Hottentot Venus

It is Paris, 1815. An extraordinarily shaped South African girl known as the Hottentot Venus, dressed only in feathers and beads, swings from a crystal chandelier in the duchess of Berry's ballroom. Below her, the audience shouts insults and pornographic obscenities. Among these spectators is Napoleon's physician and the most famous naturalist in Europe, the Baron George Cuvier, whose encounter with her will inspire a theory of race that will change European science forever.

Evoking the grand tradition of such "monster" tales as Frankenstein and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Barbara Chase Riboud, prize-winning author of the classic Sally Hemings, again gives voice to an "invisible" of history. In this powerful saga, Sarah Baartman, for more than 200 years known only as the mysterious lady in the glass cage, comes vividly and unforgettably to life.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 11/09/2004
ISBN: 9781400032082
Pages: 336
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.90d

Review Citations: New York Times 01/02/2005 pg. 16

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 86506 / Hottentot Venus: A Novel
Reading Level: 7.8 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 21