Search Results: Literature from ARTEM

Obscure early lyrical poem about a Black American raging against slavery, promising "the revenge of a smoldering black revolution"
Doigny du Ponceau (1750-1830).
Discours d'un negre a un Européen, piece qui a concouru pour le prix de l'Académie Françoise, en 1775.
Paris, Demonville, 1775.
8°. 15, [1 blank] pp. Collates: A8. With woodcut head- and tailpieces.
Contemporary half calf with marbled sides, red title-shield, red edges.
[bound with 11 elogies].
First and only edition of a rare lyrical poem against slavery and racism by the little known author Doigny du Ponceau. It is set up as a fake contestant for the prize of the French Academy in 1775.This text falls within the theme of a speech of an enslaved maroon who, confronted with execution, accuses the Europeans of their oppression and threatens them with revenge. This is found in French lyrical poems closely related to each other, ranging from 1759 to 1790, begun in 1759 by l'abbé Guillaume Antoine Lemonnier, with his Discours d'un nègre… Read More

Wilson's first published Sanskrit translation, the first publication of the Meghadūta in the West
Kālidāsa (c. 4th–5th century CE); Horace Hayman Wilson (1786-1860, trans.).

The Megha Duta, or Cloud Messenger, a poem, in the Sanscrit language.

Calcutta printed: London reprinted, Black, Parry, and Co., 1814.

8°. XXII, 23-175 pp. Later half calf, marbled sides.First English translation of the Meghadūta, the most renowned text by India's greatest ancient poet. This famous Sanskrit love poem became popular in Europe in the early 19th century, chiefly because of the present translation by Horace Wilson. Written in the 4th-5th century by the Classical Sanskrit author Kālidāsa, it tells the story of a lover who sends his message to his beloved by a cloud. The present edition includes Wilson's commentaries on his translation of the ancient poem.
Translator Horace Wilson was the first professor of Sanskrit at Oxford. He made his name through his many translations of ancient Sanskrit texts. For… Read More

Aphra Behn's masterpiece in a rarely seen edition


Aphra Behn (1640-1689); Pierre-Antoine de La Place (1707-1793) [transl.].
Oronoko imité de l'Anglois. Nouvelle edition, revuë & corrigée […].
Paris, Sebastien Jorry, 1756.
2 parts in 1 vol. 12°. XVI, 112, [4], 188, [4] pp. = complete with the Approbation and advertisement leaves at the end (not called for in bibliographies and library records).
Contemporary quarter calf, marbled sides, title label.
Very rare and interesting third edition of the first French translation of Aphra Behn's masterpiece Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave (London, 1688). This famous female author's novel presents a black person as sympathetic for the first time in Western literature and strongly denounces the cruelties of slavery. It is about an African prince who is tricked into slavery and sold to European planters in Surinam, ending in rebellion and execution. It also includes a description of Surinam and its inhabitants. Author Aphra Behn is considered the true first… Read More