“Daut’s work is a definitive account of Christophe’s life, offering readers a nuanced understanding of a figure often obscured by myth.” — Politics and Rights Review

“…an overview of the entire revolutionary period. It’s a magnificent, sweeping work of history.” —Dana Snitzky, history and current affairs reviews editor

“In The First and Last King of Haiti, Marlene Daut, a Professor of French and African Diaspora Studies at Yale University, provides a full-scale biography of Christophe, set in the context of immensely consequential decades in Haiti’s history.” — Glenn C. Altschuler, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Many details of Christophe’s life remain murky, but Daut’s research is outstanding. She has unearthed new sources in Caribbean and European archives, and she weighs all evidence carefully and reaches judicious conclusions. This book’s depth of detail may daunt general audiences, but it is a must-read for scholars.

"As a narrative of the rise and fall of Henry Christophe, Daut’s First and Last King of Haiti... will likely stand as the definitive work for a long time to come." -- Madison Smartt Bell,  The American Scholar 

“By clearly chronicling Christophe's complexstory with detail and nuanced analysis, Daut portrays a crucial, if little-known leader and traces the deep roots of Haiti's ongoing struggles.”
—Booklist (starred review)

Scholarly insights into a grandiose historical character who remains an enigma.

In the June 2024 issue of H-Diplo, Ronald Angelo Johnson reviews Awakening the Ashes:

“The author of Awakening the Ashes understood that the journey upon which the book attempts to take its readers would be intellectually taxing. She admits, “Asking nonspecialists who may be newly interested in the history of Haiti to consult nineteenth-century Haitian-produced sources is an inconvenient argument” (p. 27). Yet, that is exactly what Haitian literary scholar Marlene L. Daut asks of her readers in this sweeping, incisive volume on early Haitian literature.

“Envision your cities shrouded in mourning… envision the care you took upon yourself, night and day, to revive your companions, envision your children, your soldiers, the peaceful inhabitants of the countryside crippled by the French,” wrote Louis- Felix Boisrond-Tonnerre, an early 19th-century Haitian thinker and former secretary to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, as he urged Haitians’ to remember their shared experience of the 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution.

“…as this artful book shows so well, Haitians have a vigorous intellectual tradition with prolific authors who, decade after decade, inform their fellow citizens and the Francophone world about the true nature of slavery; the forces leading to their country's revolution; and how Haiti was, is, and should be governed."