A Free Man of Color

by Barbara Hambly

Book Overview

It is 1833, and as Mardi Gras draws near, carnival fever mounts in the streets and ballrooms of old New Orleans. Benjamin January has found a job playing piano at the Salle d'Orleans. It is a position that allows him a view of the riotous goings-on. But on this night, Ben finds himself doing more than observing.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553102583
• ISBN13: 9780553102581
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series

Why is Hollywood not doing a movie about this character? He is smart,educated, black. The stories take place in prewar New Orleans. History, mystery, and interesting! Slavery is dealt with realistically and compassionately by the author who lives in California, last I read..

Amazing series!

I absolutely love this series....I love the time and place that the novel is based in. I enjoyed the characters and it's so easy to visualize the beauty of the era. I'm so excited to read the entire series. I highly recommend Barbara Hambly.... I'd never heard of her and stumbled upon this book by accident. I already have the second book in my TBR pile. Definitely pick this up!!!

Amazing

I cannot believe I have lived this long and never read a book by Barbara Hambly. I have fallen in love with this series and with the intelligent, quick thinking Benjamin January. I started reading this series during the pandemic and I have loved being transported to another world, 1830s New Orleans, especially never having been to NOLA in real life. People who enjoy historical fiction, and folks who like a good mystery will find this book engaging ang enjoyable (and educational for me). Benjamin January is now one of my favorite protagonists of all time!

Hooked...

A friend of mine, who is also an avid reader, introduced me to this series and I almost freaked when I read it. How did I miss this wonderful series for years? Engrossing story, extremely descriptive and a good mystery to boot. Very well done, afraid I'm hooked.

What a finely written and engrossing mystery!

This book definitely falls into the "how did I miss this?" category. Barbara Hambly is an extremely gifted writer capable of writing atomospheric prose full of emotion and marvelously descriptive. When those gifts are in the hands of someone who can also craft a good mystery, watch out! I am a big fan of historical mysteries, but only if they ring true--if the author somehow manages to evoke the spirit of the times in every character. A Free Man of Color does that, transporting us to the socially confusing and racially diverse world of New Orleans in the decades before the American Civil War.Hambly paints with remarkable accuracy all the shades and tones of Creole culture: from the French plantation owners down through the mixed race free people of color, and down to the black slaves. Her hero, Benjamin January, is not only a gifted musician but a Paris-educated surgeon, who returned to New Orleans after the death of his wife in Europe. He returns to the city as an insider/outsider, the perfect person to observe the actions of society. When a beautiful mixed race mistress to a wealthy Creole planter turns up at the annual Blue Ribbon Ball in New Orleans, January is there to observe, to analyze, and finally to solve the mystery of her death.If you like vivid historical mysteries I think you will love this book!

Twisted Chapter in American History

Wow, what a strange book. It made me angry, because it was pretty much fact-based. Pity that busy monster, ManUnkind: we humans can sure talk ourselves into some crazy ways of life. Here we have whites who despise the blacks but will have loads of children by the quarter-blacks, who look down on the full-blooded blacks, who are all looked down on by 'octoroons.' I don't know which group to feel sorrier for, but the whites are certainly swallowing as big a load of bullcrap as they ever fed the slaves. Ben January is a 'colored' man who escaped to Paris, where he learned surgery and music and walked the streets as just another citizen. Returning to New Orleans, he finds he doesn't fit in anymore. He's lost the slave mentality, and as a result he stands out like a big black sore thumb. But he hasn't fallen into hatred, and he solves the mystery he falls into instead with a clear eye. Makes you proud to be a human, of whatever color.

Walk on gilded splinters

Ever wanted to go back in time? Just hop in the time machine and see the past? Read this; you'll be cured. Hambly leads us down a muddy path into New Orleans at the height of the slavery days, and shows it to us in all its stinking glory through the educated eyes of freeman Benjamin January; a Paris-educated 'colored' whose surgical training and skill on the piano mean little to the white inhabitants of the French-speaking city. January has fled Paris to escape the ghost of his cholera-slain wife, and is a cultured fellow who gives us a slightly modern viewpoint as he struggles to fit back into a world in which he is not allowed to look a white in the eye. Hambly starts with a glossary of the names used to distinguish degrees of prized white blood: octoroon, griffe, sambo. The rich planters all have octoroon or quadroon mistresses, who live in houses bought by their protectors through their mothers' negotiations, and who birth more octoroons and quadroons for the 'placee' system. The white and colored balls are held side by side, and the men circulate between wife and mistress all night. It's not a pretty picture, and January, from his vantage point as the pianist on the white side, sees it all ... all except the moment when a colored girl is strangled, and the blame begins to shift his way. January must solve the crime himself or be blamed for it, and risking slavery, voodoo, and humiliation along the way, solve it he does. Every character in this book, from the Prussian swordmaster Mayerling to the old scarfaced Ewe tribesman Lucius, is trapped in the web of their unsavory culture. It's a clear indictment of the human race; we should all be whipped for letting stuff like this go on. Only the outsiders like Ben and the ridiculous Kaintuck policeman Abishag Shaw have a chance to rise above the steamy, muck-filled gutters and see a hopeful future. A good mystery book, too: all the clues are there if you look back. But I think I'm developing a prejudice against white people after reading it ...

The more detail, the better!

I really enjoyed how much detail this author provided in the book. I was not knowledgeable of the 1830's/New Orleans and had a wonderful time reading about all the different levels of society and conflicts of that time. I felt Hambly gave enough information to make me feel as if I were a part of the story - a fly on the wall if you will. That to me, is the sign of an extremely talented writer.

A work of art

"Free Man of Color" evokes the splendor, gaiety and troubles of New Orleans in the early 19th century, when the Americans were uncouth newcomers. The book is expertly plotted and the characters are vivid without crowding out events. Once the book is read, however, it is not "who done it" that will linger in the reader's mind, but the images of this past time and place -- quadroon balls, sugar plantations, slave dances in Congo Square, Kaintuck traders, and "the custom of the country." Along the way, Ms. Hambly gently corrects a chunk of the folklore that I, at least, was taught in grade school as "history" (she does the same thing with Rome in "Search the Seven Hills"). I would recommend this book to any lover of a well-paced plot and well-used language, not just mystery fans.