486 BIS. BEHN (Aphara). Oronoko, translated from English, by - Lot 486

Lot 486.BIS
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486 BIS. BEHN (Aphara). Oronoko, translated from English, by - Lot 486
486 BIS. BEHN (Aphara). Oronoko, translated from English, by Mrs. Behn. Amsterdam, at the expense of the Company, 1745. 2 parts in 1 vol. in-12 of [2]-xv-[1]-104 pp. ; [4]-168 pp., brown calf, ornate spine. Used binding, rubbed and missing leather. Very rare first edition of the French translation by Pierre-Antoine La Place (translator of Shakespeare among others) of the only novel by the British playwright Aphra Behn, first published in English in London in 1668 ("Oroonoko or the Royal slave"). First novel entirely devoted to the theme of the good savage: Oronoko is the grandson and sole heir of the King of Cormantine in Africa (Guinea), where the English go to look for slaves for their colonies. A perfect archetype of the good savage, Oronoko is a model of politeness, honour and generosity; he knows French, English and Spanish and is gifted with the noblest virtues and ignores vices. He ended his life enslaved in a Surinam plantation in the 1660's. The first English novel to present Africans in a benevolent light, this work denounces the immorality of slavery, several years before the voices of the philosophers of the Enlightenment were raised on the subject. It even served as a reference for the first abolitionists and inspired Voltaire to write Candide (1759), and even, later, Victor Hugo for Bug-Jargal (1820). Considered the first professional woman of letters in Anglo-Saxon literature, Aphra Behn (1640-1689) also made a career in espionage for England. Independent and adventurous (including a long stay in South America), she embodied a feminist model and an ideal of philosophical thought that were very precursory. Manuscript ex-libris from the 19th century. Abel Tardiveau. Good interior condition.
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