The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: The Pox Party

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Overview

Now in paperback, this deeply provocative novel reimagines the past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.

Young Octavian is being raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers — but it is only after he opens a forbidden door that learns the hideous nature of their experiments, and his own chilling role them. Set in Revolutionary Boston, M. T. Anderson’s mesmerizing novel takes place at a time when Patriots battled to win liberty while African slaves were entreated to risk their lives for a freedom they would never claim. The first of two parts, this deeply provocative novel reimagines past as an eerie place that has startling resonance for readers today.

"Anderson’s imaginative and highly intelligent exploration of . . . the ambiguous history of America’s origins will leave readers impatient for the sequel." — THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Winner of the 2006 National Book Award for Young PeopleÆs Literature

M. T. Anderson
M. T. Anderson

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

James's crisp annunciation and measured intonation is well-suited to the 18th-century language and phrasing Anderson employs in his fascinating, provocative Revolutionary War–era novel, winner of the 2006 National Book Award for Young People's Literature and also a 2007 Printz Honor Book. As young Octavian's story slowly (sometimes too slowly) unfolds, the boy learns that he is a slave and that the scientists and philosophers with whom he and his mother (an African princess who was kidnapped by slave traders) live are studying them as part of an experiment to determine whether Africans are "a separate and distinct species." The ill-advised Pox Party of the title, during which the philosophers inoculate their guests against the scourge of smallpox, marks a dramatic turning point that sends Octavian's life journey in a new direction. There's no question the premise is intriguing and the examination of issues noble. However, the meaty subject matter and Anderson's numerous stylistic devices (e.g. the use of different points of view and letters in dialect from another character) render this a challenging listen even for a sophisticated audience. Ages 14-up. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Anderson (Whales on Stilts) once again shows the breadth of his talents with this stunningly well-researched novel (the first of two planned) centering on 16-year-old Octavian. The author does not reveal the boy's identity right away, so by the time readers learn that he is the son of an African princess, living a life of relative privilege and intense scrutiny among a group of rational philosophers in pre-Revolutionary War Boston, they can accept his achievements extraordinary for any teen, but especially for an African-American living at that time. These men teach him the violin, Latin and Greek. Anderson also reveals their strange quirks: the men go by numbers rather than names, and they weigh the food Octavian ingests, as well as his excrement. "It is ever the lot of children to accept their circumstances as universal, and their particularities as general," Octavian states by way of explanation. One day, at age eight, when he ventures into an off-limits room, Octavian learns he is the subject of his teachers' "zoological" study of Africans. Shortly thereafter, the philosophers' key benefactor drops out and new sponsors, led by Mr. Sharpe, follow a different agenda: they want to use Octavian to prove the inferiority of the African race. Mr. Sharpe also instigates the "Pox Party" of the title, during which the guests are inoculated with the smallpox virus, with disastrous results. Here the story, which had been told largely through Octavian's first-person narrative, advances through the letters of a Patriot volunteer, sending news to his sister of battle preparations against the British and about the talented African musician who's joined their company. As in Feed, Anderson pays careful attention to language, but teens may not find this work, written in 18th-century prose, quite as accessible. The construction of Octavian's story is also complex, but the message is straightforward, as Anderson clearly delineates the hypocrisy of the Patriots, who chafe at their own subjugation by British overlords but overlook the enslavement of people like Octavian. Ages 14-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

More Reviews (5) Fewer Reviews

Judy Beemer

The acclaimed author of Feed now escorts readers to a haunting, almost Gothic, Boston, just as the Revolutionary War brews. Octavian appears the privileged recipient of a classical education and lifestyle with rational scholars. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he realize that he is really the object of a ghastly experiment affecting not just him but his entire race. Octavian Nothing gains verisimilitude from supposedly first-person sources—from classical, scholarly testimonies by Octavian to rough but idealistic soldiers' letters. However delightful the style, the story's implied questions are tough: Has our country from its origin been motivated more by economic gain than by ideals of equality? When and how does rational scientific investigation mislead the public? Octavian Nothing provokes thought by its haunting retelling of history with sophistication enough for adults as well as young adults. Both can look forward to volume 2.

KLIATT

AGERANGE: Ages 15 to adult.

To quote the review of the audiobook in KLIATT, May 2007: This National Book Award winner is disturbing and fascinating. We first meet a boy, Octavian, who lives with his beautiful mother in pampered luxury in a home of strange men, known by numbers rather than names. The setting and language are archaic. Gradually we learn that Octavian and his mother are African and the setting is Boston at the dawn of the American Revolution. They are living at the Novanglian College of Lucidity as the objects of an experiment to discover if Africans have the same mental capacity as Caucasians. Later, as the intellectual and artistic brilliance of both mother and son prove incontrovertible, we learn that the college’s funding by Southern plantation owners will end. This reversal catapults Octavian and his mother into the more typical life of slaves, from a life that has ill prepared them to assume the groveling humility that might spare them the harshest punishments. In fact, they endure the worst tortures. Octavian eventually escapes to a fate that I eagerly await in the promised sequel. Anderson is brilliant in maintaining the language and prose of the 18th century. The detail is rich and authentic. Anderson carefully distinguishes between historical facts that inspired the novel and his highly imaginative and gothic fiction. This is a novel with many moods, each captivating, if often dark and eerie. Reviewer: Nancy Chaplin
March 2008 (Vol. 42, No.2)

