Author: Albert Thrasher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
"On to New Orleans"
Author: Albert Thrasher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
Caribbean New Orleans
Author: Cécile Vidal
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 146964519X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 552
Book Description
Combining Atlantic and imperial perspectives, Caribbean New Orleans offers a lively portrait of the city and a probing investigation of the French colonists who established racial slavery there as well as the African slaves who were forced to toil for them. Casting early New Orleans as a Caribbean outpost of the French Empire rather than as a North American frontier town, Cecile Vidal reveals the persistent influence of the Antilles, especially Saint-Domingue, which shaped the city's development through the eighteenth century. In so doing, she urges us to rethink our usual divisions of racial systems into mainland and Caribbean categories. Drawing on New Orleans's rich court records as a way to capture the words and actions of its inhabitants, Vidal takes us into the city's streets, market, taverns, church, hospitals, barracks, and households. She explores the challenges that slow economic development, Native American proximity, imperial rivalry, and the urban environment posed to a social order that was predicated on slave labor and racial hierarchy. White domination, Vidal demonstrates, was woven into the fabric of New Orleans from its founding. This comprehensive history of urban slavery locates Louisiana's capital on a spectrum of slave societies that stretched across the Americas and provides a magisterial overview of racial discourses and practices during the formative years of North America's most intriguing city.
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 146964519X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 552
Book Description
Combining Atlantic and imperial perspectives, Caribbean New Orleans offers a lively portrait of the city and a probing investigation of the French colonists who established racial slavery there as well as the African slaves who were forced to toil for them. Casting early New Orleans as a Caribbean outpost of the French Empire rather than as a North American frontier town, Cecile Vidal reveals the persistent influence of the Antilles, especially Saint-Domingue, which shaped the city's development through the eighteenth century. In so doing, she urges us to rethink our usual divisions of racial systems into mainland and Caribbean categories. Drawing on New Orleans's rich court records as a way to capture the words and actions of its inhabitants, Vidal takes us into the city's streets, market, taverns, church, hospitals, barracks, and households. She explores the challenges that slow economic development, Native American proximity, imperial rivalry, and the urban environment posed to a social order that was predicated on slave labor and racial hierarchy. White domination, Vidal demonstrates, was woven into the fabric of New Orleans from its founding. This comprehensive history of urban slavery locates Louisiana's capital on a spectrum of slave societies that stretched across the Americas and provides a magisterial overview of racial discourses and practices during the formative years of North America's most intriguing city.
Topsy Turvy History of New Orleans and Ten Tiny Turtles
Author: Simone Rathlé
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692988770
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 35
Book Description
Ten tiny turtles take you on a historical journey through New Orleans to celebrate the tri-centennial in 2018. From when the French explorers first disembarked from their tall ships, waded ashore, and established the city of New Orleans, to the city¿s topsy-turvy history of pirates and parades, battles and brass bands, colorful cuisine, a chess champ, and some very heavy weather, the turtle family of Brennan¿s restaurant has borne quiet witness from its stately courtyard. In the tradition of New Orleans¿ rich culinary history, the first five of the ten tiny turtles, the ¿Muthas,¿ have been named after the five mother sauces of classical French cuisine, which are so essential to the city¿s fare: Béchamel, Espagnole, Hollandaise, Tomate, and Velouté. The ¿Othas,¿ bear the names of five other sauces that complement signature New Orleans dishes: Bordelaise, Cocktail, Mignonette, Remoulade, and Ravigote. Here, for the first time, the present generation of ten tiny turtles ¿ nine girls and one boy ¿ reveals the vibrant evolution of the beloved city, New Orleans, and in particular, the story of one of its most iconic restaurants, Brennan¿s, in the historic French Quarter.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692988770
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 35
Book Description
Ten tiny turtles take you on a historical journey through New Orleans to celebrate the tri-centennial in 2018. From when the French explorers first disembarked from their tall ships, waded ashore, and established the city of New Orleans, to the city¿s topsy-turvy history of pirates and parades, battles and brass bands, colorful cuisine, a chess champ, and some very heavy weather, the turtle family of Brennan¿s restaurant has borne quiet witness from its stately courtyard. In the tradition of New Orleans¿ rich culinary history, the first five of the ten tiny turtles, the ¿Muthas,¿ have been named after the five mother sauces of classical French cuisine, which are so essential to the city¿s fare: Béchamel, Espagnole, Hollandaise, Tomate, and Velouté. The ¿Othas,¿ bear the names of five other sauces that complement signature New Orleans dishes: Bordelaise, Cocktail, Mignonette, Remoulade, and Ravigote. Here, for the first time, the present generation of ten tiny turtles ¿ nine girls and one boy ¿ reveals the vibrant evolution of the beloved city, New Orleans, and in particular, the story of one of its most iconic restaurants, Brennan¿s, in the historic French Quarter.
