Claire-Louisa-Rose-Bonne Lechal de Kersaint DURAS

Second printing of the second edition illustrated with two frontispiece engravings.
Some foxing.
Half-navy blue shagreen binding, spine in four compartments set with gilt dots and decorated with triple gilt fillets, gilt armorial device at foot of spine (gules fess, six martlets), red paper boards, combed paper endpapers and pastedowns, all edges marbled, binding signed J. Rousseau.

Edition illustrated with a frontispiece and engraved vignette title. Published three years after the first edition.
Full olive green glazed calf, spine elaborately decorated and ruled in gilt, French fillet framing the boards also framed in blind, marbled paper endpapers and flyleaves, all edges gilt. Slight rubbing to joints, scattered foxing mainly on the first few leaves.
A fine copy of the Duchesse de Duras's most famous novel with wide margins, housed in an elegant contemporary calf binding.
A best-selling novel celebrated by Goethe, Ourika tells the tragic story of a young Senegalese woman raised in the French aristocracy after the Revolution, who succumbs to racial prejudice. This pioneering work marks "the first known appearance of a Black female protagonist in European literature" (Robin Mitchell).