Subject: Barbara Cartland Wrote a Novel Set in Haiti!!!

Date: Tue, 5 Aug 1997 20:01:27 -0700 (PDT)
From Bob Corbett

This afternoon I read my first ever (and probably last) Barbara Cartland novel. In case you don't know she's one of the most prolific and best known queens of romance novels. I have no doubt she's great at that genre, it's just not my cup of tea. But this one is set in Saint Domingue, so I read it and offer the following comments.

The novel is simply terrible, but the story had great potential. The setting is 1805. A Frenchman who's never been to Haiti goes there to try to recover buried treasure on his uncle's plantation, the uncle and all connected with him are dead. The Frenchman falls in love with a NUN! Now, there's a novel twist, and she, guided by Dumballah, who for some reason befriends the Frenchman -- supposedly because his uncle was a "nice" slave owner.

They recover the treasure -- huge bag of diamonds -- Frenchman and nun marry and -- novel ends here -- presumably live luxuriously and happily forever after, no matter that the wealth is ill begotten from slave labor.

Actually the book was historically rather accurate though superficial. Dessalines was built up as quite a butcher.

So, I've done my deed to see what was in this strange book that came to me in the mail a few weeks ago. Nice thing about the novel was it only took about 1 1/2 hours to read the 162 pages with some care! No need to read it. All you'd really ever wish to know is in the few paragraphs above!

Bob Corbett

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