Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Abacus (2003), Edition: New Ed, 224 pages
Description
Valerie Martin’s Property delivers an eerily mesmerizing inquiry into slavery’s venomous effects on the owner and the owned. The year is 1828, the setting a Louisiana sugar plantation where Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his mistress. Exploring the permutations of Manon’s own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.
User reviews
LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
Wickedly good character study of a heartless woman who is not only a product of her circumstances, but perfectly suited to survive them. Set before the U.S. Civil War, this story explores the hard realities of life in a slave-holding society, without using a single romantic cliche. There is no
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nostalgia here for the ante-bellum South; no helpless fainting ladies, no sweeping staircases, no faithful darkies, no hope for a better day tomorrow. The "heroine" is totally self-centered, but without a grain of self-pity; her reaction to any given situation is to figure out how to survive it or work it to her advantage. It is impossible to like her, but I found her utterly fascinating. "Nice" people are rarely so interesting. Show Less
LibraryThing member mrstreme
“And how did he earn your enmity?”
“Well, let me think,” I said. “Would the fact that the servant I brought to the marriage has borne him a son, and that this creature is allowed to run loose in the house like a wild animal, would that be, in your view, sufficient cause for a wife to
He shrugged. “Mrs. Gaudet, there are many such cases. This cannot be unknown to you.”
“That is precisely my grievance,” I explained. “That it is common.”
(page 38)
What is property? Is it a tangible thing you own? Or could it be something else – a spirit, a soul, a sense of freedom? In her Orange Prize-winning novel, Property, Valerie Martin explored the essence of property, ownership and freedom, using slavery and antebellum marriage to examine these themes.
Manon Gaudet is a young wife in a loveless marriage to a bankrupt, cruel planter in 1828 Louisiana. As a wedding gift, Manon’s aunt gave her a young slave, Sarah, to accompany Manon to her new plantation home. Because of conventional marriage customs and rights of slavery, both women, in essence, become property to the same man. Sarah soon bore a son to Manon’s husband while Manon never reproduced. As time progressed, Manon’s hatred for her husband only equaled her disdain for her slave. She secretly wished for her husband’s death to free her from this entrapment.
Several things struck me as compelling in this book. First, Martin portrayed a historic look into the slave-holding South. It was not a time of wine and roses; times were harsh, the slavery system was immoral, and white and black Southerners lived in fear of each other. Each page of Property stayed true to these details.
Secondly, the relationship between Manon and Sarah was far from a sisterly one. While they were bound together by the same problem – ownership by the same man – they did not seek comfort from each other against their common plight. Furthermore, they did not see each other as rivals because they did not yearn for the man’s attention. Instead, they hated each other – perhaps because each was a reminder of the life in which each woman was forced to live.
Intelligent, engaging, historical and rivoting - Property kept me at the edge of my seat, and I completed this book in two sittings. Admittedly, if you put a hoop skirt on the main character, it usually captures my attention. However, this book provided so much more than hoop skirts – it was a gritty story about the power and destruction of when one human tries to control another. This is a must-read for readers who enjoy antebellum Southern fiction, women’s studies and stories about slavery. I will certainly be looking for more books by this gifted storyteller.
“Well, let me think,” I said. “Would the fact that the servant I brought to the marriage has borne him a son, and that this creature is allowed to run loose in the house like a wild animal, would that be, in your view, sufficient cause for a wife to
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despise her husband?”He shrugged. “Mrs. Gaudet, there are many such cases. This cannot be unknown to you.”
“That is precisely my grievance,” I explained. “That it is common.”
(page 38)
What is property? Is it a tangible thing you own? Or could it be something else – a spirit, a soul, a sense of freedom? In her Orange Prize-winning novel, Property, Valerie Martin explored the essence of property, ownership and freedom, using slavery and antebellum marriage to examine these themes.
Manon Gaudet is a young wife in a loveless marriage to a bankrupt, cruel planter in 1828 Louisiana. As a wedding gift, Manon’s aunt gave her a young slave, Sarah, to accompany Manon to her new plantation home. Because of conventional marriage customs and rights of slavery, both women, in essence, become property to the same man. Sarah soon bore a son to Manon’s husband while Manon never reproduced. As time progressed, Manon’s hatred for her husband only equaled her disdain for her slave. She secretly wished for her husband’s death to free her from this entrapment.
