Stella. Emeric Bergeaud
America and the Long 19th Century
General Editors: David Kazanjian, Elizabeth McHenry, and Priscilla Wald
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Stella
Émeric Bergeaud
Translated and Edited by Lesley S. Curtis and Christen Mucher
Stella
Émeric Bergeaud
Translated and Edited by Lesley S. Curtis and Christen Mucher
A Novel of the Haitian Revolution
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
© 2015 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that
may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bergeaud, Emeric, 1818–1857, author. [Stella. English]
Stella / Émeric Bergeaud ; translated and edited by Lesley S. Curtis and Christen Mucher.
pages cm. — (America and the long 19th century)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4798-6684-7 (cl : acid-free paper)
ISBN 978-1-4798-9240-2 (pb : acid-free paper)
I. Curtis, Lesley S., editor, translator. II. Mucher, Christen, editor, translator. III. Title.
PQ3949.B43S7413 2015
843’.8—dc23 2015009275
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials
to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Also available as an ebook
Contents
Editors’ Acknowledgments
Editors’ Introduction
Lesley S. Curtis and Christen Mucher
Author’s Note
To the Reader
B. Ardouin
Stella
Glossary of Foreign Words and Expressions
Original Explanatory Notes
Editors’ Notes
About the Editors
Editors’ Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the many people who helped make this project possible, especially our series editors David Kazanjian, Elizabeth McHenry, and Priscilla Wald, as well as Eric Zinner, Ciara McLaughlin, Alicia Nadkarni, and the editorial team at NYU Press. We would also like to extend our thanks to Deborah Jenson and the members of Duke University’s Haiti Lab, who gave us the opportunity to discuss early Haitian literature with an incredible group of scholars. Thanks go, too, to Laurent Dubois, Jacques Pierre, Floyd Cheung, Larry Rosenwald, and Sean Moore. The publication of this book would not have been possible without the subvention support generously provided by Smith College. For this, we are very grateful. We must also thank Cybelle McFadden, who orchestrated the serendipitous meeting at the Atlantic World Research Network in Greensboro, North Carolina, that gave life to this project. Finally, this work would certainly not exist without the faithful and loving support of our friends and family, including Colleen Woods and the extended Mucher and Struewing families, Nancy Wilson, Elizabeth Wilson, Brian McDonald, Cord Whitaker, and our brand new stella maris, London Olivia Grace.
Editors’ Introduction
Émeric Bergeaud (1818–1858), Haitian politician and man of letters, explained in the prefatory note to Stella that he had taken pains not to “disfigure history” in the writing of his only novel. Although Stella’s main characters—Romulus, Remus, the Colonist, Marie the African, and Stella—are fictional, Bergeaud assured his readers that there was truth in the book he wrote to honor his country. He wanted the “attraction of the novel” to “capture” readers “who do not subject themselves to in-depth study of our annals.” Like other Haitian writers of the nineteenth century, Bergeaud believed it was crucial to retell the Haitian Revolution from a positive perspective so as to counter the hostile representations of his country that were so common at the time. For this reason, the novelist wanted his story of Haiti’s transformation from French colony to independent nation to alter the perception of his native country both at home and afar.
Stella,