VOYA

Octavian and his mother live at the Novanglian College of Lucidity, a house full of scientists and philosophers in pre-Revolutionary War Boston. There Octavian learns the classics, several languages, the manners of a gentleman, and how to play the violin, while his mother is treated as the exiled Princess of a far away land. He gradually realizes, however, that these scientists are observing him as part of a long-term experiment, and then the turmoil of the war comes and everything changes. The tale starts and ends with Octavian's point of view, from his earliest memories to his teen years, with part narrated by another and parts as letters between principal characters. At the center is the question of why American rebels excluded slaves from their quest for freedom at a time when other countries, including England, were abolishing slavery. Octavian's strange childhood is described so vividly and with such a strong voice that even the weirdest parts seem real. The slow but intriguing plot will put off many teens, as will the difficulty of the text-especially the letters from a barely educated revolutionary soldier written in dialect. As this is volume one of two, there is a cliffhanger ending. Teens looking for a challenge will find plenty to sink into here. The questions raised about race and freedom are well developed and leave a different perspective on the Revolutionary War than most novels.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-In this fascinating and eye-opening Revolution-era novel, Octavian, a black youth raised in a Boston household of radical philosophers, is given an excellent classical education. He and his mother, an African princess, are kept isolated on the estate, and only as he grows older does he realize that while he is well dressed and well fed, he is indeed a captive being used by his guardians as part of an experiment to determine the intellectual acuity of Africans. As the fortunes of the Novanglian College of Lucidity change, so do the nature and conduct of their experiments. The boy's guardians host a "pox party" where everyone is inoculated with the disease in hopes that they will then be immune to its effects, but, instead, Octavian's mother dies. He runs away and ends up playing the fiddle and joining in the Patriots' cause. He's eventually captured and brought back to his household where he's bound and forced to wear an iron mask until one of his more sympathetic instructors engineers his escape. Readers will have to wait for the second volume to find out the protagonist's fate. The novel is written in 18th-century language from Octavian's point of view and in letters written by a soldier who befriends him. Despite the challenging style, this powerful novel will resonate with contemporary readers. The issues of slavery and human rights, racism, free will, the causes of war, and one person's struggle to define himself are just as relevant today. Anderson's use of factual information to convey the time and place is powerfully done.-Sharon Rawlins, NJ Library for the Blind and Handicapped, Trenton Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A historical novel of prodigious scope, power and insight, set against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War. Readers are seduced by a gothic introduction to the child Octavian, whose bizarre situation is both lavish and eerie. Octavian is domiciled with a gentleman scholar at the "College of Lucidity." A sentient being, he is a living experiment, from his classical education to the notated measurement of his bodily intake and output; as such, the study will degenerate from earnest scholarly investigation to calculated sociopolitical propaganda. Upon learning that he's a slave, Octavian resolves to prove his excellence. But events force the destitute College to depend on a new benefactor who demands research that proves the inferiority of the black race. Like many Africans, Octavian runs away, joining the Revolutionary army, which fights for "liberty," while ironically never assuring slaves freedom. Written in a richly faithful 18th-century style, the revelations of Octavian's increasingly degraded circumstances slowly, horrifyingly unfold to the reader as they do to Octavian. The cover's gruesomely masked Octavian epitomizes a nation choking on its own hypocrisy. This is the Revolutionary War seen at its intersection with slavery through a disturbingly original lens. (Historical fiction. YA-adult)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780763636791
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Publication date: 1/22/2008
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 368
Sales rank: 113,468
Age range: 14 - 17 Years
Lexile: 1090L (what's this?)
Series: Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation Series, #1
Product dimensions: 5.80 (w) x 7.90 (h) x 1.10 (d)

Meet the Author

M. T. Anderson is the author of several books for children and young adults, including FEED, which was a National Book Award Finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. M. T. Anderson lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

THE TRANSIT OF VENUS

I was raised in a gaunt house with a garden; my earliest recollections are of floating lights in the apple-trees.

I recall, in the orchard behind the house, orbs of flames rising through the black boughs and branches; they climbed, spirit-ous, and flickered out; my mother squeezed my hand with delight. We stood near the door to the ice-chamber.

By the well, servants lit bubbles of gas on fire, clad in frock-coats of asbestos.

Around the orchard and gardens stood a wall of some height, designed to repel the glance of idle curiosity and to keep us all from slipping away and running for freedom; though that, of course, I did not yet understand.

How doth all that seeks to rise burn itself to nothing.

The men who raised me were lords of matter, and in the dim chambers I watched as they traced the spinning of bodies celestial in vast, iron courses, and bid sparks to dance upon their hands; they read the bodies of fish as if each dying trout or shad was a fresh Biblical Testament, the wet and twitching volume of a new-born Pentateuch. They burned holes in the air, wrote poems of love, sucked the venom from sores, painted landscapes of gloom, and made metal sing; they dissected fire like newts.

I did not find it strange that I was raised with no one father, nor did I marvel at the singularity of any other article in my upbringing. It is ever the lot of children to accept their circumstances as universal, and their articularities as general.

So I did not ask why I was raised in a house by many men, none of whom claimed blood relation to me. I thought not to inquire why my mother stayed in this house, or why we alone were given names - mine, Octavian; hers, Cassiopeia - when all the others in the house were designated by number.

