Buy new:
$18.00
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$18.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Monday, May 13 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 8. Order within 20 hrs 10 mins
Only 4 left in stock - order soon.
$$18.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$18.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$16.00
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Tuesday, May 14 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Wednesday, May 8. Order within 20 hrs 10 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$18.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$18.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Marie Vieux-Chauvet
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Dance on the Volcano Paperback – January 10, 2017

by Marie Vieux-Chauvet (Author), Kaiama L Glover (Translator)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 44 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$18.00","priceAmount":18.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"18","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Qs8SgkNG9zlPDb1sFzsH05fwf3x0KmQ3xycjG73WudH2sZ43jEEwOUuSfujv61qvmC6nCIov1W6YUgqgTH%2Ftr%2F9LBRmt8y9%2FQMn%2FnurdibDFZWyGOSYpnpXDMx5hhXrZGvgZCzqgdrDsvAe3gzogBg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$16.00","priceAmount":16.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"16","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"Qs8SgkNG9zlPDb1sFzsH05fwf3x0KmQ35%2BdAF330f5qHmA5AmrVCF0mU%2Frsv1E4Lksa%2FQe%2F2OzmJYeJ%2BZRSivoGiT4aNrCtUeKqwC5y7CMGmsbhdXwFVvgvEZBxARCiZItZdfHjizBIU655BEljVDnhwc4R%2F5n9bnuoiDvoCRxIXj%2BTgBXZ7uNt%2FLCjBpmQa","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Dance on the Volcano tells the story of two sisters growing up during the Haitian Revolution in a culture that swings heavily between decadence and poverty, sensuality and depravity. One sister, because of her singing ability, is able to enter into the white colonial society otherwise generally off limits to people of color. Closely examining a society sagging under the white supremacy of the French colonist rulers, Dance on the Volcano is one of only novels to closely depict the seeds and fruition of the Haitian Revolution, tracking an elaborate hierarchy of skin color and class through the experiences of two young women. It is a story about hatred and fear, love and loss, and the complex tensions between colonizer and colonized, masterfully translated by Kaiama L. Glover.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    496 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Archipelago
  4. Publication date
    January 10, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.2 x 7.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    091467157X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0914671572
  8. See all details
Next page
Books with Buzz
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more

Frequently bought together

Dance on the Volcano
$18.00
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
Only 4 left in stock - order soon.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Triptych (Modern Library Torchbearers)
$14.76
Get it as soon as Sunday, May 12
Only 15 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Dézafi (CARAF Books: Caribbean and African Literature Translated from French)
$23.76
Get it as soon as Monday, May 13
Only 7 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Trying to weave a fairy tale life from a horror story reality, Vieux-Chauvet’s heroine, Minette, rides her beauty and talent out of poverty in late-18th-century Port-au-Prince to fame onstage as a singer... [An] important book, best read as a slice of Haiti’s past rather than as a work of fiction." — The New York Times Book Review

A "vivid, heartbreaking epic . . . Vieux-Chauvet is a tremendously gifted storyteller, compared to the likes of Tolstoy. Her work highlights the lasting trauma of racial and class oppression — detailing the ripple effects that spread from one person to the next, and infect one generation after another. But it also shows humanity’s struggle to emerge from the ashes of this hatred, and find love and beauty again ... [a] remarkable work of fiction, which will introduce a new generation of readers to Vieux-Chauvet’s exquisite writing, and its courageous calls for justice." — The Toronto Star
 
"In Dance on the Volcano, Marie Vieux-Chauvet—one of Haiti’s finest novelists—has given us an exquisitely written portrait of Haiti’s social and political climate, one that's still eerily resonant 300 years later." — Kevin Nguyen, GQ

"Vieux-Chauvet’s novel is that rare gem that takes an ambitious scope and successfully captures the social and political turmoil of a country at war . . . Those interested in Haitian history, deep explorations of social injustice, and courageous, determined heroines will find much to enjoy in Vieux-Chauvet’s masterly tale." — Publishers Weekly

"Marie Vieux-Chauvet's Dance on the Volcano stands with Tolstoy's War and Peace, The Known World by Edward P. Jones, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, Robert Graves's I, Claudius, and Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind in its extraordinary power to bring all the nuance and complexity of a long-gone society so vividly before our eyes. With what's going on racially and politically in the United States today, now is an excellent time for this masterpiece to appear in English – and in a translation which does full justice to the great beauty of Vieux-Chauvet's prose." — Madison Smartt Bell