Several things struck me as compelling in this book. First, Martin portrayed a historic look into the slave-holding South. It was not a time of wine and roses; times were harsh, the slavery system was immoral, and white and black Southerners lived in fear of each other. Each page of Property stayed true to these details.
Secondly, the relationship between Manon and Sarah was far from a sisterly one. While they were bound together by the same problem – ownership by the same man – they did not seek comfort from each other against their common plight. Furthermore, they did not see each other as rivals because they did not yearn for the man’s attention. Instead, they hated each other – perhaps because each was a reminder of the life in which each woman was forced to live.
Intelligent, engaging, historical and rivoting - Property kept me at the edge of my seat, and I completed this book in two sittings. Admittedly, if you put a hoop skirt on the main character, it usually captures my attention. However, this book provided so much more than hoop skirts – it was a gritty story about the power and destruction of when one human tries to control another. This is a must-read for readers who enjoy antebellum Southern fiction, women’s studies and stories about slavery. I will certainly be looking for more books by this gifted storyteller.
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LibraryThing member katiekrug
I’ve been trying to write this review for a while now and it refuses to come together. So here is a quote that I think best encapsulates this story of enslavement (both literal and figurative) and the twisted relationship between men and women and slaves and masters in 1820s Louisiana:
“He
What Martin does most brilliantly is to depict the internalization of brutality and to create an anti-heroine and narrator so selfish and self-absorbed that she fails to comprehend the hypocrisy in which she lives. An uncomfortable read and a worthy Orange Prize winner by an author I look forward to reading more of.
“He
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wishes I might die of cholera, and fears that she may instead. I wish he might be killed while shooting rebellious negroes. She wishes us both dead.” (page 63)What Martin does most brilliantly is to depict the internalization of brutality and to create an anti-heroine and narrator so selfish and self-absorbed that she fails to comprehend the hypocrisy in which she lives. An uncomfortable read and a worthy Orange Prize winner by an author I look forward to reading more of.
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LibraryThing member sadiekaycarver
Property is very interesting and a little disturbing. You realize right away that this point of view is offensive to any one of moral character, but probably spot on for the feelings of the era. Page after page you feel an indignation at the audacity of the white point of view and yet you find your
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self realizing that white women of the day were almost as much slaves to this society run by the white man,as their black "property". Great book. Show Less
LibraryThing member kraaivrouw
Every time I have the pleasure of reading a book written by Valerie Martin I am reminded of how good she is and I wonder again why she isn't more well known. Her writing is bracing and clear, her stories compelling. She often manages to do in under 200 pages what most authors can't do in 500 - that
Slavery, the peculiar institution, warps everyone it touches. From slave owners to actual slaves involvement in treating other people as property everyone is impacted and not for the better. This book addresses this institution and through it relationships of power and their consequences.
The narrator is Manon Gaudet, wife of a sugar planter in Louisiana in 1828. Playing against her are primarily her husband and her slave, Sarah, who is also her husband's mistress. There is nothing ordinary about these people nor about their relationships, although at their time in history they were completely commonplace. I can see how many readers may find Manon unsympathetic, but I couldn't stop empathizing with her and the box that her time and station put her in.
Brilliant, disturbing, utterly readable and unforgettable.
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is certainly true in this book.Slavery, the peculiar institution, warps everyone it touches. From slave owners to actual slaves involvement in treating other people as property everyone is impacted and not for the better. This book addresses this institution and through it relationships of power and their consequences.
The narrator is Manon Gaudet, wife of a sugar planter in Louisiana in 1828. Playing against her are primarily her husband and her slave, Sarah, who is also her husband's mistress. There is nothing ordinary about these people nor about their relationships, although at their time in history they were completely commonplace. I can see how many readers may find Manon unsympathetic, but I couldn't stop empathizing with her and the box that her time and station put her in.
Brilliant, disturbing, utterly readable and unforgettable.
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LibraryThing member janeajones
This is a brilliantly written book revealing the corrosive effects of human ownership of other humans -- in slavery, in marriage, in families. Much has been written about this Orange Prize winner, so I'm not going to rehash the plot. Martin's skill lies in creating a narrator whom the reader at
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once despises and feels sympathy for. I couldn't put it down until I had finished it. Show Less
LibraryThing member schwager
After spending a semester studying slavery, and particularly slave insurrections this little gem popped up on my LibraryThing recommendations. The beauty of this book is the uncommon point of view from which it is written - that of the white mistress of the plantation. While most modern authors
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would have chosen to present this story from the slave's perspective, Martin bucks the trend. What results is a n excellent representation of a woman who is a product of her environment. A very interesting read. Show Less
LibraryThing member citygirl
Incisive short novel form the p-o-v of a plantation owner's wife in pre-Emancipation Louisiana. Manon Gaudet is royally pissed off because her husband turned out to be a dull, money-squandering brute with a taste for sadism. He's forced a sexual relationship on Sarah, a beautiful house 'servant,'
Why: it was on my mother-in-law's bookshelf and promised to provide a story to get lost in.
Author: I've read one other book by Martin, something about a villa in Italy, which I liked well enough, but did not think I'd read her again. I was quite impressed with Property.
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as Manon calls her. Despite the fact that he is as cruel, or crueler, to Sarah than he is to his wife, Manon bemoans her loneliness and isolation without ever considering that Sarah and she might be natural allies. In fact, she goes out of her way to ensure that Sarah shares her misery. I haven't run into a protagonist/narrator this unlikable since Humbert Humbert.Why: it was on my mother-in-law's bookshelf and promised to provide a story to get lost in.
Author: I've read one other book by Martin, something about a villa in Italy, which I liked well enough, but did not think I'd read her again. I was quite impressed with Property.
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LibraryThing member Fullmoonblue
Edna Pontellier ('The Awakening') meets Uncle Tom's Cabin with a touch of Beloved. This would be an okay text for an undergrad course on images of women in literature; it incisively raises the issue of one (white) woman's unthinking complicity in the enslavement of an(black)other.
LibraryThing member lizchris
A tale of nineteenth century plantation life, told by a planter's wife. At first, her voice seems clear and authoritative, she is almost funny about her loathing for her husband. But as the novel progresses, my view of her became much more ambiguous as the target of her hatred becomes one of her
I admired rather than enjoyed this book.
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slaves. I admired rather than enjoyed this book.
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LibraryThing member GarethPeterson
I did not enjoy this book. The characters were vile and I had no sympathy for them. Some of the scenes seemed disconnected from the story line: the breast feeding incident ,for example. The best thing going for this book is that it is an easy read.
LibraryThing member bettyjo
This book made me think of property in a whole new light.
LibraryThing member lauralkeet
Set in the 1830s, Property is the story of Manon, the wife of a Louisiana sugar cane plantation owner. Manon despises her boorish husband and is justifiably resentful of his affair with her housemaid Sarah, which has produced two children. She is disturbed by his cruel brutality towards his slaves.
Manon's days of idle leisure are interrupted both by her mother's illness and a slave revolt, Sarah's escape, and the subsequent effort to track her down and return her to Manon. These events provide some movement and force to the plot. The novel provides an unusual perspective -- that of a woman slaveowner -- and it definitely held my interest. However, in presenting Manon's story, the author appeared to maintain a rather neutral position on slavery. It seemed I was supposed to side with Manon in wishing for Sarah's return, when I wanted nothing more than for Sarah to find freedom. I believe this was an accurate portrayal of a certain type of individual during that time period, but I was unable to identify with her, which dampened my enthusiasm for this novel.
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And yet, she cannot escape values shaped during her own childhood in a slaveowning family. She holds her own father in high regard for having been a more compassionate owner, but fails to see the injustice of humans as property. Manon's days of idle leisure are interrupted both by her mother's illness and a slave revolt, Sarah's escape, and the subsequent effort to track her down and return her to Manon. These events provide some movement and force to the plot. The novel provides an unusual perspective -- that of a woman slaveowner -- and it definitely held my interest. However, in presenting Manon's story, the author appeared to maintain a rather neutral position on slavery. It seemed I was supposed to side with Manon in wishing for Sarah's return, when I wanted nothing more than for Sarah to find freedom. I believe this was an accurate portrayal of a certain type of individual during that time period, but I was unable to identify with her, which dampened my enthusiasm for this novel.