The owner of the house, Mr. Gitney, or as he styled himself, 03-01, had a large head and little hair and a dollop of a nose. He rarely dressed if he did not have to go out, but shuffled most of the time through his mansion in a banyan-robe and undress cap, shaking out his hands as if he'd washed them newly. He did not see to my instruction directly, but required that the others spend some hours a day teaching me my Latin and Greek, my mathematics, scraps of botany, and the science of music, which grew to be my first love.

The other men came and went. They did not live in the house, but came of an afternoon, or stayed there often for some weeks to perform their virtuosic experiments, and then leave. Most were philosophers, and inquired into the workings of time and memory, natural history, the properties of light, heat, and petrifaction. There were musicians among them as well, and painters and poets.

My mother, being of great beauty, was often painted. Once, she and I were clad as Venus, goddess of love, and her son Cupid, and we reclined in a bower. At other times, they made portraits of her dressed in the finest silks of the age, smiling behind a fan, or leaning on a pillar; and on another occasion, when she was sixteen, they drew her nude, for an engraving, with lines and letters that identified places upon her body.

The house was large and commodious, though often drafty. In its many rooms, the men read their odes, or played the violin, or performed their philosophical exercises. They combined chemical compounds and stirred them. They cut apart birds to trace the structure of the avian skeleton, and, masked in leather hoods, they dissected a skunk. They kept cages full of fireflies. They coaxed reptiles with mice. From the uppermost story of the house, they surveyed the city and the bay through spy-glasses, and noted the ships that arrived from far corners of the Empire, the direction of winds and the migration of clouds across the waters and, on its tawny isle, spotted with shadow, the Castle.

Amidst their many experimental chambers, there was one door that I was not allowed to pass. One of the painters sketched a little skull-and-crossbones on paper, endowed not with a skull, but with my face, my mouth open in a gasp; and this warning they hung upon that interdicted door as a reminder. They meant it doubtless as a jest, but to me, the door was terrible, as ghastly in its secrets as legendary Bluebeard's door, behind which his dead, white wives sat at table, streaked with blood from their slit throats.

We did not venture much out of the house and its grounds into the city that surrounded us. In the garden, we could hear its bustle, the horseshoes on stone cobbles and dirt, the conversation of sailors, the crying of onions and oysters in passageways. The men of that house feared that too much interaction with the world would corrupt me, and so I was, in the main, hidden away for my earliest years, as the infant Jove, snatched out of the gullet of Time, was reared by his horned nurse on Mount Ida in profoundest secrecy.

When we did go abroad, Mr. 03-01 warned me that I should not lean out at the window of the carriage, and should not show my face. He told me that, should I ever run away into the city, I would not return, but would be snatched up by evil men who would take me forever away from my mother. This was, I know now, but a half-lie.

Reading Group Guide

SYNOPSIS DISCUSSION GUIDE

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party
By M.T. Anderson
ISBN 0-7636-2402-0 / 978-0-7636-2402-6

NOTE TO READERS: This synopsis reveals key plot twists and may best be reviewed after reading The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation, Volume I.

The setting is pre-Revolutionary Boston, where a boy named Octavian and his mother, Cassiopeia, live in a house run by “rational philosophers”—a group of scientists known only by numbers. For the first years of his life, Octavian, clothed in silks and given the finest of classical tutoring, believes only that his mother is a princess from a faraway land. Gradually he realizes, to his horror, that he and his mother are subjects of a clinical experiment—a trial in which the researchers seek to determine whether a child from Africa, offered the same influences as a privileged white child, can be educated with equal success. Octavian is a quiet boy who has grown up with an extraordinary vocabulary, is fluent in Latin and Greek, has learned to observe intently, and has exceptional musical talent. And yet, over time, it becomes clear to Octavian that his captors’ hope is that he will ultimately fail.

The institution of which Octavian is the focus — the Novanglian College of Lucidity — has been funded by one Lord Cheldthorpe, a wealthy noble in Britain, and when this benefactor dies, the entire operation is jeopardized. A nephew, appointed the title by the monarchy, visits the Colonies, but when Octavian’s mother rudely refuses an improper offer by him, the experiment and the household teeter on the verge of bankruptcy. Eventually Mr. Sharpe, the College’s new director, appears, takes charge, and directs that the College must begin to undertake profitable pursuits.

With tensions rapidly escalating in Boston between colonists and Britain, the scientists flee to the countryside with Octavian and Cassiopeia. Soon after, they organize a pox party, in which participants are confined to a country house and inoculated with live smallpox. Although Octavian suffers only a mild reaction, three other participants, including Cassiopeia, die of the disease. When Octavian discovers the scientists dissecting his mother’s body, he flees in despair.

After a period of hiding, Octavian decides to join the Patriots. He is befriended by a soldier who inadvertently betrays him, causing Octavian’s brutal recapture. Octavian is bound and confined, until a sympathetic researcher drugs his co-conspirators. He spirits Octavian away, and together they cross the Bay, heading for British-held Boston.

DISCUSSION POINTS
1. How does M. T. Anderson’s treatment of the Revolution, the Patriots, and the Loyalists differ from some other literary portrayals of the period?

2. Today it is possible, theoretically, for an American child of any background to grow up and attend the most prestigious of institutions. But does race still play a role in the ability of America’s children to succeed?

3. Evidence Goring is, in one sense, one of the most moral characters in the book — believing fervently, for example, in the emancipation of slaves. What does it mean, then, that he is the one who betrays Octavian?