"Kaiama L. Glover’s translation is fluid, remaining faithful to the elegance of Vieux-Chauvet’s prose while navigating the stylistic concerns inherent to recreating a work written in the 1950s and about the colonial life of the 1790s, for a 21st-century audience...Minette’s story, more than anything else, is about having “a seat at the table,” to use the current resignification of that phrase. For a book written about the racial climate of a late 18th-century French colony, there is an eerie familiarity to the questions it raises about how a person of color earns that seat, and what consequences come along with sitting at the table in a world of institutionalized racism." — Bronwyn Averett, The Quarterly Conversation

"[A] vivid, heartbreaking epic . . . Vieux-Chauvet is a tremendously gifted storyteller, compared to the likes of Tolstoy. Her work highlights the lasting trauma of racial and class oppression — detailing the ripple effects that spread from one person to the next, and infect one generation after another. But it also shows humanity’s struggle to emerge from the ashes of this hatred, and find love and beauty again ... [a] remarkable work of fiction, which will introduce a new generation of readers to Vieux-Chauvet’s exquisite writing, and its courageous calls for justice." — Tara Henley, The Toronto Star

"A heroic and triumphant tale of social ascension." — Curtis Small, San Jose State University

"sharp and beautiful. . . A classic piece of historical fiction, few novels can compete with this one’s combination of personal passion and cultural consciousness." — James Crossley, Island Books

"Dance on the Volcano is one of the the rare, or rather the only novel about the events that took place between 1789 and 1804, written in the 20th century in Haiti." — Anja Bandau, Free University of Berlin

"Dance on the Volcano is not limited to historical clichés, but rather opens up the possibility of the fantastic." — Maurice Joseph, University of Haiti

"With the help of translator Kaiama L. Glover, the reader gets a sense of what it was like to be living on that metaphorical “volcano” known as Saint Domingue that eventually erupted...there are moments of beauty throughout the book, especially when Minette is singing. One becomes so convinced of Minette’s ability to enchant that one wishes it came with a soundtrack. Sadly, the real-life Minette died long before the age of recording. However, while the music may be lost to time, thanks to Chauvet’s book, the person who helped to break down racial barriers during a tumultuous time in Haitian history will not be." — Christopher Iacono, Five 2 One Magazine

"The story is soft and cruel, sweet and bitter like the savors of the Caribbean, which make you smile and grit your teeth at once." — Catherine Hermary-Vieille

"Like a knife thrust into the sexual, social, racial, and political passions of a provincial town" — Libération

"In three movements as somber as they are striking, Marie Vieux-Chauvet explodes Hatian society in the time of dictator François Duvalier, in a classic style stripped of all exotic lyricism.... None of the dark forces that shook the country during this tragic period are forgotten in this novel-manifesto, from which no one comes out innocent." — Le Monde

"Chauvet was nitroglycerin. She set her sights on an illness ravaging Haitian society" — Dany Laferrière

"[Dance on the Volcano] is crucial to a complete understanding of the violent conflict that overtook the country, and the revolution’s importance in world history . . . These racial and political images of Haiti more than two centuries ago, written sixty years ago, remain timely today in that nation, and resonate in the United States. In both countries, “a state of perpetual tension … produce(s) a strange heaviness in the atmosphere.” That volcanic tension keeps erupting, here and in Haiti." — Consequence Magazine

About the Author

AUTHOR: Marie Vieux-Chauvet (1916-1973) was a Haitian novelist, poet and playwright. Born and educated in Port-au-Prince, her works include the novels Fille d'Haïti (1954), La Danse sur le Volcan (1957), Fonds des Nègres (1961), and Amour, Colère, Folie (1969).

TRANSLATOR: Kaiama L. Glover received a B.A. in French History and Literature and Afro-American Studies from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in French and Romance Philology from Columbia University. She is now an associate professor of French at Barnard College. Her book, Haiti Unbound: A Spiralist Challenge to the Postcolonial Canon, explores the Haitian Spiralist movement. She has taught English at Stanford University and French at Barnard College and Columbia University, sits on the editorial boards of the Romanic Review and Small Axe, and regularly contributes to The New York Times Book Review.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Archipelago (January 10, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 091467157X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0914671572
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.34 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 44 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Marie Vieux-Chauvet

