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Product Details
Washington Square Press, September 2003
Trade Paperback, 384 pages
ISBN-10: 0743410106
ISBN-13: 9780743410106
Description
WINNER OF THE 2003 PEN OAKLAND JOSEPHINE MILES AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING WRITING AND THE BLACK CAUCUS OF THE ALA LITERARY AWARD
Frederick Douglass, the great African-American abolitionist, was a man who cherished freedom in life and in love. In this ambitious work of historical fiction, Douglass' passions come vividly to life in the form of two women: Anna Murray Douglass and Ottilie Assing.
Douglass' Women is an imaginative rendering of these two women -- one black, the other white -- in Douglass' life. Anna, his wife, was a free woman of color who helped Douglass escape as a slave. She bore Douglass five children and provided him with a secure, loving home while he traveled the world with his message. Along the way, Douglass satisfied his intellectual needs in the company of Ottilie Assing, a white woman of German-Jewish descent, who would become his mistress for decades to come. How these two women find solidarity in their shared love for Douglass -- and his vision for a free America -- is at the heart of Jewell Parker Rhodes' extraordinary, epic novel.
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Browse Inside Douglass' WomenThe Washington Post
[A] courageous and beautiful book.
Charles Johnson
[A] passionate, moving novel that explores the place where American history intersects with the human heart.
Whoopi Goldberg
Once again Jewell Parker Rhodes takes us someplace we never knew existed. With insight and depth we get into the lives of these three historical people, Douglass, Douglass, and Assing, only to realize that they are as contemporary as we are. Well done!
Diana Gabaldon
author of The Fiery Cross
A remarkable act of fictional biography!
Janet Cheatham Bellauthor of Till Victory Is WonI was completely captivated by these women. Their stories help to round out and give depth to the life of the great Frederick Douglass. Jewell Parker Rhodes has done splendid work in providing a new and completely plausible perspective on an important period of African American history.
A'Lelia Bundlesauthor of On Her Own GroundA poetically imagined, intensely moving love story that transcends time and place. Rhodes writes like a dream...[She] is a master of seduction, plaiting the electrically charged Þbers of love and passion into a tightrope of adoration and longing, of sacriÞce and satisfaction. Enjoy the high wire act, loving and aching with Douglass' Women.
Jervey Tervalonauthor of All the Trouble You NeedPowerful and provocative: tragic and beautiful; Jewell Parker Rhodes' Douglass' Women deconstructs an American icon to great affect. Douglass' Women is historical Þction at its best.
Jewell Parker Rhodes's Books
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Porch StoriesAward-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes offers a loving tribute to her beloved grandmother, the love she received, and the lessons she learned.Read More
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Yellow MoonIn the second part of the New Orleans trilogy that began with Voodoo Season, Rhodes takes on an ancient African vampire in today's Big Easy, where...Read More
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Voodoo SeasonVoodoo Season revisits the mystical landscape of New Orleans -- and its most famous Voodoo priestess, Marie Laveau -- that Jewell Parker Rhodes...Read More
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