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LibraryThing member LibraryOMidas
I can't say that I enjoyed reading this book, for enjoyment at what I was reading was never an issue. I did, however, respect the point that Ms. Martin wrote about. I'm glad that I read the book and I found it very well written but it was uncomfortable for me at the same time. Valerie Martin delves
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into what property really is and who owns exactly what. Manon Gaudet does in fact own Sarah, her house slave, but as anyone who reads this can quickly see, Manon is also a piece of property in her house, "owned" by her husband. Show Less
LibraryThing member bachaney
Valerie Martin's Property takes the reader into the head of Manon, a wealthy white woman living near New Orleans in the late 1820s. Manon is married to a slave holding planter that she despises because of his open relationship with a household slave, Sarah, and his especially brutal treatment of
Property is a captivating read, but it is also a depressing look at a dark time in American history. There are no heroes in this story--everyone is guilty in this society built on using other human beings--but the narrative gives you an honest look at the emotional strain on a woman during this period. Martin does an excellent job of not imposing 21st century sentiments on Manon, who I believe is portrayed with stunning realism. Rarely do you find historical fiction from a woman's perspective that is this rich and well written. This book will make you think, and like Manon, you may not come to a happy conclusion.
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his field slaves. As a series of tragedies befall Manon, the reader accompanies Manon as she assesses her place in the world and the value of her life. By the end, the reader and Manon are left contemplating the "property" of the title--is it simply slaves like Sarah, or in a way is at all women, who are defined as property in this regimented and cruel society. Property is a captivating read, but it is also a depressing look at a dark time in American history. There are no heroes in this story--everyone is guilty in this society built on using other human beings--but the narrative gives you an honest look at the emotional strain on a woman during this period. Martin does an excellent job of not imposing 21st century sentiments on Manon, who I believe is portrayed with stunning realism. Rarely do you find historical fiction from a woman's perspective that is this rich and well written. This book will make you think, and like Manon, you may not come to a happy conclusion.
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LibraryThing member readingrebecca
Property by Valerie Martin is neither an easy book to review nor is it an easy book to read. The writing itself is wonderful, crisp and clean. It is the story itself that is so hard to read. Taking place in Louisiana in 1828, the description of the treatment of slaves on a plantation is almost
Telling the story is Manon Gaudet, wife of a slave owner. At the outset of the story Manon is, to my mind, one of the least sympathetic characters I’ve read about in a long time. She is completely self-absorbed, failing to see her husband’s slaves as human beings, only as property. She is very unhappy in her marriage and detests her husband, blaming everything wrong in her life on her husband and her marriage. Even when events change in her life, she still blames her marriage for her misery.
Property is extremely well written. Ms. Martin uses sparse language, but yet makes her point clear and paints pictures that are easy to see and understand. While not easy to read because of the subject matter, I feel it is a story that needs to be told. Valerie Martin’s book makes sure that we will not gloss over the suffering and misery of millions of Americans.
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painful to read. Fortunately while I was reading this book, our first African American president took office. This event juxtaposed with the reading of Property made the presidential inauguration seem even more special. The horrendous treatment of slaves described in this book makes the events of January 20, 2009, seem miraculous—and it only took us 180 years! Telling the story is Manon Gaudet, wife of a slave owner. At the outset of the story Manon is, to my mind, one of the least sympathetic characters I’ve read about in a long time. She is completely self-absorbed, failing to see her husband’s slaves as human beings, only as property. She is very unhappy in her marriage and detests her husband, blaming everything wrong in her life on her husband and her marriage. Even when events change in her life, she still blames her marriage for her misery.
Property is extremely well written. Ms. Martin uses sparse language, but yet makes her point clear and paints pictures that are easy to see and understand. While not easy to read because of the subject matter, I feel it is a story that needs to be told. Valerie Martin’s book makes sure that we will not gloss over the suffering and misery of millions of Americans.
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LibraryThing member 1morechapter
Winner of the 2003 Orange Prize, Property by Valerie Martin is an extremely readable story set in the South and is, obviously, about slavery and what it means to be free.
Manon is the wife of a cruel slaveowner and is miserable in her marriage. She idealizes her father, who was kind (relatively
It is ironic that Manon really is ‘property’ to her husband as well. I believe that is the thrust of the novel. There is a parallel story between her and her slave Sarah. Both desperately want freedom, but Manon cannot understand why Sarah won’t accept her position as slave. There is a certain scene between Manon and Sarah that I *did not* care for, but it illustrated Manon’s attitudes perfectly. She was enforcing her ‘ownership’ of Sarah just as her husband did.
I thought the story was leading up to a certain conclusion in the end, but it didn’t happen, and the book ends a bit abruptly. Though I wanted more, the book definitely is thought-provoking. It is a quick read — I read it in a single day, and I do recommend it if you’re interested in the time period or Orange Prize winners
Manon is the wife of a cruel slaveowner and is miserable in her marriage. She idealizes her father, who was kind (relatively
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speaking) to his slaves, and hates her husband, but really, she is not that kind to her slaves herself. Manon is not a likable character at all, though we do feel a little sympathetic toward her situation. Her attitudes toward slavery were probably typical of the time — in other words, deplorable.It is ironic that Manon really is ‘property’ to her husband as well. I believe that is the thrust of the novel. There is a parallel story between her and her slave Sarah. Both desperately want freedom, but Manon cannot understand why Sarah won’t accept her position as slave. There is a certain scene between Manon and Sarah that I *did not* care for, but it illustrated Manon’s attitudes perfectly. She was enforcing her ‘ownership’ of Sarah just as her husband did.
I thought the story was leading up to a certain conclusion in the end, but it didn’t happen, and the book ends a bit abruptly. Though I wanted more, the book definitely is thought-provoking. It is a quick read — I read it in a single day, and I do recommend it if you’re interested in the time period or Orange Prize winners
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LibraryThing member BellaFoxx
I just finished this book. It is primarily about the 'relationship' between slave holders and slaves. I kept comparing this to 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' which I feel deals with the morality of slavery. The main character in Property, does not feel there is anything wrong with owning another person. To
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her, the slaves are not people, they are property, at the same time, she is the 'property' of her husband. Everything that is hers, is his to do with however he wants, she has no say in it. I have mixed opinions about the ending, and I can't really say I liked this book, but it does make you think. Show Less
LibraryThing member Gary10
Short, well written, engaging story of a slave holding family in the South before the Civil War. Clever organizational detail is that the story is told through the eyes of a white woman with a philandering husband, who is in many ways as much a slave as the servants she supervises. The main
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character is also complicated by the fact that she is both victim and victimizer. I thought it was a fabulous book for getting the reader thinking about how corrosive the institution of slavery was on the individual family level. The book picks up added suspense because of the impending threat of uprising. Show Less
LibraryThing member BinnieBee
Wonderful book; very disturbing on a number of levels. I enjoyed it very much.
LibraryThing member Helenliz
I am uncertain as to what the author intends you to feel about the characters in this book. It is narrated by the wife of a plantation owner, Manon Gaudet. She is clearly not happy in her life or here marriage, comparing her husband unfavourably to both a friend she'd like to have married and her
The tale revolves around Manon and her house slave, Sarah. Manon imagines that she and Sarah share a bond in that they both have cause to hate her husband, as he has had two children on Sarah (one assumes not willingly, based on his other behaviour). But that manages to overlook the fact that Sarah is not free and Manon is unable to see that.
It is a well written book, eye opening, set at a really interesting place. Subject matter is not easy to read and every now and then there is something that brings you up sharp. An excellent book.
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father, who she perceives as having been perfect. IN fact neither man turns out to have been what she imagines they are, and her husband does something quite unexpected that should cause her to revise her opinion - but doesn't. She's too set in her opinions readily change her views. She is also unable to imagine that anyone else can suffer and that the system she is part of is in any way wrong or damaging to the people it makes use of. So at one level you have sympathy for her, but at another she has no sympathy for the slaves on the plantation and that makes her seem unsympathetic. The tale revolves around Manon and her house slave, Sarah. Manon imagines that she and Sarah share a bond in that they both have cause to hate her husband, as he has had two children on Sarah (one assumes not willingly, based on his other behaviour). But that manages to overlook the fact that Sarah is not free and Manon is unable to see that.