Marie Vieux-Chauvet

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
44 global ratings
Must Read!!!
5 Stars
Must Read!!!
“Dance on the Volcano” takes readers to 18th Century Haiti, with the story of Minnette. The free quadroon daughter of a former slave woman, Minnette is sympathetic to the slaves she often sees being paraded in chains down dirt roads. She longs for her confidant to bring her stories of maroons and underground organizers who want to help free their kinsmen. Within France’s Code Noir, there is a caste system that has created a privilege for the free people of color. Though lowly, being free is better than being a slave, and being quadroon is better than being a Negro. Octoroon, Quadroon, Griffe, Capresse and Negro are terms that designate classes in the black race. However, Minnette decides to use her beautiful vocal talents as a way to rise above it all and save all black people from oppression. Along the way, there will be the romantic love of a brutal free black slave owner, her dedication to her family, her supportive friends at the Opera, and the loyalty to her race that will keep her battling an internal conflict. This tantalizing tale of becoming a celebrated black opera singer in 18th Century Haiti is the work of Marie Vieux Chauvet. Born into Haiti’s Mulatto Elite Class, Chauvet created works that spoke against the oppression of Haiti’s black peasants and led her to be under the constant surveillance of President Francois Duvalier. Her passion for justice and equality is exhibited through Minnette. Translated from French, this novel is a must read for those who want to understand how to use their gifts and talents to stand up against injustice.
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Avidreader3
5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read!!!
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2022
Verified Purchase
“Dance on the Volcano” takes readers to 18th Century Haiti, with the story of Minnette. The free quadroon daughter of a former slave woman, Minnette is sympathetic to the slaves she often sees being paraded in chains down dirt roads. She longs for her confidant to bring her stories of maroons and underground organizers who want to help free their kinsmen. Within France’s Code Noir, there is a caste system that has created a privilege for the free people of color. Though lowly, being free is better than being a slave, and being quadroon is better than being a Negro. Octoroon, Quadroon, Griffe, Capresse and Negro are terms that designate classes in the black race. However, Minnette decides to use her beautiful vocal talents as a way to rise above it all and save all black people from oppression. Along the way, there will be the romantic love of a brutal free black slave owner, her dedication to her family, her supportive friends at the Opera, and the loyalty to her race that will keep her battling an internal conflict. This tantalizing tale of becoming a celebrated black opera singer in 18th Century Haiti is the work of Marie Vieux Chauvet. Born into Haiti’s Mulatto Elite Class, Chauvet created works that spoke against the oppression of Haiti’s black peasants and led her to be under the constant surveillance of President Francois Duvalier. Her passion for justice and equality is exhibited through Minnette. Translated from French, this novel is a must read for those who want to understand how to use their gifts and talents to stand up against injustice.
Customer image
Avidreader3
5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read!!!
Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2022
“Dance on the Volcano” takes readers to 18th Century Haiti, with the story of Minnette. The free quadroon daughter of a former slave woman, Minnette is sympathetic to the slaves she often sees being paraded in chains down dirt roads. She longs for her confidant to bring her stories of maroons and underground organizers who want to help free their kinsmen. Within France’s Code Noir, there is a caste system that has created a privilege for the free people of color. Though lowly, being free is better than being a slave, and being quadroon is better than being a Negro. Octoroon, Quadroon, Griffe, Capresse and Negro are terms that designate classes in the black race. However, Minnette decides to use her beautiful vocal talents as a way to rise above it all and save all black people from oppression. Along the way, there will be the romantic love of a brutal free black slave owner, her dedication to her family, her supportive friends at the Opera, and the loyalty to her race that will keep her battling an internal conflict. This tantalizing tale of becoming a celebrated black opera singer in 18th Century Haiti is the work of Marie Vieux Chauvet. Born into Haiti’s Mulatto Elite Class, Chauvet created works that spoke against the oppression of Haiti’s black peasants and led her to be under the constant surveillance of President Francois Duvalier. Her passion for justice and equality is exhibited through Minnette. Translated from French, this novel is a must read for those who want to understand how to use their gifts and talents to stand up against injustice.
Images in this review
Customer image
Customer image
Helpful
 Report
A Lazy Nerd
5.0 out of 5 stars Connection to the history
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2021
This book was fast paced. Despite the tension of the situation, I liked the interaction between Minette and Jean. It left an emotional impact on me.
Helpful
 Report
Doctor Moss
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Historical Novel of Revolutionary Haiti
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2018
Verified Purchase
I’ve always had an interest in the Haitian Revolution, as the only slave rebellion to have produced a free state ruled by former slaves and free non-whites. Marie Vieux-Chauvet’s novel gives a different perspective than that of the history books, following one character’s experience of pre-revolutionary Saint-Domingue and the beginning days of the revolution itself.