New Orleans, Louisiana, and Saint-Louis, Senegal
Author: Emily Clark
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807171719
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
This book explores the intertwined histories of Saint-Louis, Senegal, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Although separated by an ocean, both cities were founded during the early French imperial expansion of the Atlantic world. Both became important port cities of their own continents, the Atlantic world as a whole, and the African diaspora. The slave trade not only played a crucial role in the demographic and economic growth of Saint-Louis and New Orleans, but also directly connected the two cities. The Company of the Indies ran the Senegambia slave-trading posts and the Mississippi colony simultaneously from 1719 to 1731. By examining the linked histories of these cities over the longue durée, this edited collection shows the crucial role they played in integrating the peoples of the Atlantic world. The essays also illustrate how the interplay of imperialism, colonialism, and slaving that defined the early Atlantic world operated and evolved differently on both sides of the ocean. The chapters in part one, “Negotiating Slavery and Freedom,” highlight the centrality of the institution of slavery in the urban societies of Saint-Louis and New Orleans from their foundation to the second half of the nineteenth century. Part two, “Elusive Citizenship,” explores how the notions of nationality, citizenship, and subjecthood—as well as the rights or lack of rights associated with them—were mobilized, manipulated, or negotiated at key moments in the history of each city. Part three, “Mythic Persistence,” examines the construction, reproduction, and transformation of myths and popular imagination in the colonial and postcolonial cities. It is here, in the imagined past, that New Orleans and Saint-Louis most clearly mirror one another. The essays in this section offer two examples of how historical realities are simplified, distorted, or obliterated to minimize the violence of the cities’ common slave and colonial past in order to promote a romanticized present. With editors from three continents and contributors from around the world, this work is truly an international collaboration.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807171719
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
This book explores the intertwined histories of Saint-Louis, Senegal, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Although separated by an ocean, both cities were founded during the early French imperial expansion of the Atlantic world. Both became important port cities of their own continents, the Atlantic world as a whole, and the African diaspora. The slave trade not only played a crucial role in the demographic and economic growth of Saint-Louis and New Orleans, but also directly connected the two cities. The Company of the Indies ran the Senegambia slave-trading posts and the Mississippi colony simultaneously from 1719 to 1731. By examining the linked histories of these cities over the longue durée, this edited collection shows the crucial role they played in integrating the peoples of the Atlantic world. The essays also illustrate how the interplay of imperialism, colonialism, and slaving that defined the early Atlantic world operated and evolved differently on both sides of the ocean. The chapters in part one, “Negotiating Slavery and Freedom,” highlight the centrality of the institution of slavery in the urban societies of Saint-Louis and New Orleans from their foundation to the second half of the nineteenth century. Part two, “Elusive Citizenship,” explores how the notions of nationality, citizenship, and subjecthood—as well as the rights or lack of rights associated with them—were mobilized, manipulated, or negotiated at key moments in the history of each city. Part three, “Mythic Persistence,” examines the construction, reproduction, and transformation of myths and popular imagination in the colonial and postcolonial cities. It is here, in the imagined past, that New Orleans and Saint-Louis most clearly mirror one another. The essays in this section offer two examples of how historical realities are simplified, distorted, or obliterated to minimize the violence of the cities’ common slave and colonial past in order to promote a romanticized present. With editors from three continents and contributors from around the world, this work is truly an international collaboration.