4. Pro Bono’s attitude toward Octavian is often hard to understand, bordering on brutality. How do you think he feels about the boy? What is his attitude toward the experiment?

5. Beyond the issue of slavery, what are the moral implications of Octavian’s experimental upbringing? Is there a line that divides moral from immoral conduct on the part of Octavian’s caretaker-owners? Where do you see that line?

6. Consider Mr. Sharpe’s comment that “We shall see a brave new day, Octavian, when the rights of liberty and property are exercised, and when all men are free to operate in their own self-interest” (p. 338). How do you see Sharpe’s prediction relating to government today? To what extent do we live in that brave new world?

7. How much of Cassiopeia’s pre-slavery background do you believe she fabricated?
Was she really a princess?

8. What do you think becomes of Octavian and Trefusis after they get “across the Bay to the lights of the beleaguered city” (p. 351)? To whom, if anyone, will they be loyal? Knowing what you do of Bono, what do you believe might have become of him?

9. M. T. Anderson begins the final section with a quotation from Voltaire: “In this world we are condemned to be an anvil or a hammer” (p. 307). What do you think of this quote? How does it relate to the book?

10. Dr. Samuel Johnson is said to have asked, “How is it that the loudest yelps for liberty come from the drivers of slaves?” Discuss Johnson’s comment in light of the story.

11. Discuss the contradiction between the colonists’ propaganda decrying what they called their enslavement by the British government and the colonists’ ownership of slaves, some of whom they sent in their stead to fight the British. Do the colonists’ fears of slave uprisings suggest that they knew slavery was wrong?

12. The author has written that the book is “gothic and fantastic in mood.” (p.351)
How does he incorporate conventions of gothic fantasy in the novel? Why might he have utilized them?

13. If you had been living in Boston in 1775 and had the opportunity to participate in the pox party, would you have done so and been inoculated or would you have taken your chances on contracting the disease?

AN INTERVIEW WITH M. T. ANDERSON

Q. What gave you the idea for this book?
A. I grew up in Stow, Massachusetts, one of the littlest of the little New England villages that first opposed the British troops when they marched out to Lexington and Concord that spring morning in 1775. Some of my earliest memories are of the Bicentennial celebrations in 1975—Minutemen marching on the green, President Ford delivering a speech from Old North Bridge, and a hippie in striped pants, a metallic hat, and bug wings who claimed that he was a refugee from the coming Tricentennial and that we should watch out for aerosol.

Growing up in the Boston ex-urbs, we all took the history around us for granted.
I got my hair cut in the town that sent the first detachment of militiamen over the hill against the British at the bridge. My orthodontist worked in a faux-Colonial building in the town where Paul Revere was captured by the Redcoats. He inserted my headgear there. The whole stretch of early American history—from the age before the invasion of the Europeans to the settlements of the Puritans, the villages of the Revolution, the flourishing of towns, the rise of the mills in the new Republic—all these things seemed incredibly intimate, because the traces of them were all around us. We lived casually in that past. Eighteenth-century houses were given two-car garages. Old textile mills, half run-down, were revived in my childhood and turned into industrial parks. Walden Pond, which Thoreau had written about with such rapture, was just another place to go swimming. We were used to the distant echoes of history.

Something about that struck me at the 225th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Old North Bridge. It was a huge event: hundreds of reenactors, Patriots and Redcoats, gathered at the site to run through the battles, and one of General Gage’s great-great-great-etc.-grandsons was there in a Barbour jacket, reading a moving elegy for the British soldiers who died on that morning 225 years before (though tourists with more sense of history than hospitality were yelling at him to “Go back home to Britain, you bloody Limey”).

I went to several of the battles that day. I was standing in a field, watching several hundred Redcoats approach in neat, cruel lines—and like an inevitable machine, drop rank after rank and fire right at me. Then, finally, they rose, screamed, and charged, bayonets out. The effect was terrifying.

I started to think: What would it be like to be standing here—untrained—facing them with a gun I usually used to shoot turkeys? What would it be like to be standing here, not knowing that we would win? Not knowing that we would—or that we should!—separate from England at all? What would it be like to face that army, thinking of myself as British and them as my own country’s army? What would it be like to be uncertain again? What would it be like to live through this without the victory preordained?

This thought stuck with me. So a couple of years later, I decided to write a book from the point of view of someone who wouldn’t know the outcome of the war and who had to make a hard choice between sides. I wanted to recapture the feeling of the unknown, the unclarity of that decision. And that’s where the idea for the book came from.

Q. Did you find any information about eighteenth–century pox parties really having taken place?
A. Yes—in fact, coming across a description of a pox party was another one of the first germs (so to speak) of the book, one of the things that first gave me the idea for the story.

During the Revolution, America was wracked by a smallpox epidemic, and the progress of the disease in fact deeply affected the strategies and outcomes of the war. Smallpox was an incredibly destructive and virulent killer in the eighteenth century. It was estimated around 1700 that one death out of every twelve could be chalked up to the disease; in the military, that figure was as high as one death in every four.

Boston was the center of a prolonged debate about inoculation. People were often frightened of the process, which was very imperfect in its execution. Some people in the city feared that inoculation interfered with the will of God, who supposedly used smallpox as a tool for chastisement, and others were against inoculation because they saw that when people were variolated, they still got the disease in a mild form and so could end up giving a full-blown case to those—such as people from the poorer segments of the population—who could not afford inoculation.

