From Booklist
Ourika is a delightful tale set in France during the French Revolution. Published in 1823, de Duras' novel represents a number of firsts: the first novel set in Europe to have a black heroine; the first French literary work narrated by a black female; and the first serious attempt by a white author to express the feelings of a black character. The story is based on a true account of a Senegalese girl rescued from slavery and raised by an aristocratic French family. When Ourika overhears a conversation that makes her aware of her race and the prejudices it produces, her reality is shattered. This revelation causes her to become ill and no longer able to enjoy the lifestyle to which she is accustomed. Her struggle to reject living as a French woman and to exist as a black woman causes her to choose an "invisible" subsistence by removing mirrors and by wearing gloves to cover her hands and dresses to hide her neck and arms. Her desire to be cured causes her to seek medical attention. It is after her visits with the doctor that her "happiness" is restored. This enchanting story will be enjoyed by all. Lillian Lewis
Midwest Book Review
Ourika is based on a real story of a Senegalese girl rescued from slavery and raised by a French family during the French Revolution: appearing here as a short translation, this provides in English the first French literary work narrated by a black female protagonist.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
Ourika: An English Translation FROM THE PUBLISHER
Based on a true story, Ourika relates the experiences of a Senegalese girl who is rescued from slavery and raised by an aristocratic French family during the French Revolution. Brought up in a household of learning and privilege, she is unaware of her difference until she overhears a conversation that makes her suddenly conscious of her race - and of the prejudice it arouses. From this point on, Ourika lives her life not as a French woman but as a black woman "cut off from the entire human race." As the Reign of Terror threatens her and her adoptive family, Ourika struggles with her unusual position as an educated African woman in eighteenth-century Europe. A best-seller in the 1820s, Ourika captured the attention of Duras's peers, including Stendhal, and became the subject of four contemporary plays. The work represents a number of firsts: the first novel set in Europe to have a black heroine, the first French literary work narrated by a black female protagonist, and, as John Fowles points out in the foreword to his translation, "the first serious attempt by a white novelist to enter a black mind." An inspiration for Fowles's acclaimed novel The French Lieutenant's Woman, Ourika will astonish and haunt modern readers.
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