Romance in Marseille by Claude McKay

New York : Penguin, 2020

Begun in 1929 and significantly expanded by 1932, Romance in Marseille failed to find a publisher. It has existed as two versions in manuscript form in two different archival collections until the 2020 publication as part of the Penguin Classics series.

The story centers around Lafala, a West African sailor who stows away on a ship out of Marseille headed for New York. Having been caught by the crew and held in an unheated area of the ship, he must have his lower legs amputated due to frostbite upon landing in New York. A lawyer helps him sue the shipping company for his loss of limbs due to his treatment and confinement onboard. After winning his case, he returns to Marseille a much richer man. 

Although Lafala's fortunes have changed, he returns to his life among the sailors, dockworkers, prostitutes and pimps of the Quayside in Marseille. Although now a celebrity of sorts, his newfound wealth means many are trying to separate him from it. The remainder of the book sees everyone take a side and numerous plots and counterplots work themselves out.

McKay's dislike of the N.A.A.C.P.'s negative reviews of his 'shocking' work is hilariously highlighted when he includes a reference to a fictitious organization that is an obvious stand-in: The Christian Unity of Negro Tribes, or C.U.N.T. 

The extended text of 1932, sees the addition of two white characters, Big Blonde and Petit Frère. Big Blonde is a sailor who is known to prefer boys to girls and Petit Frère is his little friend, probably a teenage boy who works the ships. Among the inhabitants of Quayside, this is considered a normal relationship variation and is paid little attention. It was not uncommon for teenage boys to work ships and be coupled with sailors or act as prostitutes for the men onboard. The novel, Boy (1931), by James Hanley describes this exact situation in startling detail. 

Boy by James Hanley

[London]: Andre Deutsch, 1990

James Hanley's Boy, originally published 1931 in a limited edition, is the story of thirteen-year-old Arthur Fearon. His parents pull him from school and send him to work so that he may help support the family. After a single day working at cleaning out the bilge of ship in port and suffering the hazing by the other boys on job, he stows away on a ship leaving for Alexandria in hopes of starting a new life. Discovered half-dead in the coal chute, he is nursed back to health and made a member of the crew. Many of the seasoned members of the crew make advances toward him, suggesting a long history on ships of boys serving the adult crew; cleaning, bringing food and being sexually available. It is discussed as if they had also been through this as boys and it was just an expected part of ship life.

New York: Knopf, 1932

Boy may be Hanley's most famous work due to the court case of 1934 where the publishers were found guilty of issuing an obscene libel. Joseph Pridmore, in his "Unpleasant and ugly in both narration and incident:" the troubled legal history of James Hanley's Boy,  provides an excellent history of the controversy. Andre Deutsch (1990) released the first unexpurgated edition since the trial. Although Knopf released the the first U.S. edition in 1932, ahead of the court case, several passages were softened and certain words were changed to suit an American audience.


Bibliographies & Ratings: Cory (II); Garde (OTP, d); Mattachine Review (II); Young (1694)