A Harlot's Progress

David Dabydeen

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English

Vintage
15 May 2000

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Can we ever know the truth about the past? David Dabydeen liberates the black slave boy from Hogarth's 1732 engravings to tell his own story in an exhilarating, vivid series of half-truths, myths and fantasies.

A HARLOT'S PROGRESS reinvents William Hogarth's famous painting of 1732 which tells the story of a whore, a Jewish merchant, a magistrate and a quack doctor bound together by sexual and financial greed. Dabydeen's novel endows Hogarth's characters with alternative potential lives, redeeming them for their cliched status as predators or victims. The protagonist - in Hogarth, a black slave boy, in Dabydeen, London's oldest black inhabitant - is forced to tell his story to the Abolitionists in return for their charity. He refuses however to supply parade of grievances, and to give a simplistic account of beatings, sexual abuses, etc. He will not embark upon yet another fictional journey into the dark nature of slavery for the voyeuristic delight of the English reader. Instead, the old man ties the reader up in knots as deftly as a harlot her client- he spins a tale of myths, half-truths and fantasies; recreating Africa and eighteenth-century London in startlingly poetic ways. What matters to him is the odyssey into poetry, the rich texture of his narrative, not its truthfulness. In this, his fourth novel, David Dabydeen opens up history to myriad imaginary interpretations, repopulating a vanished world with a strange, defiantly vivid and compassionate humanity.

By: David Dabydeen
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 202g
ISBN: 9780099288725
ISBN 10: 0099288729
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 15 May 2000
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

David Dabydeen was born in Guyana. He has published three novels and three collections of poetry, and has won a number of prizes. His last novel, ""The Counting House,"" was shortlisted for the 1997 IMPAC Award.

Reviews for A Harlot's Progress

A cleverly constructed novel which offers alternative lives to the characters depicted in William Hogarth's famous prints of 1732 (which tell the story of a whore, a Jewish merchant, a magistrate and a quack doctor bound together by greed). The protagonist (in Hogarth, a black slave boy; here, London's oldest black inhabitant) tells his story to the Abolitionists in return for charity - a tale of myths and fantasy, recreating Africa and 18th-century London in startlingly poetic ways. (Kirkus UK)