When the Puritan preacher Cotton Mather set about, at the earliest American “pox party,” to inoculate his child and servants, someone threw a firebomb through his window. It didn’t explode; a note on it read, “COTTON MATHER, You Dog, Dam you, I’l inoculate you with this, with a Pox to you.”

Q. How do you relate your young adult novel Feed, which chronicles the disintegration of the English language, to the rich vocabulary of Octavian Nothing?
A. I love eighteenth-century prose (and poetry)—both for its clarity and, at other times, for its Baroque complexity and little weird turns. Literate people in the period took an obvious pleasure in the extent of their vocabulary. You can feel them bringing out special words and usages in the same way that they took out the good pewter spoons for guests. It’s incredibly exciting, that widespread love of language.

Unfortunately, side by side with a tradition of American learning and self-improvement—the drive that made us the first nation on earth, for example, to demand universal public education—there is also an incredibly powerful tradition of American anti-intellectualism, a distrust of knowledge. This is a bizarre attitude for us to take, considering how dependent we are, for example, on technology that is so complex it amounts almost to wizardry.

But just as we’re content to surround ourselves with technological devices without really understanding their operating principles, we are often content to let our language lapse, despite its incredible wealth and variety. English has the largest potential vocabulary of any human language. Other tongues have other things going for them—Chinese, for example, has its idiomatic allusiveness, and French has its Classical clarity—but our gift is a big, stinking jungle of synonyms and shades of meaning and all kinds of funny little grottos and ruins and backwaters to explore. We’re neglecting all that out of laziness. Need I say, I think corporate narrative—movies, television, advertisements, and so on-is partially responsible, both directly and indirectly, for promoting a culture of receptive and self-congratulatory idiocy, but their efforts wouldn’t be successful if we weren’t so hungry for ease, reassurance, and a pat on the back to burp us. We want to be infantilized—we actually pay for it—whereas in the eighteenth century, when we had to fight for an education, when an education was something to be proud of, we approached our language with more determination and more joy.

Q. You have said that during the writing of Octavian, there were times when you felt you might have bitten off more than you could chew. How do you feel after completing the book?
A. There is no way of getting around it: This book was difficult to write, technically.

Every time I started a stint of work on it, it took me days to get back into the language. Sometimes I felt exhausted. I’ve had to keep my reading “diet” incredibly pure over the last four years—the time it took me to write the novel —confining myself usually to books from or about the eighteenth century or things that would have been read then (such as Livy or Ovid). There were at least two periods during the writing of the novel when I seriously decided that it couldn’t be completed, that I just wasn’t up to it, that it was an incredible mess and it was beyond me to fix. Eventually, I had to cut out my favorite character and alter the plot to avoid him, which wasn’t easy—but which improved the project immensely.

I am somewhat more secure about it now, but I’m still very cautious about how readers will react to it. It won’t be to everyone’s taste—but I at least feel that I did my best and stuck with it. I am happy with the outcome, and hope others are moved by it.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Writing the celebrated satire Feed (a National Book Award Finalist and winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize), says M.T.ANDERSON, was a process that demanded a fair share of field research. “I read a huge number of magazines like Seventeen and Stuff,” he confesses. “I listened to cell phone conversations in malls. Where else could you get lines like ‘Dude, I think the truffle is totally undervalued’?” The research undertaken to write The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: Traitor to the Nation was on a wholly different magnitude, requiring visits to battlefields in Lexington, Massachusetts, and hours spent in libraries, poring over 250-year-old documents.

In addition to writing for young adults, M. T. Anderson also writes for younger readers. His book Handel, Who Knew What He Liked, a picture book biography of the eighteenth-century composer George Frideric Handel, was a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Winner.

M. T. Anderson studied English literature at Harvard and Cambridge Universities and received an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University. He has served on the faculty of Vermont College’s MFA in Writing for Children Program and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Discussion Guide written by Shari and Richie Partington. Shari is a teacher, and Richie is a book reviewer and a frequent presenter at conferences.
Front cover illustration copyright © 2006 by Gerard Dubois

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TeensReadToo

Posted October 26, 2008

more from this reviewer

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

Even the title gives the reader a glimpse of the ostentatious nature of this incredible book. THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION is presented as a young adult title, which should in no way limit it only to the teen audience. Indeed, this book will be a challenge for many high school students -- a challenge well worth the effort.

M.T. Anderson immediately immerses his reader in the flowery, pretentious language spoken in the Revolutionary War period, a language that requires thought and concentration for today's reader. Once the reader is acclimated to the writing style, they are already hooked by Octavian's story. Octavian, an African prince, was sold while yet unborn, to one Mr.
Gitney, referred to as 03-01, of the Novanglian College of Lucidity. He was dressed in fine silks and fed the finest of fares. His mother was treated as the African princess she was, entertaining gentlemen, playing her harpsichord.

It was not until Octavian turned eight that he realized his life was not normal, that he was indeed one of the College's experiments. No other human being had their intake, as well as their body's waste, measured and recorded. Every word spoken, every situation, was a challenge to excel, an experiment to determine if the African race was capable of advanced thought and skill. Not all children, especially black children, were given the opportunity for a classical education. Octavian was already an accomplished violinist. He read all of the great literature, in several languages, including Greek and Latin. He understood figures, physics, and sciences of the earth. No discipline was left untouched in the quest to determine the potential of a slave to learn.

THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION is written from Octavian's point of view. Some passages are as though written by his own hand, then scribbled through, as if Octavian, with his vast education, still could not find the proper words to convey the horrors he had lived. His life of seeming luxury changes when the college's benefactor dies. Mr. Gitney entertains Lord Cheldethorpe in hopes that he will see fit to continue to finance the college as his uncle before him. For a time it seems that he is the solution to the College's financial distress. Especially since he has taken an acute interest in Octavian's mother. It is when she violently opposes his offer of her purchase, rather than a
royal marriage, that Octavian and his mother experience the outrage and beatings more typical in the life of a slave. To Octavian's great relief, Lord Cheldethorpe returns to England and a new financial supporter, Mr. Sharpe, is found.

But Mr. Sharpe changes the experiment. Now the lessons seem more designed to prove failure rather than success. When not engaged in his ¿lessons," Octavian is treated as a simple slave, along with his mother. Add to this the mounting unrest of the American nation, and fear is paramount. The entire household flees Boston to Canaan, Massachusetts. It is there that the most horrific experiment takes place. Mr. Gitney throws a pox party, whereby all, white and black alike, are ¿inoculated¿ against the small pox virus in hopes that they will be immune. Instead, Octavian witnesses pain and loss at the most personal level.....

Read the rest of this review at www.teensreadtoo.com

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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LiteraryObsession

Posted October 25, 2008

I Also Recommend:

You Have to Read This Book!!!

This book was recommeded to me. I normally don't read this genre of books. This book is based on fact as the author points out at the end of the book. Octavian speaks to you of his life, and the atrocities commited against him. This book is definitly not for young children. The issues raised in this book show the true horrors of slavery during the American Revolution and the shady experiments performed by early scientists. The details in this book will chill you and you won't be able to put this book down. This is the type of book that breaks the tradition of the teen books that raise inappropriate topics. This book is the best I have ever read.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted May 13, 2012

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How many pages is this book????
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N_Sorensen

Posted April 24, 2012

From what I have read so far, I have enjoyed The Astonishing Lif

From what I have read so far, I have enjoyed The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. It is very interesting and I can't wait to read the second novel. The only problem is that the writing style might be hard for younger readers. I reccomend this book for high school students who are looking for a challenge.
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Anonymous

Posted January 15, 2012

Great! An enjoyable challenged!

Im usually into books that are easy to read and quick. But this book changed my while persepctive on reading. I admit it was quite a challenging read but i promise if you love to read you will love this book. I feel every thing octavian feels. This book is not for the simple minded or for those whose do not reading. By this book you will not regret it i promise. If the book seems a little strange at the beginning dont stop. The more you read it the easier it is to understand. It also should help you build your vocabulary. This book will definately be a book that through the years will be a classic and will be required read in highschool next to shakespeare.
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9641512

Posted August 18, 2011

Horrible book dont read it itbis a wastebof money and time

This is the most horrible book i have ever read in my life. Ive actually fell asleep a couple times reading this. I only finished this book because it was required for school. Dont buy it you will severly regret it.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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8933061

Posted June 15, 2011

????

Is there a difference between the 9.99 and the 8.99 one?
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Awesomeness1

Posted January 23, 2010

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

My, What Big Words You Have!

have to admit that I was very reluctant to read this book. It's been on my to-read list since it came out, and I would repeatedly pass it by in the library. Eventually, it stared me down and I was forced to check it out. The reason I kept putting it off was because I didn't particularly enjoy the first one. Yes, I appreciated its artsiness, but it was very long and quite boring.

In this installment, we follow Octavian as he runs away once again, but this time with his tutor Dr. Trefusis. Instead of joining up with the rebels, he becomes a soldier in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment with the promise of his freedom.

I can honestly say this novel surprised me. I was expecting this novel to be even more dull than the first one since it was even longer. Instead, I ate it up. I think its because I actually got it this time. Perhaps I didn't like the first one because I was distracted and couldn't get into it. This time I realized the humor and was genuinely invested in Octavian's journey. It was funny, tragic, and philosophical. Nothing was sugar-coated, and sometimes the writing was brutal. The writing, tedious in the first book, was fully appreciated here. The 18th century style fitted the story and time period perfectly. Octavian grew up in this book. He really loosened up in this one and was finally showing some emotions.

Also, through out this whole book, it reminded me of something else I read. I couldn't put my finger on it until I saw the title in another person's review. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. They were alike in the sense of style: both were written in 18th century style, and featured letters as a technique. And the plot was alike too when I think about it. Octavian and Frankenstein's monster are both elegant experiments searching for their place in the world. I have to say I did enjoy this book more though, so if you hated Frankenstein feel free to read this one.

I whole-heartedly recommend this novel. It is a very unique young adult book and a must for historical fiction fans looking for a challenge. It is in no way an easy read, for both the prose and material is difficult. I felt like I needed a dictionary a majority of the time. Whether you liked or disliked the first one, give this second installment a shot.
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Poncho

Posted June 10, 2009

more from this reviewer

Indescribable

Very very interesting book...the reading level was a little difficult for me but it was great. It was different and unexpected...a must read.
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Awesomeness1

Posted May 16, 2009

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

Astonishing

This book was intriguing to be sure, but not exactly entertaining. In order to be absorbed by this story, you have to be willing to invest the time, and be prepared with a dictionary, because, trust me, there are a lot of big words. The concept was certainly original, and is worth a try. When you've finished it, you put it down thinking you've accomplished something.
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TeensReadToo

Posted May 6, 2009

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Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

For those of you who immersed yourself in the world of THE POX PARTY, you must read M. T. Anderson's second volume, THE KINGDOM ON THE WAVES. I would highly recommend you read the two volumes in order.