The Dragon of New Orleans
Author: Genevieve Jack
Publisher: Carpe Luna Publishing
ISBN: 1940675472
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
This free romance series starter features a royal dragon shifter suffering a witch's terrible curse, a terminal cancer patient with promising and mysterious psychic abilities, and a forbidden love that promises to save them both... if they don't kill each other first. — 2020 RONE award winner BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE LONG — 2020 Independent Publisher Book Award for BEST ROMANCE E-BOOK New Orleans: city of intrigue, supernatural secrets, and one enigmatic dragon. A deadly curse.... For 300 years, Gabriel Blakemore has survived in New Orleans after a coup in his native realm of Paragon scattered him and his royal dragon siblings across the globe. Now a voodoo curse threatens to end his immortal existence. His only hope is to find an antidote, one that may rest in a mortal human woman with a history of mysterious psychic abilities. A lifesaving gift... After five years of unsuccessful treatment for her brain cancer, death is a welcome end for Raven Tanglewood. Her illness has become a prison her adventurous spirit cannot abide. Salvation comes in the form of Gabriel, who uses dragon magic to save her. A harrowing price... To Raven, the bond that results from Gabriel's gift is another kind of captivity. Can Gabriel win Raven's love and trust in time to awaken the life-saving magic within her? Or will his fiery personality and possessive ways drive her from his side and seal his fate? * * * "Fans of paranormal romance will get swept up in this quick, steamy romance and the intriguing mystery wrapped in magic.[Book Life]" –Publisher's Weekly “An impressive mix of Greek mythology, Vodoun rituals, and the distinctive mystique of New Orleans, past and present. It’s a compelling start to what seems destined to be an entertaining series.” – InD’tale Crowned Heart Review “I loved this steamy, fast paced fated mate paranormal romance. I need a dragon of my very own.” – Kim Loraine, Best Selling Author of The Fallen Angel Trilogy “Magic, adventure, and romance fly off the pages of The Dragon of New Orleans!” – Britt Franks Red Hatter Book Blog “…rich in magic, legend and love so if you like paranormal then this one I highly recommend.” – Becky Bookworm Blog “The romance burns slowly, and the suspense will keep you glued to the pages.” – Uncaged Reviews “Wow, what a ride! …a captivating, highly entertaining story about love, letting go and sacrifice.” – Konny, Goodreads reviewer "Reading Dragon of New Orleans made me feel right at home in my adopted city, and I can't wait for the next one. This is a fantastic start of a new urban fantasy series." –NYT Bestselling Author Deanna Chase * * * For readers who enjoy shifters, fated mates, enemies to lovers, forbidden love, dragons, witches, and the mystique of New Orleans. Perfect for fans of Charlene Hartnady, Donna Grant, Roxie Ray, Riley Storm, I.T. Lucas, and Tricia O'Malley
Publisher: Carpe Luna Publishing
ISBN: 1940675472
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 346
Book Description
This free romance series starter features a royal dragon shifter suffering a witch's terrible curse, a terminal cancer patient with promising and mysterious psychic abilities, and a forbidden love that promises to save them both... if they don't kill each other first. — 2020 RONE award winner BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE LONG — 2020 Independent Publisher Book Award for BEST ROMANCE E-BOOK New Orleans: city of intrigue, supernatural secrets, and one enigmatic dragon. A deadly curse.... For 300 years, Gabriel Blakemore has survived in New Orleans after a coup in his native realm of Paragon scattered him and his royal dragon siblings across the globe. Now a voodoo curse threatens to end his immortal existence. His only hope is to find an antidote, one that may rest in a mortal human woman with a history of mysterious psychic abilities. A lifesaving gift... After five years of unsuccessful treatment for her brain cancer, death is a welcome end for Raven Tanglewood. Her illness has become a prison her adventurous spirit cannot abide. Salvation comes in the form of Gabriel, who uses dragon magic to save her. A harrowing price... To Raven, the bond that results from Gabriel's gift is another kind of captivity. Can Gabriel win Raven's love and trust in time to awaken the life-saving magic within her? Or will his fiery personality and possessive ways drive her from his side and seal his fate? * * * "Fans of paranormal romance will get swept up in this quick, steamy romance and the intriguing mystery wrapped in magic.