Hottentot Venus: A Novel

344 Pages·2003·43.343 MB·English

by  Barbara Chase-Riboud

m\ ^urPrice
I $?. *
BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SALLY HEMINGS
I .S. $24.00/Canada$36.00
From the bestselling author of Sally Hemings
comes an extraordinary new novel based on the
true story of Sarah Baartraan, a South African
herdswoman exhibited as a "scientific curiosity"
in the capitals ofnineteenth-century Europe.
Barbara Chase-Riboud's previous historical
novels uoii her critical praise and established
her as a writer who daringly transforms the
hidden truths of the past into compelling
fiction. In Hottentot Venus, Chase-Riboud
recounts the tragic life ofSarah Baartman, re-creating
in vivid, shocking detail the racism and sexism at the
heart ofEuropeanimperialism.
Born in the colony ofGood Hope, South Africa, in
1789, SarahBaartmanwastakentoLondonattheageof
twenty by an English surgeon, who promised her fame
and fortune. Dubbed the "Hottentot Venus," she was
paraded naked in Piccadilly in a freak-showexhibition
and subjected to the unabashed stares and crude com-
ments ofthe British public, which resulted in a sensa-
tional trial forhercustody by British abolitionists. Soon
—
afterward, however, Baartman'skeeper whomayhave
—
been her husband sold her to a French circus owner.
In 1814 her new owner took her to Paris as part ofan
exotic animal circus, to be displayed to French high
society. Baartman endured unconscionable exploitation
and cruelty as medical experts and leading scientists
touted her as an example ofprimitiveevolution because
ofhergenital "apron" and herprominent buttocks.
In an unforgettablesagathat rangesfromCapetown
to St. Helena to London to Paris and back to Africa,
Chase-Riboud has created a Dickensian portrait ofthis
icon of scientific racism, whose body, sex, and brain
Were exploited. examined, and dissected to become a
—
synonym for ugliness and brutality the absolute
negation of European beauty, which even today taints
our Western concepts of humanity. Sarah, the tragic
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Hottentot Venus

Also by Barbara Chase-Riboud
From Memphis & Peking
Portrait of a Nude Woman as Cleopatra
Untitled Collected Poems (forthcoming)
:
Sally Hemings A Novel
:
Valide A Novel of the Harem
:
Echo of Lions A Novel of the Amistad
:
Roman Egyptien (in French)
The Presidents Daughter
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Hottentot Venus
Barbara Ghase-Riboud
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PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY
adivisionofRandom House,Inc.
DOUBLEDAY andtheportrayalofananchorwith adolphin areregistered
trademarksofRandomHouse,Inc.
Thisbookis aworkoffiction.Anyreferences topeople,locations,andevents
areinspiredbyhistoryorareinventionsofthe author's imagination.Apartfrom
historicalfigures,anyresemblancebetweenthesecharacters and actualpersons,living
ordead,ispurelycoincidental.
Book design by Dana Leigh Treglia
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-PublicationData
Chase-Riboud,Barbara.
—
HottentotVenus : anovel/byBarbaraChase-Riboud. 1sted.
— p. cm.— —
1.Ba—artman, S—arah Fiction.2.Women—SouthAfrica Fiction.—3. South
Africans Europe—Fiction.4. SouthAf—rica Fiction.5. Exp—loitation Fiction.
6.Women,Black Fiction. 7. Racism Fiction. 8. Europe Fiction.I.Tide.
PS3553.H336H682003
811'.54—dc21
2003048907
ISBN0-385-50856-5
Copyright©2003 byBarbaraChase-Riboud
All Rights Reserved
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
November2003
FirstEdition
13579 8642
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