Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s "Sab" is a powerful and groundbreaking novel that is both a passionate romance and a fierce critique of social injustice. Set in colonial Cuba, the story centers on Sab, a mixed-race orphan raised in the household of a wealthy plantation owner. Though educated and noble in spirit, Sab is condemned by the society of his time to the life of a slave. He harbors a deep, secret, and utterly hopeless love for Carlota, the beautiful and innocent white heiress of the plantation. Carlota, however, is infatuated with the handsome but avaricious and unprincipled Englishman, Enrique Otway. Sab, possessing a profound and poetic soul, suffers in silence as he watches the woman he loves being deceived by a man who values her only for her fortune. The novel daringly parallels the oppression of slaves with the legal and social subjugation of women, who were also treated as property to be bought and sold through marriage. Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda infuses the story with Romantic ideals, contrasting the pure, natural love and innate virtue of the marginalized Sab with the corrupted, materialistic values of the civilized world. "Sab" is a tragic and eloquent plea for human dignity and a condemnation of the systems that deny it.

Table of Contents:

• Sab. Part 1

• Sab. Part 2

• Sab. Part 3