A Respectable Trade

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Frances and Mehuru are the main characters, but we also follow the Cole family's story. Josiah Cole is gullible and ambitious. Unlike Frances, he is morally ambivalent, desperate for ready cash, and prepared to gamble everything to join the big players of the city. But both he and his sister had very humble beginnings. Their father was a collier, and his older sister Sarah has worked hard all her life to establish a firm base for their trade, Philippa is a member of the Society of Authors and in 2016, was presented with the Outstanding Contribution to Historical Fiction Award by the Historical Writers’ Association. In 2018, she was awarded an Honorary Platinum Award by Nielsen for achieving significant lifetime sales across her entire book output.

A Respectable Trade[19/04/98] (1998) | BFI A Respectable Trade[19/04/98] (1998) | BFI

The dream must mean something. Mehuru had trained as an obalawa – a priest – one of the highest priests in the land. He should be able to divine his own dreams. Fans of Gregory’s phenomenally successful Tudor novels will encounter a more somber, pensive writer in A Respectable Trade. Re-issued by Touchstone, this novel set in 18th century Bristol offers a painful glimpse into the flourishing slave trade of the era, which enabled the majority of England’s enterprising merchants and the nation at large to amass fortunes at the cost of unimaginable human suffering. Rather than opt for comfortable characters and pat storylines, Ms Gregory has crafted a quiet, powerful meditation on the nature of mankind’s inhumanity toward our fellow man, and the compromises we make to excuse and obscure our choices. I also liked seeing Mehuru and his interactions with the other slaves. I wish they had a bit more development though, especially Mehuru, seeing as how he was one of the main characters.

If this book was JUST historical fiction, it would've been trashy, a bit melodramatic and pretty dang fun to read. However, Ms. Gregory had to make it a romance too, which ruined it. As to Settlements and Dowry – these certainly should be Arranged between his lordship and myself – but may I Assure you that you will find me Generous if you are Kind enough to look on my Proposal with favour. I liked seeing Frances grow as a character. She starts out being shy and submissive, willing to do whatever people tell her to do without asking any questions, but as the novel continues, she slowly becomes more independent, and realizes that what her husband is doing isn't entirely sound at all. That being said, the criticism some readers have made about the way Frances’s moral quandry is resolved in the final chapter is pretty valid. Rather than have Frances be brave and confront injustice and live bravely for her convictions, she gets to…die. Kind of a cop-out on Gregory’s part, though it’s possibly preferable to France and Mehuru sailing off to Sierra Leone to live happily together forever and ever. But like I said, this is still a Philippa Gregory book.

A Respectable Trade by Gregory Philippa - AbeBooks A Respectable Trade by Gregory Philippa - AbeBooks

Her flair for blending history and imagination developed into a signature style and Philippa went on to write many bestselling novels, including The Other Boleyn Girl and The White Queen.However, it was a fairly slow novel at points, mainly because a lot of the dialogue just focused on trade and business. I understand why, but I didn't think so much focus on it was entirely necessary. I also felt the other side characters weren't developed enough. There was simply too many of them, and I think she should've kept the focus on the two main characters, and then maybe throw in another side character or two to develop. The institution of slavery is thus at the heart of this story, and all the characters in the novel are involved in the trade, or profiting from it - either directly or indirectly. In one way or another, slavery drives all their actions. The novel mainly concerns Frances Scott, an orphan who is living on the kindness of her aunt and uncle, Lord and Lady Scott, and working unhappily as a governess. She sees an advertisement for a new position advertised by Josiah Cole, a merchant involved in the slave trade. Frances has always known about slavery but only in a distant way, But what she doesn't know is that Josiah is in his fever to land a rich wife and progress in trade is dealing in uninsured trips to "acquire" slaves. Philippa Gregory is a well-known author mainly for her Tudor Court series which is a favourite time period in history for me. I have read all the Tudor novels and loved them immensely like many others, so I thought I would give her earlier books a try. If your view of Philippa Gregory is of an English historical novelist with a romantic slant, that is a fair description. She has won the "Romantic Novel of the Year Award" among others. But with A Respectable Trade, published in 1992, she was aiming for something a little different. It is an historical novel about the slave trade in England, and set in 18th century Bristol. Highly regarded, the script she wrote from it won an award from the "Committee for Racial Equality", and the film was subsequently shown worldwide.

A Respectable Trade (1998) - Turner Classic Movies A Respectable Trade (1998) - Turner Classic Movies

Fundamentally Philippa Gregory's interest lies in the realms of highly-coloured speculation and romance. A popular English historical novelist, she has written a couple of historical novels set during the English Civil War, a 17th century trilogy about the love of land and about incest, novels about the Plantagenets, ruling houses which preceded the Tudors, and also novels about the Wars of the Roses. In recent years Philippa Gregory seems to have cornered the market in these novels set in the Tudor period, with "The Other Boleyn Girl" being such a runaway success, that it was dramatised both for televison and also made into a film, spawning many sequels, and many further very popular series on television. A premissa era boa e a autora alinhavou a história com todos os ingredientes para um belíssimo livro. The storyline is an interesting one, and Philippa Gregory has some skill in conveying both a strong sense of place and the immediacy of the moment. The first two thirds of the book are highly enjoyable as a fictionalised account, of a possible scenario, in a very real snapshot of part of England's shameful history. However, a plot development had been signalled very early on, and the final chapters sacrifice much for this particular plotline. A romantic element is only a part of a strong story such as this. It is always in danger of overwhelming the text, as it does here. The devastating consequences of the slave trade in 18th century Bristol are explored through the powerful but impossible attraction of well-born Frances and her Yoruban slave, Mehuru.Despite how much controversy Philippa Gregory has around her books, I will never stop reading them. They're a lot of fun to read and also interesting, even if not everything is a hundred percent historically accurate.

A Respectable Trade | Philippa Gregory

Philippa Gregory is clearly aware of her reputation for embroidering the facts. She stated that she had never before felt the need to write an author's note for her novels, but that,Philippa Gregory is an established writer and broadcaster for radio and television. She went to school in Bristol, has a history degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD in Eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. She has been widely praised for her historical novels, as well as for her works of contemporary suspense. The Other Boleyn Girl has been adapted for BBC television and is now a major film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family. I am Sensible of the Honour you would do me, Madam, and Conscious of the Advantage your connexion would bring me. But may I also hope that this Proposal of mine will Preserve you from a lifetime of employment to which your Delicate talents and Aristocratic Connexions must render you unfit? Mehuru was a priest and a nobleman in his native Africa and as he comes to terms with his new situation in life, he shows readers what slaverly was like in 1700s England. Thru his eyes, the cruelty, the sorry living conditions, and the frustrations of being another's property is unveiled.