DURAS Ourika rare books first edition precious books camille sourget

DURAS, Mme la Duchesse de.

Ourika / Edouard

Paris, chez Ladvocat, libraire de Son Altesse Sérénissime Monseigneur Le Duc de Chartres, 1824.

12mo of 172 pp. Small tear in the corner of p. 3 not touching the text.

- [With] : Edouard, par l’auteur d’Ourika.

Paris, chez Ladvocat, libraire de S. A. R. Le Duc de Chartres, 1825.

2 volumes 12mo of : I/ (2) ll., 238 pp. ; II/ (2) ll., 225 pp., (1) l. with the catalogue of the editor, slight foxing.

A total of 3 volumes uniformly bound in red quarter-shagreen, covers in red embossed paper, flat spines with hatched gilt fillets, yellow edges with red dots. Contemporary binding.

172 x 99 mm.

Editions published the same year as the originals, “to the profit of a charitable organization”.

Carteret, I, p. 250 ; Vicaire, III, 535 ; Clouzot, p. 114 ; Vicaire, 535 ; Barbier II, 31 ; Quérard, II, 723 ; Brunet, II, 908.

First edition issued for sale of these two works. The first edition of Ourika was published the same year without a title-page, printed by the royal printing house in only 25-40 copies for the friends of the family.

“Under the Restoration the literary Salon of Mme de Duras was one of the most brilliant”.

With Ourika, for the first time in European literature a white writer penetrates into a black consciousness with elegance and sincerity, allowing white readers to identify with the character.

The publication of Ourika in 1824 was one of the hugest successes among feminine novels. Instantly popular, this novel drew with finesse the story of a young black slave in love with the son of her protector.

« A best seller under Louis XVIII ». [Lucien Scheler in Le Bulletin du bibliophile, Paris, 1988].

A beautiful copy of this collection of two great texts by the Duchess of Duras preserved in an elegant uniform binding from the time.

Provenance: ex libris of the countess Victoire de Rigaud de Vaudreuil (1775-1851), the wife of the governor of the Louvre and a contemporary of Mme de Duras.