In volume two, Octavian escapes the cruelty of Mr. Gitney and, with his former tutor, Dr. Trefusis, on his back, flees across the mud-flats to Boston. Once there, they are able to find lodging, trading only upon the name and reputation of the deathly ill Dr. Trefusis. With war closing in on Boston and their hostess in dire need of payment, Octavian once again finds himself with violin in hand, earning a small amount to apply toward their room and board. At this point, I was still cheering for Octavian, the escaped slave, hoping that he finally would find joy, peace and, most of all, freedom; yet at the same time, knowing that there must be more challenges ahead.

As the Revolutionary War advances, Octavian hears that the Royalists are promising freedom to all slaves who fight for the King of England. He joins and dons his uniform, a shirt inscribed with the words "Liberty to Slaves." We are immediately immersed in the struggle to prepare an ill-equipped regiment for war. He becomes a member of Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. Here, for the first time, he is surrounded by other slaves who speak other languages. They tell glorious tales of their homes in Africa and sing rousing songs that make his heart pound. They see him as different, a white man in a black body, and brand him with the name Buckra.

Octavian marches into his first battle behind other regiments, amazed that those first to confront the Rebels are little more than a sacrifice. He does not understand the logic behind this type of fighting. It's not long before they are in retreat, fellow soldiers dead and dying all around, and something inside Octavian changes. How can it not?

With the Rebel force surging into Boston, the Royalists take to their ships. Octavian and the Ethiopian Regiment find a new level of darkness in the bowels of their ship. They spend weeks, nay, months, aboard their watery foundations. Rations are less than sparse and sickness begins to spread. It's a relief to row ashore, even if it is to burn Boston out from under the rebels who have claimed it. Men die. Men kill. Octavian knows not whether it be his bullet or another which steals life.

Back aboard ship, the monotony begins anew, broken only by the occasional duties on deck, and the visits of women as they gather laundry, including Nsia, the woman of beautiful voice and dance who takes his tongue and ties it in knots. He is relieved when Dr. Trefusis visits his ship and bades him fill the empty void with studies while they listen to stories of bravery and ingenuity. Stories of slaves escaping their masters to join the promise of freedom offered by Lord Dunmore and his Royal Navy. Octavian learns much about his mother's tribe in Africa from another soldier from that nation. And as small pox devastates the Ethiopian Regiment, he learns more that he would have liked about the burial customs of his brothers-in-arms.

**Read the full review at www.teensreadtoo.com
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lover-of-comedy-and-books

Posted March 7, 2009

I Also Recommend:

Very descriptive, and in this case, details are better left in the dark.

I had seen this book on the shelf many times before I ever even read the back, but when I did I was immediately intrigued. The way it was describing the novel led me to believe it was science fiction. Boy, was I off! What this book was really about was a boy and his mother who had been sold to a group of men who's mission in life was to collect and discover as much knowledge as they could. These men had made the boy into a walking, living, breathing, experiment. I think it takes place during the Renaissance, he and his mother are African American slaves and are treated like nobles until another group of scholars take their prejudice to a new level. I read this book with a little disgust, with the awards on the cover I thought I would be saved from lewd descriptions. Now I take the saying "never judge a book by it's cover" to heart. I don't mean to put it down or anything, but the emotion that lingered in me after I finished was not warm and fuzzy.
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Anonymous

Posted February 17, 2009

I Also Recommend:

Superb! A new light from the other side of the modern American history.

Beautiful, sophisticated, honest, and complex, the "Octavian Nothing" series takes readers into a new perspective of the 18th century American history through an unusual but honest, intelligent narrative. A journey in which one witnesses the recent depravity of civilization that betrayed the humanity for a collected ignorance.
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MrPotter07

Posted January 25, 2009

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

I love Octavian!

I read the first Octavian Nothing book on a whim when I was working at Barnes & Noble. I loved it! I thought it was an original and compelling subject matter, beautifully written, and dripping with vivid characters. I was ready to die for the second one to come out. It was not a disapointment. The mystery was gone, but it was replaced by action. The basic subject matter was still there. I just can't explain the originally of the story line. Nothing short of brilliant! I didn't get the feeling that there would be a third one, which makes me sad. I wasn't ready to say goodbye, I want more and I would be first in line if there was!
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S_Nolz_Berk

Posted December 9, 2008

more from this reviewer

An excellent story about a fascinating scientific program and the plight of slaves during the American Revolution

I had no idea what this book was when I picked it up. When I started it and realized I was going to be reading yet another book about slavery, I felt just a little bit of a loss of enthusiasm. Then, I started to get pulled into the strange way of life in Octavian's home. I became fascinated with the "learned men" and with their treatment of Octavian and his mother. It was also interesting to read about slavery in Revolution time. It was a time when the slaves could look forward to freedom, not knowing about the ridiculous compromise the leaders of the young nation make.
Octavian's life is fascinating, and I look forward to reading the sequel.
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Anonymous

