He was the first and only king of Haiti. What the life of Christophe says about its history

By Jacqueline Charles

Marlene Daut’s deep dive into Haiti’s first — and only — king reads like a historical novel of a bygone era with Black princes and knights, an elaborate dress code and a palace, Sans-Souci, to match. But Daut’s “The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe” (Penguin Random House, $40), isn’t a novel— even if at times its fascinating prose about the self-proclaimed king and veteran of the Haitian Revolution and the betrayal and geopolitical clashes that shaped his 13-year reign over the Kingdom of Haiti at times seems like fiction. While Christophe ruled in the north, Alexandre Sabès Pétion, another hero of the revolution and later his rival, governed in the south as president of the Republic of Haiti.

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