Johnson's Dictionary

Overview

Told by Manu, this novel journeys through 18th-century London and Demerara in British Guiana, recounting experiences that might be dreamed or remembered. With a diverse cast—including slaves, lowly women on the make, lustful overseers, sodomites, and pious Jews—these characters come alive from artist William Hogarth’s engravings; Hogarth himself also appears as a drunkard official artist in Demerara, from whom the slave Cato steals his skills and discovers a way of remaking his world. From the dens of sexual specialties, where the ex-slave Francis conducts a highly popular flagellant mission to cure his clients of their man-love and preach abolition, to the sugar estates of Demerara, this novel revels in the connections of empire, art, literature, and human desire in ways that are comic, salutary, and redemptive.

Reviews

"A series of mesmerizing miniplots executed with deft artistry and a breathtaking sense of rhythm revolve around global philosophical concerns which set the novel apart from the more provincial English tradition." —Michael Mitchell, World Literature Today, on Our Lady of Demerara

"There is a strong tradition of visionary, anti-realist fiction in black writing from Guyana. The influence of Wilson Harris is evident here ... Johnson’s Dictionary heaps up metaphor and imagery in the service of higher truths." —Norma Clarke, The Times Literary Supplement

Author Biography

David Dabydeen is a professor at the Center for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick and a former roving ambassador for Guyana. He is the author of A Harlot’s Progress, The Intended, and Our Lady of Demerara.