MAYNARD DE QUEILHE (Louis de). - Lot 65

MAYNARD DE QUEILHE (Louis de). Overseas. Paris: Eugène Renduel, 1835. — 2 volumes, in-8, 208 x 128: (2 ff.), VII, pp. (5)–390; 394 pp., (1 blank folio). Dark blue half-calf, smooth spine with decoration (contemporary binding). A rare first edition of one of the earliest Caribbean novels, written by the young Martinican author Louis de Maynard de Queilhe (1811–1837), who died at the age of only 26, and dedicated by him to his father. “Vilified by nineteenth-century commentators and marginalized by contemporary critics, the novel is nonetheless a rich account of a crucial period (1829–1831) in the history of the French Antilles. The text reflects the primary concerns of the békée (White Creole) caste, a caste shaken by the Haitian Revolution, the abolition of the slave trade in England, the economic decline of the French Empire, and, perhaps above all, by the ambivalent position of the mulatto in an increasingly ‘motley’ society. *Outre-mer* thus evokes the profound sense of insecurity felt by a people facing economic ruin and historical uncertainty” (description from L’Harmattan). A fine copy in a contemporary binding. Some normal wear and tear. Foxing.