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Summary —
The novel recounts the teenage years of Octavian Nothing, a slave born in Boston of the American Colonies and raised by his mother and a collection of scientifically minded gentlemen that comprise the Novanglian College of Lucidity under the watch of Mr. Gitney. Octavian is raised with a formidable classical education, being trained in Latin, Greek, French, philosophy, natural philosophy, mathematics, and violin. Octavian eventually learns that he and his mother are owned property and part of an experiment to determine if the African race is in fact equal or inferior to the European race. Soon after he learns this fact, he devotes himself with greater zeal to his studies. The financial benefactor to the Novanglian College of Lucidity dies, and his nephew who has inherited his uncle’s title comes to visit Boston and inspect Gitney’s household. Lord Cheldthorpe become enamored with Cassiopeia, Octavian’s mother, but is eventually rebuffed when it becomes clear he intends for her to be his mistress, not his wife. Cassiopeia and Octavian are bound and whipped, and Cheldthorpe returns to England furious. After this incident, the finances of the Gitney household abruptly change, and the whole enterprise comes under the watchful eye of Mr, Sharpe, who represents the moneyed interest of several colonial businessmen who own slaves and are very much interested in having scientific evidence that supports slavery. Much of the servants, the experimental instruments, and the paintings in the Gitney household are sold off, and Octavian’s duties now involve taking over the duties previously performed by the now-sold slaves; he’s trained in his new duties by Bono, another one of the Gitney slaves who eventually runs away after he is gifted to a Southern benefactor to the College. Octavian’s learning is also drastically changed, so that Dr. Trefusis now doesn’t offer classical text to read that have historical or philosophical value, but rather he is forced to translate dry and difficult legal documents and other text that have no narrative element. As the colonies grow closer to insurrection, Mr. Gitney decides to move the household out to the country where he invites relatives to join him for a pox party; they will all be inoculated against the pox. It later comes to light that Gitney is afraid of a slave insurrection, whose efforts are rumored to be supported by the British crown. Most of the Gitney household have varying degrees of illness, but three in the pox party die, including Cassiopeia. Octavian finds Mr. Gitney in the process of dissecting his mother and he flies into a rage, running away and joining the Revolutionary forces, hoping to die at the hands of the British redcoats. Octavian, now a runaway slaves, goes by the name Prince, and is eventually recaptured and returned to Mr. Sharpe. He is kept bound in chains and an iron mask, and as Sharpe explains, his actions have helped prove that despite the education he’s been given, his race is obviously inferior to the European race. While Octavian faces his captors, Dr. Trefusis has poisoned the tea with a sedative and he helps Octavian run away once more. The book ends with Dr. Trefusus and Octavian fleeing to a besieged Boston.
Lucien’s thoughts —
Most of the book is told as if were the written account of Octavian himself, a smart and dispassionate youth well educated in the best education available at the height of the 18th century. Several of the passages concerning his mother’s death are made to look as if they’ve been redacted by his own hand, with scratches and smears helping to show how distraught he is. His time when he had run away is told via epistles from some of the people Octavian meets along the way. Anderson’s novel is an interesting account of a fictional character and a fictional scientific society, but the fact is that there were several inquiries along the lines of these that were conducted, and often times the results were skewed to support the ideologies of the time that held there were insurmountable differences between the races. It favorably reminds me of parts of the Neal Stephenson novel Quicksilver. Anderson's book provides a fascinating different lens with which to view the historical birth of a nation, laying bare the hypocrisy of a population that was trying to break free from one set of bondage while simultaneously supporting another set of bondage. It’s a very powerful story and I’m curious to read the sequel, to see what happens to Octavian and Bono.
Librarian’s use —
I think that one of the interesting features of this book is that parts of it are told via letters, scientific journals, and clippings from newspapers, formats that juxtapose very well with the clear and loft prose of Octavian’s writing. The librarian could perhaps assemble non-fiction books that have transcripts of real primary sources from the time period, and thus use the book as a springboard into real historical research of the epoch.
Perhaps this novel can also be used in conjunction with other historical fiction books about slaves’ roles the American Revolution, like Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains and Forge and Ann Rinaldi’s Wolf By The Ears. Even if these other books are aimed at a slightly lower reading level, they also discuss the role of slaves and freedmen during this period of time.
Other reviews —
Donelson, K. (2007). The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation, Volume I. The pox party. English journal, 97 (1), 94-95.
This astonishing mixture of political and social history in the 1760s and 1770s could logically have been called The Education of Octavian. It is narrated, mostly, by the young Octavia, who lives with the lovely Cassiopeia, who is his mother and the faculty of the Novanglian College of Lucidity. Mr. Gitney and members of the college divine the secrets of the universe by writing poetry, drawing, and performing sundry experiments, among them taking a dog n, showing affection to it, and then drowning it to see how long the dog takes to die. While the College may remind readers of Swifts Grand Academy of Lagada with all its madness, their experiments are more cruel… Octavian has no idea who he is, but Mr. Gitney’s valet, Bono, makes the boy see that Octavian is as African as Bono. With this realization, Octavian understands that he is nothing more than a zoological experiment to the college. Mr. Gitney tells Octavian, “We wish to divine whether you are a separate and distinct species.” Octavian, confused, asks, “You wish to prove I am the equal of any other?” Gitney corrects the boy: “We wish to prove nothing, We simply aim at discovering the truth.” (49, italics in original). Later, money that the College desperately needs come from a consortium eager to prove that Africans are inferior to White people, and at that point, Octavian’s education changes.
Anderson is a born storyteller. His convoluted plot, full of horrors and, surprisingly enough, humor, will keep reader alert. One episode, “The Pox Party,” is unquestionably the most memorable and most disturbing. The pox contagion is near the college, and Mr. Gitney invites prominent people to dance; play cards; consume great amounts of food, wine, and spirits; and also to be inoculated. He has secured “from a pest-house in Salem, a glass full of contaminate matter from the pox-sores of the dead” (187). Crude inoculations by Gitney’s scalpel soon begin. Octavian’s mother is not the first to catch the pox, but her death is slowly and surely the most horrible… Much of Octavian departs with her. Most of Anderson’s readers will follow him through Volume II. Certainly, I will.
The astonishing life of Octavian Nothing, traitor to the nation: Volume 1, The pox party. (2006). Kirkus reviews, 74 (18), 945.
A historical novel of prodigious scope, power and insight, set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War. Readers are seduced by a gothic introduction to the child Octavian, whose bizarre situation is both lavish and eerie. Octavian is domiciled with a gentleman scholar at the "College of Lucidity." A sentient being, he is a living experiment, from his classical education to the notated measurement of his bodily intake and output; as such, the study will degenerate from earnest scholarly investigation to calculated sociopolitical propaganda. Upon learning that he's a slave, Octavian resolves to prove his excellence. But events force the destitute College to depend on a new benefactor who demands research that proves the inferiority of the black race. Like many Africans, Octavian runs away, joining the Revolutionary army, which fights for "liberty," while ironically never assuring slaves freedom. Written in a richly faithful 18th-century style, the revelations of Octavian's increasingly degraded circumstances slowly, horrifyingly unfold to the reader as they do to Octavian. The cover's gruesomely masked Octavian epitomizes a nation choking on its own hypocrisy. This is the Revolutionary War seen at its intersection with slavery through a disturbingly original lens.
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