Hagar's Daughter by Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins

Hagar's Daughter Reviews

• 
  Jeanthesecond

  This is the first detective novel by an African American author. It’s pretty good. I can’t help comparing it to Wide Sargasso Sea in that it takes the sort of sometimes annoying hysteric emotions and needlessly menacing manors in Poe’s detective stories and makes the gothic meaningful in the explicit context of slavery and race.
• 
  Ardyth

  I downloaded this because I saw a blurb that this was the first story featuring an African-American detective.
  
  This isn't really a detective mystery, though... more a gothic drama in the typical 19th century style. I want to be put out about that blurb, but I wouldn't ever have chosen to read a gothic drama & I enjoyed this page-turner quite a lot.
  
  More than anything, this hit the beats I used to love in romance novels during my teens and twenties: hot, damaged men we hope will become a better version of themselves; evil men most people like but our heroine doesn't; family secrets; incredible sums of money on the line. But instead of London and Sussex, set it in DC and Maryland. And leave all the nudity off page.
  
  Not perfect literature -- but pretty close to perfect pulp fiction.
  
• 
  Heli

  I wrote my Bachelors thesis on this book. So that is how interesting I found it. But as I have already written so much about it in that said thesis I don't feel capable of writing a good review here. An underrated book that is well worth a read!
• 
  Victoria S

  This book is incredibly boring, but also incredibly interesting. I didn't think that was possible, but every second I was reading this I wanted to stop, but when I wasn't reading I wanted to know what was going to happen!
• 
  Alanna R.

  For a book that was insufferably boring in the middle and had the exact kind of ending I always hate, genuinely not bad! Struggled through it for a while and then speed-read most of it in a sitting, which is the way I would recommend it. Would make a great movie, with some alterations.
• 
  Lauren

  Deus ex machina! ALL the soap opera twists and "eating [one's] heart out" moments! This is a travesty of writing and should fall into the annals of history as a "Oh, honey, you tried" book.
• 
  Tiffany

  I read this mostly for its place in detective fiction history—first known instance of an African-American female detective), although her page time is pretty limited.
• 
  Macy

  this book was fucking amazing, so revolutionary for its time. also heart wrenching. but i’m not one for spoilers, so read it and be sad yourself.
• 
  Rachel

  An important work—in American fiction in general, but especially in 19th century detective fiction—that I wouldn’t feel right giving a “rating” to, but definitely glad that I’ve finally read!
• 
  Michael Borshuk

  It's a shame that more people aren't aware of this novel, as it ranks, for me anyway, among the great turn-of-the-century American narratives. Hopkins interrogates history and race and gender with perspicacity, but does so amidst the conventions of popular fiction. Some very memorable turns, and Venus--essentially the first black detective in American literature--is a wonderful creation.
• 
  Lisa

  What made this book well worth reading is the fact that it was written at the turn of the century by an African-American novelist. Thus, the perspective it gives on racism in America following the civil war demands a level of credibility not found in many other books on this topic. Nonetheless, there were too many improbabilities and inconsistent characters to recommend this book.
• 
  Humphrey

  This is what one might consider melodrama or sensation fiction, but it's quite smart and a real hoot. History ends up repeating itself, mistaken identities -- to others as well as to characters' own selves -- abound, and the novel presents a couple different paths to interpretation. Fun stuff.
• 
  Meghan

  3.75