SUE (Eugène). - Lot 76

SUE (Eugène). Atar-Gull. Paris: Ch. Vimont, 1831. — In-8, 208 x 128: (2 ff.), xvj, 398 pp., (1 f.), 4 plates. Dark blue half-basane, smooth spine with decoration, marbled edges (contemporary binding). First edition of this novel denouncing the slave trade and the hypocrisy of slavery. Captain Benoît, a slave trader from Nantes, purchases Atar-Gull—the son of a king and an exceptional slave—on the African coast, whom he resells in Jamaica to the colonist Tom Wil. Wil had once had Atar-Gull’s father hanged, and Atar-Gull now harbors a deep, patient hatred for Wil: under the guise of exemplary submission, he ruins and kills Wil’s loved ones one by one. Now crippled and mute, Wil listens helplessly every evening to Atar-Gull’s accounts detailing his crimes, unable to denounce him. Upon Wil’s death, Atar-Gull inherits his estate and receives—the ultimate irony—the Montyon Prize for Virtue. The novel caused a scandal upon its publication and already foreshadowed the social themes of Sue’s future serialized novels. The edition is illustrated with four woodcuts, engraved by Porret after drawings by Henry Monnier. The second is repeated on the title page. Normal wear and tear, some surface scuffs, one page missing. Foxing spots. Title page reattached. Tear without loss of material on the folio containing pages 287–288, with no damage to the text.