description: Prancing Nigger is probably Firbank's most widely known book, and was particularly successful in America. Many people consider it the best of the novels, and even if one prefers Valmouth or Vainglory, one is bound to admit that Prancing Nigger is, technically, one of his finest achievements. One reason for its popularity, perhaps, is that it has (though Firbank would have winced at such a humourless suggestion) what might be interpreted as a 'serious' sociological theme: racial discrimination. The scene is a West Indian republic (compounded of Cuba and Haiti); a family of negroes, socially ambitious, move from their country home to the capital, and the story is concerned with their attempts—which prove mainly abortive—to 'get into society'. Once again, as in Caprice, Firbank is dealing with the social embarrassments and misadventures of the Innocent Abroad, though here the theme is treated, if not exactly seriously, at least with something approaching genuine sympathy. Young Edna Mouth becomes a white man's mistress, her brother frequents the society of 'youths of a certain life, known as bwam-wam bwam-wams'; as for their elder sister, Miss Miami Mouth, her lover is killed by a shark, and she, like Mlle de Nazianzi before her, seeks consolation in religion and pious works.by Ourcivilisation.com
language: English
title: Prancing Nigger
titlecomplete: Prancing Nigger
genres: Fiction
ratings_count: 39
publisher: Brentano's NY