The Confessions of Frannie Langton: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
Don't miss the TV miniseries, streaming now exclusively on BritBox!
"A blistering historical thriller." — Entertainment Weekly
A servant and former slave is accused of murdering her employer and his wife in this breathtaking debut that moves from a Jamaican sugar plantation to the fetid streets of Georgian London—a gripping historical thriller with echoes of Alias Grace, The Underground Railroad, and The Paying Guests.
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being tried at the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.
But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn't know how she came to be covered in the victims' blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams' London home—and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.
Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.
A brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression that penetrates the skin and sears the soul, it is the story of a woman of her own making in a world that would see her unmade.
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Sara Collins. (2019). The Confessions of Frannie Langton: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Sara Collins. 2019. The Confessions of Frannie Langton: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Sara Collins, The Confessions of Frannie Langton: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2019.
MLA Citation (style guide)Sara Collins. The Confessions of Frannie Langton: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2019.
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Sara Collins is of Jamaican descent and grew up in Grand Cayman and studied law at the London School of Economics and worked as a lawyer for seventeen years before doing a Master of Studies in Creative Writing at Cambridge University, where she was the recipient of the 2015 Michael Holroyd Prize for Creative Writing. Twitter: @mrsjaneymac
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Don't miss the TV miniseries, streaming now exclusively on BritBox!
"A blistering historical thriller." — Entertainment Weekly
A servant and former slave is accused of murdering her employer and his wife in this breathtaking debut that moves from a Jamaican sugar plantation to the fetid streets of Georgian London—a gripping historical thriller with echoes of Alias Grace, The Underground Railroad, and The Paying Guests.
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being tried at the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.
But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn't know how she came to be covered in the victims' blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams' London home—and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.
Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself.
A brilliant, searing depiction of race, class, and oppression that penetrates the skin and sears the soul, it is the story of a woman of her own making in a world that would see her unmade.
- reviews
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- source: O: The Oprah Magazine, “The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019”
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"Collins's propulsive spine-tingler uses the conventions of historical fiction but infuses the genre with edgy beauty. . . . In her deft hands, defiant Frannie summons courage and cunning to tell a story of colonialism, racism, and the yearning to connect." — O: The Oprah Magazine, "The Best Books by Women of Summer 2019"
“Deep-diving, elegant + tough.” — Margaret Atwood via @MargaretAtwood
"A blistering historical thriller." — Entertainment Weekly
"A well-crafted, searing depiction of race, class and oppression." — New York Times
"A startling, compelling historical debut novel. . . should be on top of your vacation reading pile." — Washington Post
“A highly accomplished debut. . . . Large, lavish and gutsy, a skilled and intoxicating mash-up of slave narrative, gothic romance, whodunit and legal thriller. Collins—who lives in London and is of Jamaican descent—pays careful attention to historical detail while at the same time ensuring her reader stays immersed in her emotional drama and invested in her full-bodied characters.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Impressive. . . . Retrieving the truth—all sorts of truth—is the transfixing work of this rich and extravagantly well-written novel." — Wall Street Journal
"[An] impressive debut. . . . a bold and timely reinvention of the classic gothic novel. . . . reminiscent of the best of Sarah Waters. . . . Collins has created a truly memorable heroine and written a compelling gothic novel for our times." — The Guardian
"There is lots to love in this impressive debut. Sara Collins is interesting on race and power. Frannie is an unforgettable character with a delicious, wicked turn of phrase. . . . Collins is a star in the making." — The Times (London)
“Captivating. . . . a beguiling story with strong feminist overtones.” — Irish Times
“An absorbing, utterly searing read . . . . As immersive as The Confessions of Frannie Langton is, its real power is in how it will make you want to engage with your own reality differently.” — The Globe and Mail
“A formidable debut.” — Refinery29, Books We Can't Wait to Read This Spring”
“It's truly remarkable that The Confessions of Frannie Langton is Sara Collins' first novel. The plotting is so assured, the characters so layered, the prose so searing. . . . the historical setting hums with life. . . . Collins has gifted us with a powerful new heroine while shining a brilliant spotlight on a swathe of history that is too often relegated to footnotes.” — Criminal Element
“Powerful. . . .both a highly suspenseful murder mystery and a vivid historical novel, but best of all is the depiction of Frannie, a complex and unforgettable protagonist. This is a great book sure to find a wide—and deserved—audience.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Collins' debut novel administers a bold and vibrant jolt to both the gothic and historical fiction genres. . . . Most of all, she has created in her title character a complex, melancholy, and trenchantly observant protagonist. . . . as dynamic and compelling as any character conceived by a Brontë sister. . . [a] gripping, groundbreaking debut.” — Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)
Sara Collins...
