Bug-Jargal

About this book

Victor Hugos Bug-Jargal (1826) is one of the most important works of nineteenth-century colonial fiction and quite possibly the most sustained novelistic treatment of the Haitian Revolution by a major European author. This Broadview edition makes Hugos novel available in a completely new English translation the first in over one hundred years. Set in 1791 during the first months of a slave revolt that would eventually lead to the creation of the black republic of Haiti in 1804 Bug-Jargal is a stirring tale of interracial friendship and rivalry a provocative account of the ties that bind a young Frenchman to one of the rebel leaders and the tragic misunderstandings that threaten to sever those ties completely. This Broadview edition contains a critical introduction and a broad selection of appendices including Hugos never-before-translated 1820 short story Bug-Jargal contemporary reviews of the novel documents pertaining to the young Hugos poetics and politics and selections from his source materials about the Haitian Revolution.