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| The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings (Penguin Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Olaudah Equiano
Creator: Vincent Carretta
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £3.31
You Save: £6.68 (67%)
New (40) from £3.31
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 86135
Media: Paperback
Edition: Revised
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0142437166
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.362092
EAN: 9780142437162
ASIN: 0142437166
Publication Date: September 25, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 4 - 5 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, UK *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Nice book - well written - exciting... April 16, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a great book, and is a great story.
It is strong most of the way through, until he gets a bit too religious and starts preaching his religious philiosphy.
It is extremely clear and easy to read, and the story keeps moving at a swift pace.
Give the intro a miss though, and dive straight into Olaudah's book.
Equiano's Interesting Narrative December 25, 2006
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
A seminal work, and a highly accessible one. The narrative covers the author's life from his kidnapping in west Africa at an early age, through is experiences as a slave-commodity, to his settlement in England as a free human being.
Although he could be accused of egotism in calling the account of his life 'The Interesting Narrative' this description is well merited. More than this though, this is a carefully paced political pamphlet in the struggle against the slave trade and against slavery itself. Speaking in the most engaging of voices (Equiano is, one feels, a man whose company in coffee house or tavern would be sought after; he comes across as a likeable man) we are taken through the arguments around slavery, but always in a very human dimension i.e. we become aware of the personal cost of slavery and not only of it as a political issue. He takes into account the then current view that a benevolent owner is possible, then firmly knocks that half-way view on the head by exposing slavery in any form as against all that is civilised.
The Narrative can be read on a number of levels: anti-slavery tract; adventure story; Black history; naval history; social history. Incidentally, as a white Englishman I should not like to see this Narrative parcelled up and pigeon-holed as exclusively Black History; this is part of my history as an Englishman and should be on the school national curriculum. The anti-slavery movement was the first recognisably modern political pressure grouping, in that it comprised politicians (Wilberforce etc), supporters (Wedgwood etc), and those who were most directly affected by it (slaves and former slaves). Their alliance held strongly enough and long enough for anti-slavery laws to be passed, albeit over an agonisingly long period. This text is central to that struggle, not least by reminding us that the well-fed Wilberforce was only the Establishment tip of the iceberg, and that alongside such Establishment figures was a vocal, intelligent body of former slaves who had risen against the most formidable odds to positions of influence.
My only reservation about this Penguin edition relates to the notes at the end. For a number of years now, Penguin have been publishing editions (and indeed, translations) for English speakers on the premise that addressing the lowest common denominator (American readers) will satisfy everyone. This results in some deeply patronising explanations of the blindingly obvious for example does an adult really need to be told:
Plantain: a type of banana
Stout: strong or powerful
Teneriffe: largest of the Canary Islands
...and so on.
As ever with notes prepared by an apparently American academic, I would urge readers to ignore the notes and just read the Narrative itself.
 A look through a real slaves eyes November 2, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Whilst this was a fascinating book, and the authors account vivid, I feel that it lacked its focus towards the end due to his conversion to Christianity. It seemed to make the author forget his horrors and at some parts he was almost thankful to have been a slave because he found God!! I feel this was probably a tactical approach to make readers at the time favour his story and help to abolish slavery, but i felt that it distracted from what it was really about which was the horrors of slavery. I would have loved to seen what became of him, as I felt the book ended rather abruptly. In particular his marriage to a white lady at that period in time. However, it was a good read and a must for all those interested in that period in history. Another book to read would be about Mary Prince, which I feel is more frank.
Well-written account of the life of an ex-slave May 3, 2002
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
Olaudah Equiano provides an excellent account not just of his life as a slave, but also how an ex-slave was treated in the eighteenth century. He led an extremely eventful life, but had a luckier start than most because he was bought by owners who actually treated their slaves as humans rather than animals. It is made plain in this an other first hand accounts (eg Mary Prince) that these were the exception rather than the rule.
There is always the impression that once a slave obtained his freedom his troubles were over, but Equiano shows us that that was not in fact the case. In many instances he had goods stolen from him by white men in the West Indies and had no recourse to the law in those islands.
He had an adventurous life as a sailor, travelling at one stage on a British Arctic expedition in the bomb-ketch Racehorse, not realising that an obscure midshipman in the companion ship Carcass was to go on to be known as Admiral Lord Nelson!
I was riveted through much of the narrative, but it became turgid at the end as Equiano discovered religion in a big way and the final chapters largely consist of biblical extracts, prayers, and poems about his religious feelings. In his description of his attitude to Christianity, he became insufferable, with an attitude of superiority to his less Christian brethren and an overwhelming concern for the fate of his immortal soul.
I would rate this book more highly if it were not for the final chapters which I consider tedious to all but the extremely religious. Nevertheless, the book is enjoyable and highly educational. I would recommend it to the private reader and as a text for a school history class.
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