The Viceroy of Ouidah | 
|  | | | Title: | The Viceroy of Ouidah | | Author: | Bruce Chatwin | | Publisher: | Penguin (Non-Classics) | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 07 June, 1988 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0140112901 / 9780140112900 | | List Price: | $13.00 | | You Save: | $1.95 | | Amazon Price: | $11.05 | |
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Product Description
In this vivid, powerful novel, Chatwin tells of Francisco Manoel de Silva, a poor Brazilian adventurer who sails to Dahomey in West Africa to trade for slaves and amass his fortune. His plans exceed his dreams, and soon he is the Viceroy of Ouidah, master of all slave trading in Dahomey. But the ghastly business of slave trading and the open savagery of life in Dahomey slowly consume Manoel's wealth and sanity.
"This is Conrad's Heart of Darkness seen through a microscope." --The Atlantic Monthly
"Dazzles and mystifies, with its lush anger, its impacted memory, its gorgeous desolation." --The New York Times
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Customer Reviews:
• Engaging! 24 June, 2004
After revelling in the experience that was 'Songlines,' I decided to try one of Bruce Chatwin's novels. Africa has long held its spell over me and thus, 'Viceroy of Ouidah,' seemed the obvious choice. At a little over 120 pages, 'Viceroy' is one of Chatwin's shortest works, but don't let its size deter you. Every page is a treasure onto itself and soon you'll be wishing it were longer.Chatwin, in his never-ending quest to illuminate places that fall well off the beaten track, brings the tiny African nation of Dahomey, known nowadays as Benin, into the light. Home to an indomitable fighting-machine filled with fierce women warriors, a series of cannibalistic tyrant-kings with a penchant for human sacrifice, Dahomey was a place long-feared by the European colonizers. Eventually subdued by the French in 1885, Dahomey, along with neighboring Ghana and Nigeria supplied the Americas with a large portion of its brutalized and very 'unwilling immigrants.'Chatwin's protagonist is one Francisco Manoel De Silva, a penniless Brazilian sharecropper who longs to find his fortune. Africa captures him in her mesmerizing embrace and Francisco finds himself not only a new home, but also a new life as well, that of a slave-trader. Allying himself with the demented King, De Silva monopolizes the internal slave-trade and soon makes a fortune and a name for himself sending unfortunates back home through the British blockade. His dream is to one day return to his beloved Bahia, rich and respected. As somebody. Instead, he slowly and inevitably becomes part of the continent he has made his home in. Surrounded by his multitude of mulatto offspring, the King's Viceroy slips into the quagmire of his delusions. An outcast at home and abroad, his soul never finds its true solace.Those familiar with Chatwin's nomad philosophy will find ample material in 'Viceroy.' De Silva's life underscores Chatwin's belief that our earthly existence is ultimately rootless. Chatwin not only mocks the idea that we can eventually 'return home,' but also questions whether we can call any place 'home.' According to Chatwin, constant movement on the road of life is about the best we can hope for.The novel is artfully structured into two parts. The beginning takes place in modern-day Benin, where De Silva's mixed progeny come to pay their respects to their 'Brazilian' progenitor. Here, Chatwin gives us a glimpse into the chaos of post-colonial Africa, with its coups and fatigue-wearing thugs. The second part goes back in time to the sad story of the Viceroy himself. Tight, vibrant sentences greet you on every page. With Chatwin, it's not only what he says, but rather how he says it that grabs the reader. His descriptions of people and place are some of the richest in recent English letters. Bursting with color, stench and sound, Chatwin brings Africa to our eyes, noses and ears. And with the greatest of economy. Like his master, Hemingway, Chatwin uses the 'nickel and dime' style, but unlike his master, he makes every word paint a picture. In fact, this novel is akin to a giant canvas of virulent and violent images. If the novel has a weakness, it's the lack of psychology in it. Like one reviewer aptly put it, 'We never get into Francisco's head.' Chatwin has painted a true and luscious tapestry, but he has left the questions and analysis up to us. Not surprising when considering Chatwin's past as an art critic for Sotheby's.Yet, don't let this minor criticism put you away from reading a brilliant introduction to Chatwin's fiction. Moreover, anybody enraptured with the 'dark continent,' would do well to check out 'Viceroy of Ouidah.'
