The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African by Olaudah Equiano

First Published:1794 by T.Wilkins (London)
Date Started-8th February 2013
Date Finished-14th February 2013
Genre: Autobiography
Read for: 1001 Books
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The Interesting Narrative tells the life of Olaudah Equiano of when he was kidnapped and made to be a slave. The story narrates from being a child, to when he is a free man and trying to save other slaves, describing his many adventures and how each one helped to develop him as a person, including being told about the people in his life, those that have treated him well and those who have not.

One of things I loved about this is that it helped me to gain a perspective of what it was like to be a slave in his time. It allowed me as a reader, as well as someone who loves history, to understand what life could be like for them. When reading the book, I went through several emotions ranging from feeling sorry for him to being happy because of something good happening to him.
The way he tells his story helped me to connect with him and allowed me to understand not just a life of a slave, but how the slave trade worked and how people treated them. The book isn't just fact, fact, fact; it is,as the title of the book says, a narrative.

Something I did find a little strange though when reading this was that at the beginning of each chapter, he would give a brief summary as to what will happen in the particular chapter. This is something I had never come across before and so I found rather unusual. A lot of the time, I did find it a bit annoying as it is like a spoiler alert. However, I did sometimes like this as I knew what was going to happen and it made me want to carry on reading and find out more about what happens.

If your someone who loves history, especially eighteenth century, I would recommend this. The knowledge you gain from this is definitely one that will be hard to forget and will help you obtain a new perspective of the slave trade.