A Chain of Voices (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: André Brink
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Historical chronicle
- Time of Work: From the 1780’s to 1826
- Setting: Several farms in the frontier area north of Cape Town, South Africa
- Principal Characters: Piet van der Merwe, Alida van der Merwe (nee de Villier), Barend van der Merwe, Nicolaas van der Merwe, Hester van der Merwe, Cecilia van der Merwe, Galant, Ma Rose, Bet, Pamela
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: Family or family life, Race, Crime or criminals, Murder or homicide, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Revolutions, Social issues, Farms, farmers, or farming, Eighteenth century, South Africa or South Africans, Apartheid, Insurgency
- Locales: South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa
The Novel
André Brink’s novel is framed by a legal deposition, including criminal charges, which opens it, and by a legal verdict, including the results of the investigation, which concludes it. In the quasi-legal documents, dated 1825, the reader discerns only the “facts” of a reported slave insurrection on the three van der Merwe family farms; eleven defendants are charged with the conspiracy, which has resulted in three murders and the serious wounding of a woman. Against the clinical, authoritative tone of the legal framework, Brirk sets four sections of his...
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