[Book Life]" –Publisher's Weekly “An impressive mix of Greek mythology, Vodoun rituals, and the distinctive mystique of New Orleans, past and present. It’s a compelling start to what seems destined to be an entertaining series.” – InD’tale Crowned Heart Review “I loved this steamy, fast paced fated mate paranormal romance. I need a dragon of my very own.” – Kim Loraine, Best Selling Author of The Fallen Angel Trilogy “Magic, adventure, and romance fly off the pages of The Dragon of New Orleans!” – Britt Franks Red Hatter Book Blog “…rich in magic, legend and love so if you like paranormal then this one I highly recommend.” – Becky Bookworm Blog “The romance burns slowly, and the suspense will keep you glued to the pages.” – Uncaged Reviews “Wow, what a ride! …a captivating, highly entertaining story about love, letting go and sacrifice.” – Konny, Goodreads reviewer "Reading Dragon of New Orleans made me feel right at home in my adopted city, and I can't wait for the next one. This is a fantastic start of a new urban fantasy series." –NYT Bestselling Author Deanna Chase * * * For readers who enjoy shifters, fated mates, enemies to lovers, forbidden love, dragons, witches, and the mystique of New Orleans. Perfect for fans of Charlene Hartnady, Donna Grant, Roxie Ray, Riley Storm, I.T. Lucas, and Tricia O'Malley
Very New Orleans
Author: Diana Hollingsworth Gessler
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1616203005
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 169
Book Description
The exquisite antebellum mansions of the Garden District. Giant oaks stretching across boulevards and back in time to before the Civil War. The decadence of Bourbon Street. The vibrant sounds of jazz, blues, and Cajun music coming from every doorway or right from the street. Lacy iron balconies that wrap around the historic buildings of the French Quarter. A leisurely meal under a canopy of wisteria. In vibrant watercolors and detailed sketches, artist Diana Gessler captures the unique charm that makes New Orleans alluring: Mardi Gras, the Cabildo, Jackson Square, the Court of the Two Sisters, St. Louis Cemetery, the Jazz Festival, the River Road Plantations, the Cajun country, sumptuous Creole cuisine, and Audubon’s Aquarium of the Americas. In fascinating detail—on everything from the making of Mardi Gras, Napolean’s death mask, the city’s inspired architectural and garden designs, and favorite author hangouts to famous New Orleanians and Aunt Sally’s Creole pralines—Very New Orleans celebrates the city, the Cajun country, the people, and our history
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1616203005
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 169
Book Description
The exquisite antebellum mansions of the Garden District. Giant oaks stretching across boulevards and back in time to before the Civil War. The decadence of Bourbon Street. The vibrant sounds of jazz, blues, and Cajun music coming from every doorway or right from the street. Lacy iron balconies that wrap around the historic buildings of the French Quarter. A leisurely meal under a canopy of wisteria. In vibrant watercolors and detailed sketches, artist Diana Gessler captures the unique charm that makes New Orleans alluring: Mardi Gras, the Cabildo, Jackson Square, the Court of the Two Sisters, St. Louis Cemetery, the Jazz Festival, the River Road Plantations, the Cajun country, sumptuous Creole cuisine, and Audubon’s Aquarium of the Americas. In fascinating detail—on everything from the making of Mardi Gras, Napolean’s death mask, the city’s inspired architectural and garden designs, and favorite author hangouts to famous New Orleanians and Aunt Sally’s Creole pralines—Very New Orleans celebrates the city, the Cajun country, the people, and our history
Creole New Orleans
Author: Arnold R. Hirsch
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807117743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
This collection of six original essays explores the peculiar ethnic composition and history of New Orleans, which the authors persuasively argue is unique among American cities. The focus of Creole New Orleans is on the development of a colonial Franco-African culture in the city, the ways that culture was influenced by the arrival of later immigrants, and the processes that led to the eventual dominance of the Anglo-American community. Essays in the book's first section focus not only on the formation of the curiously blended Franco-African culture but also on how that culture, once established, resisted change and allowed New Orleans to develop along French and African creole lines until the early nineteenth century. Jerah Johnson explores the motives and objectives of Louisiana's French founders, giving that issue the most searching analysis it has yet received. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, in her account of the origins of New Orleans' free black population, offers a new approach to the early history of Africans in colonial Louisiana. The second part of the book focuses on the challenge of incorporating New Orleans into the United States. As Paul F. LaChance points out, the French immigrants who arrived after the Louisiana Purchase slowed the Americanization process by preserving the city's creole culture. Joesph Tregle then presents a clear, concise account of the clash that occurred between white creoles and the many white Americans who during the 1800s migrated to the city. His analysis demonstrates how race finally brought an accommodation between the white creole and American leaders. The third section centers on the evolution of the city's race relations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Joseph Logsdon and Caryn Cossé Bell begin by tracing the ethno-cultural fault line that divided black Americans and creole through Reconstruction and the emergence of Jim Crow. Arnold R. Hirsch pursues the themes discerned by Logsdon and Bell from the turn of the century to the 1980s, examining the transformation of the city's racial politics. Collectively, these essays fill a major void in Louisiana history while making a significant contribution to the history of urbanization, ethnicity, and race relations. The book will serve as a cornerstone for future study of the history of New Orleans.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807117743
