Aphra Behn (1640-1689); Pierre-Antoine de La Place (1707-1793) [transl.].

Oronoko, ou le Prince nègre. Imitation de l’anglois, nouvelle édition, revue & corrigée. […] Avec figures.

A Londres, et se trouve à Paris, chez Vente, 1769.

12° (17 × 10 cm.), [4], xii, 212 pp.

With 5 engraved plates by Baron after Marillier.

Contemporary mottled calf, covers with the gilt supralibros of Md. d’Humières on upper cover, smooth spine with gold-tooled floral decorations, red morocco label, red edges.

            First illustrated edition of the French adaptation by Pierre-Antoine de La Place (1707–1793) of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko; or, the Royal slave (1688). This pioneering novel is widely recognised as the first Western fiction to portray a Black hero with dignity and moral depth, condemning the barbarity of slavery through the tragic story of an African prince betrayed and sold into servitude in Surinam. Aphra Behn was one of the earliest professional women writers in English literature.

Based on our research, the present issue with 5 plates is the earliest illustrated edition of Oroonoko in any language (prose or dramatic). We found no illustrated English, French, German, Dutch, or Italian editions prior to 1769. The first illustrated English edition of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko appeared in 1777, published in London by John Bell as part of Bell’s British Theatre series. No illustrated English edition of Behn’s prose Oroonoko is known before the nineteenth century; the earliest illustrated versions date from around 1820–1830, when Oroonoko was reprinted in anthologies and moral storybooks. See bibliography below for more information.

This edition is not only the first illustrated edition, but also the first to include the separately titled Histoire d’Imoinda, an expanded and separately titled narrative that reimagines the final section of the novel from the perspective of Imoinda, the African heroine and beloved of Oroonoko.
La Place, a prolific translator of English literature (notably Shakespeare), first rendered Oroonoko in 1745 (Oronoko, ou le Prince nègre), revising it twice more: in 1755–56 (Les avantures curieuses et intéressantes d’Oronoko, prince africain) and in this 1769 version, his final and most freely adapted text. As noted by Paul Lacroix, he “softened certain shocking details for the sensibilities of the French reader”. La Place’s translation played a key role in disseminating Behn’s pioneering narrative to French readers and in shaping Enlightenment discussions of colonialism and race.

A very desirable copy of this rare first illustrated edition, handsomely bound for Madame d’Humières, a female member of the Humières family, an old French noble house with branches in Picardy and Paris. The title was associated with the Duché d’Humières, whose members served prominently at court in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Condition: joints and corners lightly rubbed, one corner worn, very light foxing, otherwise a very attractive clean, fresh copy.

Bbiliography: cf. Sabin 4373 (1745 ed.);

Paul Lacroix, Bibliothèque de la reine Marie-Antoinette au Petit Trianon, 1863, p. 69, no. 407.

Edward D. Seeber, “Oroonoko in France in the XVIIIth Century,” PMLA 51.4 (1936), pp. 953–959.

Mary Ann O’Donnell, Aphra Behn: An Annotated Bibliography, 2004, A31.1b 1759.

Marie-France Guénette, Oroonoko d’Aphra Behn en traduction française (1745–2009). Mémoire de maîtrise, Université de Montréal, 2014.