Middle Passage: A Novel [Paperback]

A twenty-fifth anniversary edition of Charles Johnson’s National Book Award-winning masterpiece— a novel in the tradition ofBilly BuddandMoby-Dick…heroic in proportion…fiction that hooks the mind (The New York Times Book Review)—now with a new introduction from Stanley Crouch.

Rutherford Calhoun, a newly freed slave and irrepressible rogue, is lost in the underworld of 1830s New Orleans. Desperate to escape the city’s unscrupulous bill collectors and the pawing hands of a schoolteacher hellbent on marrying him, he jumps aboard theRepublic, a slave ship en route to collect members of a legendary African tribe, the Allmuseri. Thus begins a voyage of metaphysical horror and human atrocity, a journey which challenges our notions of freedom, fate and how we live together. Peopled with vivid and unforgettable characters, nimble in its interplay of comedy and serious ideas, this dazzling modern classic is a perfect blend of the picaresque tale, historical romance, sea yarn, slave narrative and philosophical allegory.

Now with a new introduction from renowned writer and critic Stanley Crouch, this twenty-fifth anniversary edition ofMiddle Passagecelebrates a cornerstone of the American canon and the masterwork of one of its most important writers. Long after we’d stopped believe in the great American novel, along comes a spellbinding adventure story that may be just that (Chicago Tribune).Entry, the firstJune 14, 1830<

Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I've come to learn, is women. In my case, it was a spirited Boston schoolteacher named Isadora Bailey who led me to become a cook aboard theRepublic.Both Isadora and my creditors, I should add, who entered into a conspiracy, a trap, a scheme so cunning that my only choices were prison, a brief stay in the stony oubliette of the Spanish Calabozo (or a long one at the l3œ