BATOUALA - A NEGRO NOVEL FROM THE FRENCH OF RENE MARAN
Book Details + Condition: Jonathon Cape (London). First and Limited Edition: 699 of 1000 copies, 1922. 192 pages. Hardcover. Original cloth–backed paper covered boards with paper labels on spine and front board. "Batouala," which gained the Goncourt Prize in 1921, is a picture of French colonization in the African (French) Congo. By French writer René Maran, in which he follows an African chieftain named Batouala over a few days of his life. The novel won the Prix Goncourt, one of France's highest literary awards, making Maran the first black author to win that honor. "Its sensitive portrayal of African life, with its evocation of the natural environment, could not but make a profound impression upon its African readers and offered a vivid example of what an African novel in French could be." [Abiola Irene] An overall firm and clean copy, with tight binding; toned endpapers; interior is clean and free of markings save ex libris plate and newspaper cutting on front endpapers.
