Publisher's Synopsis
Available to readers for the first time, Aimé Césaire's three act drama .....And the Dogs Were Silent dramatizes the Haitian Revolution and the rise and fall of Toussaint Louverture as its heroic leader. This bilingual English and French edition—written during the Vichy regime in Martinique in 1943—was lost until 2008 and stands apart from Césaire's more widely known 1946 closet drama. Following the slave revolts that sparked the revolution, Louverture arrives as both prophet and poet, general and visionary. With striking dramatic technique, Césaire retells the revolution in poignant encounters between rebels and colonial forces, guided by a prophetic chorus and Louverture's steady ethical and political vision. In the last act, we reach the hero's betrayal, imprisonment, and his last stand against the lures of compromise. Césaire's masterwork is a strikingly beautiful and brutal indictment of colonial cruelty and an unabashed celebration of Black rebellion and victory.
