Clotel: Reading Schedule and Background Information

[Frances, Moderator]

Thank you to everyone who has expressed interest in joining this reading of Clotel: or, The President's Daughterwith us.

I will be using a Penguin Classics Edition which I believe was published in 2001. It comes with an introduction by M Giulia Fabi and is based on the first published edition of 1853. It has three appendices which contain the endings of the novel's subsequent three American editions, which I will read and discuss in the final week, assuming some/all of you also have copies of them.

I've noticed that my edition also has a section after the preface titled Narrative of the Life and Escape of William Wells Brown which is not in every edition which I've been able to sample online, and was written by WWB himself, which I think would be interesting to read as well. I will plan this for the first week and hope some of you will have this in your editions.

I look forward to discussing this novel with you.

[Frances, Moderator]

Reading Schedule:

Week 1: July 17-23: Preface and Narrative of the Life and Escape of WWB.
Week 2: July 24-30: Ch 1-8
Week 3: July 31-Aug 6: Ch 9-18
Week 4: Aug 7-13: Ch 19-25
Week 5: Aug 14-20: Ch 26-31
Week 6: Aug 21-Sept 3: Appendices A, B, C and final thoughts.

[Brian E]

Frances wrote: "I will be using a Penguin Classics Edition ... I've noticed that my edition also has a section after the preface titled Narrative of the Life and Escape of William Wells Brown which is not in every edition. "

Frances wrote: "Reading Schedule:
Week 1: July 17-23: Preface and Narrative of the Life and Escape of WWB.. . .
Week 6: Aug 21-Sept 3: Appendices A, B, C and final thoughts...."

I had checked on Amazon and the only Kindle I found with the "Narrative" was the Penguin one. The free Kindle and 99 cent indles I bought did not have that narrative - and neither did 3 other Kindles I checked out.
But you should be aware that the two Kindles also did not have the Appendices A, B and C that the Penguin kindle and paperback editions had. It is my understanding that these three Appendices contain Brown's alternative endings.

I rely on buying free or 99 cent Kindles for the reads in this group to help balance my spending so much on more modern books. I've already spent the extra money to get the Oxford edition of Belinda since I thought it important to have the earlier edition rather than the sanitized third edition. I won't be shelling out the extra $12 for the Penguin edition of this book.

This is not a problem, however. Those of us without that material can skip Week 1 and Week 6 if we want and just participate in the 4 weeks of the actual story. Or, as I will likely do, check out the week 1 and 6 discussions to see what the Brown Narrative and the Appendices contain. I am especially interested in what the alternative endings are but will be satisfied with reading the group's descriptions rather than spending $12 to get the source material myself.

[Rosemarie, Moderator]

There are also several ebook versions with just the book for under three dollars from applebooks.

[Frances, Moderator]

Agreed, Brian, unfortunately when we read some of the less well known classics there aren't the great free editions such as those for Trollope or Dickens which I've come to rely on for many of our reads. As you've said, I'm hoping that this format will make it easy for those who don't have the additional material to join for the central 4 weeks.

[Robin P, Moderator]

I use an app that links to Gutenberg editions for free, I generally don't want to purchase new editions of all the books, so if I'm missing something I figure the discussion will fill me in.

[Alice]

I also downloaded a free or very inexpensive (can’t remember which now!) edition on my Kobo, with no extras. But in the library I’ve found a Library of America edition which starts with something called “Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave.” It’s about 50 pages long, and I’m guessing it might be the same narrative. Unfortunately I don’t see any alternative endings for the novel in this LoA edition, though.

[Alice]

A Library of America collection entitled Slave Narratives containing the WWB narrative, alongside nine others, is on sale through Kobo for $1.99. At least it was yesterday! I’m not sure about the Kindle version, but imagine it would probably also be on sale since I think it’s the publisher setting the terms of the sale, not Amazon or Kobo. Just an FYI for anyone interested:)

[Frances, Moderator]

I just found this online which appears to have not only the full text of the Narrative of WWB but also the text of Clotel (but not the appendices). I've done some random checking with my paperback and the narrative appears to be the full text.

https://digitalpublications.brown.edu...

[Alice]

Thank you, Frances—that’s a helpful resource.

[Kristen]

Looking forward to this read, and participating. It’s been several years since I’ve been able to join in group reads here. I checked out Clotel from the library but it’s in an anthology that does not include the other narrative mentioned.

[Frances, Moderator]

Glad to have you joining Kristen-I think the link in message 8 will at least get you the first section.

[Kristen]

I just finished reading Clotel and my mind is blown. I cannot get over how incredibly bold writing this book at the time it was written was. Also, I’m very surprised I had never before heard of this book. Had anyone else here been unaware of this work?

[Brian E]

Kristen wrote: "I just finished reading Clotel and my mind is blown. I cannot get over how incredibly bold writing this book at the time it was written was. Also, I’m very surprised I had never before heard of thi..."

I've known about Clotel for several years but only learned about it from discussions on Goodreads. If I had not joined Goodreads, I doubt if I would have been exposed to the book.
There are many books that I have discovered on Goodreads that I casually refer to in discussions on here yet would never refer to in non-Goodreads discussions since the other people likely haven't heard of them.

EDIT: I checked and I first heard of the book when it was nominated as a Group Read in this Group in a poll posted to this site on November 29, 2019. So I've known about the book for 2 1/2 years. Then it was nominated again in December of 2021. That time I voted for it but it lost out to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This is a good example of the type of book the moderator's choice is designed to catch.

[Frances, Moderator]

I'm so glad there is such interest in reading this-looking forward to discussing here.

[Robin P, Moderator]

I had never heard of it until now. That has been true of a number of books in this group, even though I had studied and read a lot of English, American, and European literature. Those tended to be from the "canon" of famous authors. It's lucky we can get these books through Gutenberg and other sources because they are the type that wouldn't be reprinted for sale.