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
This collection of six original essays explores the peculiar ethnic composition and history of New Orleans, which the authors persuasively argue is unique among American cities. The focus of Creole New Orleans is on the development of a colonial Franco-African culture in the city, the ways that culture was influenced by the arrival of later immigrants, and the processes that led to the eventual dominance of the Anglo-American community. Essays in the book's first section focus not only on the formation of the curiously blended Franco-African culture but also on how that culture, once established, resisted change and allowed New Orleans to develop along French and African creole lines until the early nineteenth century. Jerah Johnson explores the motives and objectives of Louisiana's French founders, giving that issue the most searching analysis it has yet received. Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, in her account of the origins of New Orleans' free black population, offers a new approach to the early history of Africans in colonial Louisiana. The second part of the book focuses on the challenge of incorporating New Orleans into the United States. As Paul F. LaChance points out, the French immigrants who arrived after the Louisiana Purchase slowed the Americanization process by preserving the city's creole culture. Joesph Tregle then presents a clear, concise account of the clash that occurred between white creoles and the many white Americans who during the 1800s migrated to the city. His analysis demonstrates how race finally brought an accommodation between the white creole and American leaders. The third section centers on the evolution of the city's race relations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Joseph Logsdon and Caryn Cossé Bell begin by tracing the ethno-cultural fault line that divided black Americans and creole through Reconstruction and the emergence of Jim Crow. Arnold R. Hirsch pursues the themes discerned by Logsdon and Bell from the turn of the century to the 1980s, examining the transformation of the city's racial politics. Collectively, these essays fill a major void in Louisiana history while making a significant contribution to the history of urbanization, ethnicity, and race relations. The book will serve as a cornerstone for future study of the history of New Orleans.
Stay Out of New Orleans
Author: P. Curran
Publisher: Crescent City Press
ISBN: 9780998643182
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
Stay Out of New Orleans: Strange Tales A crass tour of feral street life in New Orleans in the 1990's. A lucid walk through the shadows of North America's best and weirdest city, a place that bewitches some visitors and infects others. A bohemia stretching back to the dawn of absinthe. A town of hidden doors, hidden courtyards, and open secrets. Each day a fresh crime eager to happen, transcendent, fertile. Death lurking in every bar. No one knew it was a golden age............ See what the flood washed away... Self published in 2012, Stay Out of New Orleans has become an underground New Orleans cult classic and has gone on to sell a couple of thousand copies strictly by word of mouth and carried in but a couple of local stores. Now re-designed and re-formatted these 13 stories of NOLA 1990's street life will continue to find a new audience of readers-those both enchanted and those repelled by the city.
Publisher: Crescent City Press
ISBN: 9780998643182
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 327
Book Description
Stay Out of New Orleans: Strange Tales A crass tour of feral street life in New Orleans in the 1990's. A lucid walk through the shadows of North America's best and weirdest city, a place that bewitches some visitors and infects others. A bohemia stretching back to the dawn of absinthe. A town of hidden doors, hidden courtyards, and open secrets. Each day a fresh crime eager to happen, transcendent, fertile. Death lurking in every bar. No one knew it was a golden age............ See what the flood washed away... Self published in 2012, Stay Out of New Orleans has become an underground New Orleans cult classic and has gone on to sell a couple of thousand copies strictly by word of mouth and carried in but a couple of local stores. Now re-designed and re-formatted these 13 stories of NOLA 1990's street life will continue to find a new audience of readers-those both enchanted and those repelled by the city.
