Ourika. by DURAS, Claire de Durfort, duchesse de.

Ourika. by DURAS, Claire de Durfort, duchesse de. < >
  • Another image of Ourika. by DURAS, Claire de Durfort, duchesse de.
  • Another image of Ourika. by DURAS, Claire de Durfort, duchesse de.
  • Another image of Ourika. by DURAS, Claire de Durfort, duchesse de.

~ Ourika. Paris: [J. Pinard for] Ladvocat, 1824.

12mo (162 × 92 mm), pp. 172, [8] including half-title, and publishers’ adverts. Very minor loss to a couple of upper margins (careless opening or insects). Contemporary marbled sheep, spine gilt. A very good copy.

First trade edition of a novel which had first appeared in a small edition (between 25 and 40 copies) privately circulated in December 1823. Ourika, based on fact, and influenced by Rousseau and Chateaubriand, is the complex story of a black African child raised in aristocratic circles in Revolutionary France. It is the first fully developed attempt to portray a black heroine in Europe and the first French novel with a black female narrator. This edition bears the statement on the verso of the half-title ‘Publié au profit d’un établissement de charité, and has no edition statement on the title-page, which bears a quotation from Byron (as called for). A true best-seller, at least four editions appeared in 1824, together with four plays and two poems based on the novel.

Keywords: french, literature, novels, women
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