Posted May 16, 2008

¿This book brings slavery into whole new eyes¿

Octavian, an adolescent African-American during the Revolutionary War, is raised as a prince in Boston. He is raised in a college that researches many fields of science. Octavian¿s mother lives there, along with many men who act like they love him. Soon, Octavian finds that he is an experiment to find out if African-Americans have the same brain capacity as whites. If Octavian becomes successful, it could lead to many people discussing if slavery is right. Soon, the college¿s funding gets cut and it goes to new management, Mr. Sharpe, the new head, shows Octavian his slavery status. Mr. Sharpe makes Octavian do menial tasks (instead of reading literature all day) and beats him. Octavian starts to wonder if he really belongs at the college. First, do not read this book if you do not have an advanced vocabulary. The characters in the book talk like rich men would in Revolutionary times. Other than the vocabulary issue that greatly shrinks the target group, the book excels in what it was meant to do relay the horrors of slavery. The descriptions this book gives will have your skin crawl and make you have much pity for Octavian. The only problem is, this book is boring, to put it bluntly. I didn¿t recognize the climax until I finished the book. That¿s not to say it is a bad thing this book was made to describe, not entertain. This book is the first in a scheduled two-part series. Its target group is young-adults to adults who read a lot. This book is definitely a must-read for those who want to know about slavery and are in the target group.
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Anonymous

Posted March 24, 2008

The Untold Story

This story, untrue but based on events and people and places that were once hidden from the world because of the need to only hear what is good, entails the unheard story of a young boy named Octavian Gitney. Octavian is a slave of Mr. Gitney¿s during the American Revolutionary War and the events leading up to it. Mr. Gitney is the founder of the Novanglin College of Lucidity. This college inducts experiments and investigations to share with the world their outcomes. These experiments are sometimes harsh and cruel to the subjects whose investigation normally ends in death. Octavian, an African Prince, is the subject of a cruel experiment going on inside this college. His life is filled with much finery he has the best clothes, the best education, and the best food available to white males. As Octavian grows up he realizes that things aren¿t always what they seem. In this fictional tale, much like the real events like this that happened, this young man fights to be free from the cruelty that binds him to the college. I really enjoyed this book written by M.T. Anderson. Although this story has a slow story line, everything seems to fit in just the perfect place. This story isn¿t like many that bind you to its pages and is finished in a few hours. With this book the reader is likely to spend many days uncovering the secrets in this book¿s pages and understanding the deep and complex plot. Much hard thinking is necessary to understand the deep thought put into this story. The feelings and emotions of this story are buried deep in the writing and must be examined to correctly fit into the story. I didn¿t like parts of this book where you couldn¿t understand their deep thoughts or experiments because not enough information was given to the reader to make each complex thought and experiment clear. Also there were parts where one could tell this was written as if reading a diary and he didn¿t want you to know what he had really been feeling. These places caused confusion but also made one enter deep thought to try figuring out what had first been written there. In recommending this book, I would say that anyone reading lower than a high school level shouldn¿t even attempt to read this book. I believe people of either gender would like this book and feel drawn in. This book is part of a series this series contains two volumes, which should be read in order. Unlike any other book, this book is truly on of a kind but reminds me of the sad slave stories that one might read. I haven¿t managed to read the second volume yet but if it is anywhere as good as the first then this series is worth the time and effort to read and enjoy.
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Anonymous

Posted November 7, 2007

Stunning!

Absolutely beautiful. This book forces you to actually think about the times and opinions viewed. I am a high school student, but I have a reading level of that of a college sophmore. This book was the delightful light at the end of a dark tunnel full of teeny-bopper love stories and melodrama. Overall, great read.
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Anonymous

Posted September 27, 2007

Brilliant, disturbing, but ultimately anti-climactic

The first two-thirds of this book are magnificent. I would suggest not reading any plot-descriptive reviews, as they tend to give away crucial points to the story which are more fun and more disturbing to discover for yourself. This is definitely a book for teens, not younger children. The clinical means by which certain experiments are discussed might be too intense or frightening for say, my nine-year old nephew. Where the story falters is when Octavian ceases telling it. The illiterate soldier's letters to home are just too hard to read --filled with spelling and grammatical errors -- and ultimately, rather boring. We've grown used to Octavian's erudite voice, and the sudden distance between us seems empty and cold. Personally, I was more interested in the issue of 'what can be done in the name of science' than the slavery-related issues later raised. Overall, I look forward to the next chapter in Octavian's story.
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Anonymous

Posted April 19, 2007

Reading in the sense of reading

most books i read are just like a movie on paper. it doesn't require much thinking at all,it is just action packed and easy. If you want a challenge and something to just plain think about, read this book. This book is like reading in the sense of reading because it isn't exactly like a fast-pacced exciting story, but it is fun to sit there and think/decipher the meaning of what he's trying to say. Very deep and philisophical! (maybe a little wierd too):-)
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The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Volume 1: The Pox Party

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Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

You Have to Read This Book!!!

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From what I have read so far, I have enjoyed The Astonishing Lif

Great! An enjoyable challenged!

Horrible book dont read it itbis a wastebof money and time

????

My, What Big Words You Have!

Indescribable

Astonishing

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

Very descriptive, and in this case, details are better left in the dark.

Superb! A new light from the other side of the modern American history.

I love Octavian!

An excellent story about a fascinating scientific program and the plight of slaves during the American Revolution

¿This book brings slavery into whole new eyes¿

The Untold Story

Stunning!

Brilliant, disturbing, but ultimately anti-climactic

Reading in the sense of reading