New Orleans and the Texas Revolution
Author: Edward L. Miller
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603446451
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
"Author Edward L. Miller has delved into previously unused or overlooked papers housed in New Orleans to reconstruct a chain of events that set the Crescent City, in many ways, at the center of the Texian fight for independence. Not only did Now Orleans business interests send money and men to Texas in exchange for promises of land, but they also provided newspaper coverage that set the scene for later American annexation of the young republic."--BOOK JACKET.
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603446451
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
"Author Edward L. Miller has delved into previously unused or overlooked papers housed in New Orleans to reconstruct a chain of events that set the Crescent City, in many ways, at the center of the Texian fight for independence. Not only did Now Orleans business interests send money and men to Texas in exchange for promises of land, but they also provided newspaper coverage that set the scene for later American annexation of the young republic."--BOOK JACKET.
The Mysteries of New Orleans
Author: Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801877695
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
One of the most scandalous books published in America at the time. "Reizenstein's peculiar vision of New Orleans is worth resurrecting precisely because it crossed the boundaries of acceptable taste in nineteenth-century German America and squatted firmly on the other side . . . This work makes us realize how limited our notions were of what could be conceived by a fertile American imagination in the middle of the nineteenth century."—from the Introduction by Steven Rowan A lost classic of America's neglected German-language literary tradition, The Mysteries of New Orleans by Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein first appeared as a serial in the Louisiana Staats-Zeitung, a New Orleans German-language newspaper, between 1854 and 1855. Inspired by the gothic "urban mysteries" serialized in France and Germany during this period, Reizenstein crafted a daring occult novel that stages a frontal assault on the ethos of the antebellum South. His plot imagines the coming of a bloody, retributive justice at the hands of Hiram the Freemason—a nightmarish, 200-year-old, proto-Nietzschean superman—for the sin of slavery. Heralded by the birth of a black messiah, the son of a mulatto prostitute and a decadent German aristocrat, this coming revolution is depicted in frankly apocalyptic terms. Yet, Reizenstein was equally concerned with setting and characters, from the mundane to the fantastic. The book is saturated with the atmosphere of nineteenth-century New Orleans, the amorous exploits of its main characters uncannily resembling those of New Orleans' leading citizens. Also of note is the author's progressively matter-of-fact portrait of the lesbian romance between his novel's only sympathetic characters, Claudine and Orleana. This edition marks the first time that The Mysteries of New Orleans has been translated into English and proves that 150 years later, this vast, strange, and important novel remains as compelling as ever.
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801877695
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
One of the most scandalous books published in America at the time. "Reizenstein's peculiar vision of New Orleans is worth resurrecting precisely because it crossed the boundaries of acceptable taste in nineteenth-century German America and squatted firmly on the other side . . . This work makes us realize how limited our notions were of what could be conceived by a fertile American imagination in the middle of the nineteenth century."—from the Introduction by Steven Rowan A lost classic of America's neglected German-language literary tradition, The Mysteries of New Orleans by Baron Ludwig von Reizenstein first appeared as a serial in the Louisiana Staats-Zeitung, a New Orleans German-language newspaper, between 1854 and 1855. Inspired by the gothic "urban mysteries" serialized in France and Germany during this period, Reizenstein crafted a daring occult novel that stages a frontal assault on the ethos of the antebellum South. His plot imagines the coming of a bloody, retributive justice at the hands of Hiram the Freemason—a nightmarish, 200-year-old, proto-Nietzschean superman—for the sin of slavery. Heralded by the birth of a black messiah, the son of a mulatto prostitute and a decadent German aristocrat, this coming revolution is depicted in frankly apocalyptic terms. Yet, Reizenstein was equally concerned with setting and characters, from the mundane to the fantastic. The book is saturated with the atmosphere of nineteenth-century New Orleans, the amorous exploits of its main characters uncannily resembling those of New Orleans' leading citizens. Also of note is the author's progressively matter-of-fact portrait of the lesbian romance between his novel's only sympathetic characters, Claudine and Orleana. This edition marks the first time that The Mysteries of New Orleans has been translated into English and proves that 150 years later, this vast, strange, and important novel remains as compelling as ever.