los giros en la trama. Sin embargo lo disfrute muchísimo hasta las ultimas 20 pag
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews