Sab (novel)
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''Sab'' is a novel written by Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda and published in Madrid in 1841. The novel centers around the character of Sab, a mulato slave who is in love with his white master's daughter Carlota. The pain of Sab's unrequited love for Carlota leads Sab to his own death, which occurs during Carlota's wedding to Enrique Otway. The novel was not published in
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
until 1914. ''Sab'' is regarded by some scholars as an anti-slavery novel, and some have also suggested that it criticizes the institution of marriage. The novel was written a decade before
Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and wrote the popular novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (185 ...
's ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...
''. According to Nina M. Scott, ''Sab'', just like Beecher Stowe's novel, criticizes slavery as a displacement of what Elizabeth Ammons calls "maternal values by a profit-hungry masculine ethic he slave economythat regards human beings as... commodities." The publishing of ''Sab'' is considered a precursor to the antislavery movements. For another critic, ''Sab'' is "the only feminist-abolitionist novel published by a woman in nineteenth-century Spain or its slave-holding colony Cuba."


Plot

The novel is set on a sugar plantation located halfway between the city of Santa María de Puerto Príncipe (modern-day Camagüey) and the village of Cubitas. While most of the novel takes places at the plantation, some of it takes place in Puerto Príncipe, in the Cubitas Mountains, and in the northern port of Guanaja. Enrique Otway, an English tradesman, seeks to marry Carlota because he thinks that this arrangement will bring him money. As the story develops, Sab learns of Enrique's dishonorable conduct and tries to secretly aid Carlota.


Background

Although ''Sab'' was initially published in Madrid in December 1841, Avellaneda began writing the book in Cuba and continued working on it during the two-month journey to Europe in 1836.


Translations

''Sab'' was translated into English by Nina M. Scott in 1993, and published by the
University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is the university press of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly and trade books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Caribbean, Caribbea ...
.


Notes


References

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External links


''Sab'': Online Edition (Spanish)
1841 novels Spanish-language novels Feminist novels Cuban novels Novels about slavery {{poli-novel-stub