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Starred review from March 1, 2019
There's betrayal, depravity, pseudoscience, forbidden love, drug addiction, white supremacy, and, oh yes, a murder mystery with tightly wound knots to unravel.The citizenry of 1826 London has worked itself into near apoplexy over the sensational trial of "The Mulatta Murderess," aka Frances Langton, a Jamaican servant accused of brutally stabbing her white employers to death. Though caught on the night of the murders covered with blood, Frances cannot remember what happened and thus cannot say whether or not she is guilty. "For God's sake, give me something I can save your neck with," her lawyer pleads. And so Frannie, who, despite having been born into slavery, became adept at reading and writing, tries to find her own way to the truth the only way she can: By writing her life's story from its beginnings on a West Indian plantation called Paradise whose master, John Langton, is a vicious sadist. He uses Frannie for sex and as a "scribe" taking notes on his hideous experiments into racial difference using skulls, blood, and even skin samples. After a fire destroys much of his plantation, Langton takes Frannie to London and makes her a gift to George Benham, an urbane scientist engaged in the same dubious race-science inquiries. Frannie's hurt over her abandonment is soon dispelled by her fascination with Benham's French-born wife, Marguerite, a captivating beauty whose lively wit and literary erudition barely conceal despondency that finds relief in bottles of laudanum. A bond forms between mistress and servant that swells and tightens into love, leading to a tempest of misunderstanding, deceit, jealousy, and, ultimately, death. Collins' debut novel administers a bold and vibrant jolt to both the gothic and historical fiction genres, embracing racial and sexual subtexts that couldn't or wouldn't have been imagined by its long-ago practitioners. Her evocations of early-19th-century London and antebellum Jamaica are vivid and, at times, sensuously graphic. Most of all, she has created in her title character a complex, melancholy, and trenchantly observant protagonist; too conflicted in motivation, perhaps, to be considered a heroine but as dynamic and compelling as any character conceived by a Brontë sister.Collins invokes both Voltaire and Defoe here, and she forges an unlikely but sadly harmonic connection with both these enlightenment heroes in her gripping, groundbreaking debut.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from March 25, 2019
Collins’s debut is a powerful portrayal of the horrors of slavery and the injustices of British society’s treatment of former slaves in the early 1800s. Frannie Langton lives as John Langton’s slave in Jamaica from 1812 until 1825. When the harvest burns, ownership of the land reverts to Langton’s wife and her brother, and Langton returns to London with Frannie. Once in London, he gives Frannie as a servant to fellow scientist George Benham and his wife, Meg, a woman intrigued by Frannie and the breadth of her education. Benham asks Frannie to spy on Meg, whom he thinks might do something to embarrass him socially; meanwhile, Frannie and Meg become lovers. But when Benham and Meg are murdered, Frannie is arrested. She claims no memory of the crime, and a good defense seems unlikely both because of her race and her spotty memory. Frannie’s dislike of Benham, her jealousy of his relationship with Meg, and memory gaps caused by Frannie’s use of laudanum add to the reader’s uncertainty of her involvement. This is both a highly suspenseful murder mystery and a vivid historical novel, but best of all is the depiction of Frannie, a complex and unforgettable protagonist. This is a great book sure to find a wide—and deserved—audience.
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March 1, 2019
In her historical first novel, Collins, a lawyer and prize-winning writer of Jamaican descent, introduces Frances Langton, whose life traces a trajectory from mulatta slave in the West Indies to maid for a member of Georgian high society to the Old Bailey via incest, horror, and murder. Collins' prose, awash in a sea of similes that threatens to drown the reader, is nevertheless effective in creating a vivid voice for Frannie's first-person narration while providing a convincing sense of place in her depiction of a Jamaican sugar plantation and its inhabitants. There are many monsters here and no heroes, with men made loose by balls and bragging, with no earthly notion how tight it can get inside a woman's skin. Collins throws various genres into a literary blender to produce a heady, gothic, mad-scientist, bildungsroman, lesbian, feminist portrait of a marriage; slave narrative; and upstairs-downstairs murder-mystery and courtroom-drama smoothie. Fans of any of these elements will be drawn to this absorbing novel of a woman boxed in by geography, chronology, gender, and the color of her skin.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)
- premium: True
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May 1, 2019
Accused of murdering her employers in Georgian London, Frannie Langton recalls nothing about the event but everything about her childhood on a Jamaican plantation and apprenticeship with an ethics-breaching scientist. A debut from a Michael Holroyd Prize winner; with a 50,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Don't miss the TV miniseries, streaming now exclusively on BritBox!
"A blistering historical thriller." — Entertainment Weekly
A servant and former slave is accused of murdering her employer and his wife in this breathtaking debut that moves from a Jamaican sugar plantation to the fetid streets of Georgian London—a gripping historical thriller with echoes of Alias Grace, The Underground Railroad, and The Paying Guests.
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being tried at the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master...
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