Title : Now Re-Reading... A Free Man Of Color by Barbara Hambly
link : Now Re-Reading... A Free Man Of Color by Barbara Hambly
Now Re-Reading... A Free Man Of Color by Barbara Hambly
While hunting for a book I wanted to lend my sister I found my copy of the first book in Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January series, which is still going strong, by the way. I was very glad to find it, because my library doesn’t seem to have it any more and you can only buy it on Kindle right now, not even in iBooks.
So, I’ve begun to re-read and enjoy it all over again. Oddly, I never seem to remember detailed story lines in this series, but it is wonderful to go back to when Benjamin January, African-American surgeon, musician, piano teacher and sleuth, has only recently returned to his home in New Orleans after many years in France, after losing his beloved wife there to cholera.
It’s great to meet his two friends for the first time. If you’ve read the series, you’ll know that Irishman, fellow musician Hannibal Sefton and police Lieutenant Abishag Shaw will become his best friends - and that he has yet to meet his second wife, Rose, a schoolteacher and scientist, whose child will be named for Abishag’s murdered brother John, many volumes later.
Hannibal Sefton is a consumptive who is addicted to drink and laudanum, which help with the pain. I knew that he was, despite his current poverty, a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, but I’d forgotten that this is mentioned in a throwaway line early in this novel. He is a kind man who likes women, and they like him - very much. And his “fiddle” is a Stradivarius, which definitely lets the reader want to know more! He is certainly educated, regularly quoting Latin and Greek and calling Rose Athene for her wisdom. He helps Benjamin many times over the series.
Policeman Shaw is the cop buddy to Benjamin’s amateur sleuth. On his first appearance, he seems to be the typical disgusting “Kaintuck”, who would never be allowed into the home of Ben’s snooty mother, Livia, a former placee, whose protector had paid for Ben’s education. Actually, she still wouldn’t let him into her house, many volumes later. He is tall, lanky, looks and dresses like a scarecrow and chews tobacco, which he spits into spittoons, but never manages to reach them. But Abishag Shaw is clearly sharp, and he treats Ben with courtesy and respect from the start, unlike most other whites in 1830s New Orleans. He calls Ben Maestro because he is a musician. When Ben needs a reliable policeman who won’t betray him, it’s this one he contacts. Reading the first few chapters of this, when Ben isn’t sure whether he can trust this man, I think, “Yes! Trust him! He’s going to be one of your two best friends!”
It’s great getting back into this series from the beginning. I haven’t re-read them much over the years and I only own two volumes - the rest were borrowed from the library. I’ve had the chance to re-read other series - Discworld, Phryne Fisher, Harry Potter - many times. I admit that I’ve noticed some glitches from multiple re-reads of some series, but not this so far. And meeting again, for the first time, Hannibal, Abishag, Ben’s sister Dominique, even his mother Livia, gives me the same pleasure I feel in a re-read of Lord Of The Rings, when, say, our heroes meet Aragorn for the first time. It’s one of the pleasures of a re-read, meeting characters who will be important later, seeing, say, a young and innocent Harry Potter meet his future best friends on that train to Hogwarts when you know those two will later marry and that one of them will become his brother-in-law.
What pleasures do you find in a re-read?
So, I’ve begun to re-read and enjoy it all over again. Oddly, I never seem to remember detailed story lines in this series, but it is wonderful to go back to when Benjamin January, African-American surgeon, musician, piano teacher and sleuth, has only recently returned to his home in New Orleans after many years in France, after losing his beloved wife there to cholera.
It’s great to meet his two friends for the first time. If you’ve read the series, you’ll know that Irishman, fellow musician Hannibal Sefton and police Lieutenant Abishag Shaw will become his best friends - and that he has yet to meet his second wife, Rose, a schoolteacher and scientist, whose child will be named for Abishag’s murdered brother John, many volumes later.
Hannibal Sefton is a consumptive who is addicted to drink and laudanum, which help with the pain. I knew that he was, despite his current poverty, a member of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, but I’d forgotten that this is mentioned in a throwaway line early in this novel. He is a kind man who likes women, and they like him - very much. And his “fiddle” is a Stradivarius, which definitely lets the reader want to know more! He is certainly educated, regularly quoting Latin and Greek and calling Rose Athene for her wisdom. He helps Benjamin many times over the series.
Policeman Shaw is the cop buddy to Benjamin’s amateur sleuth. On his first appearance, he seems to be the typical disgusting “Kaintuck”, who would never be allowed into the home of Ben’s snooty mother, Livia, a former placee, whose protector had paid for Ben’s education. Actually, she still wouldn’t let him into her house, many volumes later. He is tall, lanky, looks and dresses like a scarecrow and chews tobacco, which he spits into spittoons, but never manages to reach them. But Abishag Shaw is clearly sharp, and he treats Ben with courtesy and respect from the start, unlike most other whites in 1830s New Orleans. He calls Ben Maestro because he is a musician. When Ben needs a reliable policeman who won’t betray him, it’s this one he contacts. Reading the first few chapters of this, when Ben isn’t sure whether he can trust this man, I think, “Yes! Trust him! He’s going to be one of your two best friends!”
It’s great getting back into this series from the beginning. I haven’t re-read them much over the years and I only own two volumes - the rest were borrowed from the library. I’ve had the chance to re-read other series - Discworld, Phryne Fisher, Harry Potter - many times. I admit that I’ve noticed some glitches from multiple re-reads of some series, but not this so far. And meeting again, for the first time, Hannibal, Abishag, Ben’s sister Dominique, even his mother Livia, gives me the same pleasure I feel in a re-read of Lord Of The Rings, when, say, our heroes meet Aragorn for the first time. It’s one of the pleasures of a re-read, meeting characters who will be important later, seeing, say, a young and innocent Harry Potter meet his future best friends on that train to Hogwarts when you know those two will later marry and that one of them will become his brother-in-law.
What pleasures do you find in a re-read?
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