Prancing Nigger by Ronald Firbank (1925)

The obvious first comment is about the title. This was originally called Sorrow in Sunlight in the UK, but when it came to be published in America the title was changed. And somehow this, I guess because it was seen as snappier, was the title which stuck, and which Duckworth used for their 'Rainbow edition' after Firbank died, and which has been used, more often than not, subsequently. The title is one thing, but the contents need examination from the point of view of racism, too. It's a complex question. Firbank uses the word authorially on a few occasions, and puts it into the mouths of his characters, too. His depictions are very much of the era in one sense; his central characters are rustic villagers from a Caribbean island, coming into contact with the more sophisticated scene of the capital, so they have an inbuilt and quite deliberate simplicity. This is Firbank, so they also have social-climbing at the core of their being. This novel is remembered, I guess mostly, as an emanation of that first popular emergence of the jazz era in the 1920s. Firbank was friendly with Carl Van Vechten, whose own Nigger Heaven is still in print under that title, I think honorifically, as he was such a supporter of the Harlem Renaissance, and Firbank is allowed perhaps a little leeway by association. Prancing Nigger is definitely aged and unacceptable via one angle, and yet it's also a delightful, complex portrait by a relatively sympathetic white writer via another. The Mouth family of the paradisial village of Mediavilla in the countryside of a mythical Caribbean island, are made up of a patient, concerned but relaxed father, an energetic, society-obsessed mother, an eldest sister, Miami (Mimi), who is very happy with her lover and the simple village life, a younger sister, Edna, who is much more excitable and loving of luxury, and can't wait to leave for higher places, and a young brother Charlie, who has a mutable, undetermined, slightly secretive character which hints, in typical Firbankian veiledness, at homosexuality. Mrs Mouth is absolutely determined that the family will move to the capital, Cuna-Cuna, and 'make their way' into far greater things. Mr Mouth is very concerned about his daughters particularly coming into contact with wild city ways, but is resigned to his wife's aspirations, so constantly expressed. (Prancing Nigger is her fond name for him). Miami is distressed to leave her local lover - they make plans that he will follow surreptitiously in time. The family rent a lovely villa in the capital from one of its greatest society hostesses, Mrs Ruiz, and immediately begin their halting progress into this golden world, alternatively shocked by things they weren't expecting, thrilled with the opportunities that are presented, and tasting the various options available. Mrs Ruiz's elegant wide-boy gentleman son Vittorio is smitten by Edna, and she by him; she agrees to become his mistress, outraging her family and causing a rift. Charlie explores the city, while Miami pines for her lover, who hasn't left Mediavilla yet. This is all set akimbo by an earthquake, which devastates great swathes of the island. All of society is gripped by the idea of penance, and parades and pilgrimages are all anyone can think about, in supplication. Miami hears that her lover has been killed, and is disconsolate. As Miami sets out on a pilgrimage parade, shunned Edna, kept by Vittorio in velvet languid comfort in a flat he owns, leans from her balcony over the moving file of citizens with banners, calling out to Miami to notice her and forgive, but is devastated when Miami doesn't even hear her and carries on. The story is related in classic Firbank prose, punctuated with short, poetically concise clauses, outrageous hints, surprised humour, and with an absolute economy of saucy description. It's an emissary of its age, but an awfully entertaining one.