It is a well written book, eye opening, set at a really interesting place. Subject matter is not easy to read and every now and then there is something that brings you up sharp. An excellent book.
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LibraryThing member kelawrence
I liked this book a lot - as a matter of fact, I thought it was too short!! I would have liked it go farther into the future with the main character. Very interesting period in time and I liked the fact that this story was told from a woman's point of view.
LibraryThing member carmarie
The book was okay. An easy read. Although one thing kept me thinking. When she was considered "Property" did she treat Sara that same was in spite? I belive she did. There was a line she said to another character reguarding Sara's son Walter...saying that if she "had to live with him..she did
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Sara". I beleive she felt that way about everything, and in some way envied her. Show Less
LibraryThing member whitewavedarling
Deceptively simple, this is a striking and hypnotic novel that might easily be read in one sitting. The first person narrator here is a unique addition to contemporary fictions' looks at slavery, and Martin's relaxed style is an effective tool for not only engaging readers, but surprising them with
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their own sympathies by the end. Unlike some contemporary looks at slavery, the book is neither overwritten or simply a rewrite of the more well-known slave narratives. It is, however, engaging and worth reading. Additionally, Martin's style and the short sections make this a book that might be ideal for young adult reading clubs or programs, and at the very leas a book that both young adults and their parents can approach together, which seems a rare find in literary fiction. In short, this is absolutely recommended----a striking surprise. Show Less
LibraryThing member gregorybrown
Calling slavery "bad" sells it short in so many ways: it was a deeply perverse, fucked-up system of economic, social, and violent control that so infected everyday life in the South that it was impossible to escape and ignore. While we've all read about slavery in school, encountering the
The perverse ideology and "justice" of slavery is difficult to capture in fiction, which is why it's always a pleasure to see a work that does it well. The Known World by Edward P. Jones is my personal favorite, but Property by Valerie Martin also deserves a place in that company. The interesting thing about Martin's approach is picking a white female protagonist, paralleling (but never so callow as to equate) the systems of oppression governing both women and slaves—and at the intersection of both.
I'm hesitant to reveal too much of the book, as it's a slim 200 pages and pretty easy to read in a day as I did. But I should note that the book builds up to a disappointing conclusion. My wife enjoyed it more than I did, but it was a wet fart of an ending that doesn't really pay off on so much raised over the course of the story. It's an important moment for the character, but one that passes by largely unremarked. Some stories can do these kinds of anti-climaxes well—for example, the amazing ending to No Country for Old Men that pissed off so many people in theaters—but Property is not one of them. There's nothing wrong with the last page, except that it's the last.
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day-to-day realities is always a shocking experience, no matter how many times you've seen them before or how intellectually prepared you are.The perverse ideology and "justice" of slavery is difficult to capture in fiction, which is why it's always a pleasure to see a work that does it well. The Known World by Edward P. Jones is my personal favorite, but Property by Valerie Martin also deserves a place in that company. The interesting thing about Martin's approach is picking a white female protagonist, paralleling (but never so callow as to equate) the systems of oppression governing both women and slaves—and at the intersection of both.
I'm hesitant to reveal too much of the book, as it's a slim 200 pages and pretty easy to read in a day as I did. But I should note that the book builds up to a disappointing conclusion. My wife enjoyed it more than I did, but it was a wet fart of an ending that doesn't really pay off on so much raised over the course of the story. It's an important moment for the character, but one that passes by largely unremarked. Some stories can do these kinds of anti-climaxes well—for example, the amazing ending to No Country for Old Men that pissed off so many people in theaters—but Property is not one of them. There's nothing wrong with the last page, except that it's the last.
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Subjects
Awards
Women's Prize for Fiction (Longlist — 2003)
Salon Book Award (2003)
Original language
English
Original publication date
2003
Physical description
224 p.; 5.08 inches
ISBN
0349117322 / 9780349117324