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2YM0JQI2IO0VS
• Remote And Gritty Past Relived! 03 September, 2004
In this text, "THE VICEROY OF OUIDAH," author Bruce Chatwin takes the reader on an engaging journey into the life of Francisco Manoel da Silva, a man who: Became the "best friend" of the King of Dahomey. Was granted the title of Viceroy of Ouidah and a monopoly over the sale of slaves. Fathered "sixty-three mulatto sons and an unknown quantity of daughters." And, whose now black descendants gather each year to "mourn the Slave Trade as a lost Golden Age."
At 155 pages, the reader can easily devour this tantalizing read in one weekend! This is a great book of blended fiction and historical fact. I have been a closet fan of Chatwin for some time and I heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for a great book premised on a remote and gritty topic. You'll love it! Five stars. Bravo.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A21FWV7IMMPSXP
• Shining, But Ultimately Unsatisfactory 17 September, 2004
I am not a great fan of this novel. For me, this is Chatwin at his most show offy. This book followed hot on the heels of his thumpingly successful debut 'In Patagonia' and Chatwin was clearly garnering a reputation for describing far flung places in an original and inventive way. This he does in the Viceroy of Ouidah, a short biographical novel about the Brazillian Manoel de Silva who rose from poverty and obscurity to become the head of slave trading in Dahomey, now Benin in West Africa. A potentially brilliant framework for Chatwin's prose style to let rip you might think, but I think he goes overboard on the lush descriptions of the geography, climate and people of the regions he illuminates and loses sight of how to really engage the reader in the novel.
This novel was not all that well received when it first came out. His next work 'On the Black Hill' reveived the 1982 Whitbread Literary Award for Best First Novel, overlooking the fact that Chatwin had alreay published Viceroy previously and I think this is telling. I found the novel lacking in the gripping substance, intangible though that may be that really makes a great novel. Like one of the many works of art Chatwin catalogued when he was working at Sotheby's, it is a glistening gem, but beneath the surface, there is little that stirs the soul and lodges in the memory as passages of great fiction do.
Still worth reading though, as Chatwin at his worst is better than many writers at their best.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AJ9W09EUQPAKE
• Destroyed By The Night 11 July, 2008
I came to Chatwin's The Viceroy of Ouidah by way of Werner Herzog's (very loose) film adaptation of it, "Cobra Verde." Herzog's film doesn't quite work. At the end of the day, it's rather fragmented. Chatwin's novel does work.
The storyline is simple, and ultimately, I think, not as important as the mood the novel creates. Francisco Manoel da Silva is an early 19th century Brazilian sharecropper who sails to the west African kingdom of Dahomey, makes a fortune in the slave trade, but is eventually brought low and dies penniless and mad. His descendants, wanting desperately to think of themselves as white and Brazilian, fetishizing their ancestor's memory, and nostalgically harkening back to the day when the da Silva name meant something in Dahomey, congregate annually to commemorate him. At the annual gathering that opens the novel, Eugenia, the only suriving child of Francisco, is dying. She's well over 100 years old.
None of this is remarkable. What's so powerful about The Viceroy of Ouidah (not an especially good title, by the way) is the mood it creates. Even better than Joseph Conrad, Chatwin draws a portrait of the dark and unfathomable forces of nature--both human and nonhuman--that we "civilized" folks who confront them can't even begin to imagine. We may think for a while, as Francisco does, that we're their master. But in the long run, to cite an unsettling scene in the novel, the night will slay us. The night will destroy us.
Paralleling the wild, insane, destructive forces of nature in the novel is the equally destructive slave trade that Francisco engages in. One reviewer has remarked that we gain no insight into Francisco's psychology, and I think this is an accurate statement. He remains opague to the reader. But this may be intentional on Chatwin's part: in his own way, Francisco is part of the very darkness that destroys him, and that darkness is too inky, too swamp-like, for clarity.
An extraordinary allegory. Not as rich as the author's later Utz, but well worth reading.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AYCJSA9HR7TKO
• Difficult Read 07 December, 2007
very hard to get into; it reads like a college literature assignment that you are supposed to decipher (not fun); not recommended
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1DI9WDY63NC30
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