The principal characters and events are real — Vieux-Chauvet wove her research, focused on that one character, Minette, a “free person of color”, into an historical novel.

The book begins in the years leading up to the revolution in late eighteenth century Saint-Domingue, to become free Haiti. Minette is a young girl, living with her sister Lise, and her mother Jasmine, who sells scarves and other items on the street in Port-au-Prince.

Minette is gifted with a magnificent singing voice. Once trained by a benefactor, the white Creole actress Mme Acquaire, Minette experiences a much broader spectrum of life than someone of her class in colonial Saint-Domingue would normally experience. She performs at the Comédie of Port-au-Prince, despite a ban on non-white performers. The public’s appreciation and admiration is so great that even the most ardent opponents of rights for non-whites are compelled to allow her exception.

Living the life of a young girl in Port-au-Prince, in the small world of her family and friends, conditions could just be what they were. But as she takes on a role as a performer for the privileged classes of planters and slaveowners, she sees more. She sees within the households of white planters how slaves are routinely tortured, how freedmen (and women) are regarded as less than human. And she sees, in her own case, how her talents will get her only so far — she becomes, at best, a privileged member of an unprivileged class. She can sing for the privileged classes but she is being granted an exception for her talent only, not for herself. She learns the word “injustice”.

Minette also falls in love with a person who wraps up what may be inevitable contradictions in pre-revolutionary Haitian society. Jean-Baptiste Lapointe is a free, slave-holding black man. He fights against the wealthy white planters, in tenuous alliance with a group of rebels who help both the free but oppressed and the enslaved. But he abuses his own slaves and treats them with utter disrespect, reveling in his own position of power and privilege. Minette’s turn toward rebellion is also a turn against her lover’s character, if not completely against himself.

Minette, Lapointe, and many other characters in the book are true, historical figures from revolutionary Haiti (as are the events depicted in the novel drawn from real historical events). Vieux-Chauvet arrays the characters in such a way as to portray a spectrum of virtues and vices — unrebellious mulatto women doing their best to thrive and survive in a world where they have no power, dedicated warriors who risk everything, sympathetic whites who do what they can, . . . I’m not in any position to judge how accurate the personal portrayals are — I suspect they are almost certainly cleaned up to create a dramatic and edifying novel.

The book was originally written in 1957 but is only now translated into English. Vieux-Chauvet’s writing is dramatic in tone, even over the top (even given its subject matter) at times, kind of the way that acting in silent movies is over the top, as if straining a bit to convey and emphasize emotion and meaning. But this was one of those books I read more compulsively the farther I got into it.

Obviously, I wouldn’t substitute a novel for history. In fact, reading Vieux-Chauvet inspired me to look at some of the same research she presumably relied upon (see Jean Fouchard’s historical writing), as well as other sources (see the more recent Avengers of the New World by Laurent Dubois). I’d also recommend Yanick Lahens’ novel of Duvalier-era Haiti, Moonbath, for a portrayal of modern village Haiti.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Senegal researcher
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on February 6, 2018
A beautiful book and beautifully translated!
Helpful
 Report
Biblibio
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating historical fiction
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2018
You know those books that as you're reading (and appreciating) them, you start to think that actually, this book might just make a better movie than book? That's a little bit how I felt with Marie Vieux-Chauvet's generally great, occasionally frustrating Dance on the Volcano. The book feels like it has so many different plot points (some distinctly better than others), with an underlying visual quality that made me feel like this would perfectly translate into an amazing period drama (Hollywood, hit me up).

Dance on the Volcano tells the story of Minette, a young Haitian woman with a beautiful singing voice who becomes the first "colored" woman to perform in the higher circles of Haitian society. The story directly addresses racism, class differences, colorism, slavery, and more, with the plot covering a period of great unrest in Haitian history. Yet it does all of these explicitly through Minette's eyes, who grows and matures over the course of the story and begins to form her own opinions about the tragedies occurring in her home. It's an often-powerful text, occasionally bogged down by odd stylistic choices (phrases alternating between being very modern and very old-fashioned) and some overplotting (with one subplot that I mostly understood the intellectual merit of, but hated on a personal level).

This is a story of a history that I imagine most readers were as unfamiliar with as I was - not simply Haitian history, but Haitian culture and culture clashes. Dance on the Volcano is sure to be as interesting an introduction to you as it was to me.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report