The Feast of All Saints (1979)

This was an excellent book which gave much historical information about the Octroon balls and how these women were kept by the white slave and pklantation owners. It also focused on what life was like for the children born into that arrangement and what it was like for the free black business who lived in that era.
Very interesting historically-especially for a mulatto like myself:) ( )

Product Description Before the Civil War, there lived in Louisiana, people unique in Southern history. For though they were descended from African slaves, they were also descended from the French and Spanish who enslaved them. In this dazzling historical novel, Anne Rice chronicles four of these so-called Free People of Color--men and women caught periolously between the worlds of master and slave, privilege and oppression, passion and pain.
"Anne Rice seems to be at home everywhere....She makes us believe everything she sees."
THE NEW YORK TIMES From the Inside Flap Before the Civil War, there lived in Louisiana, people unique in Southern history. For though they were descended from African slaves, they were also descended from the French and Spanish who enslaved them. In this dazzling historical novel, Anne Rice chronicles four of these so-called Free People of Color--men and women caught periolously between the worlds of master and slave, privilege and oppression, passion and pain.
"Anne Rice seems to be at home everywhere....She makes us believe everything she sees."
THE NEW YORK TIMES

GREAT book.
I think I look more forward to Anne Rice when she writes a fictional novel about historical characters or groups of people than I do to her Vampire and Witches series. ( )

I found this dull and overly long - I read it before a trip to New Orleans, hoping for some flavour, character but this felt like a historical romance, mannered, pretty but untrue. ( )

Very, very slow to get into like so many of her books, but once captivated by the free negros of New Orleans, I was intrigued and interested in their world and their stories. Richard was a true hero. I was glad he came through. ( )