1894 1ST ED THE QUADROONS OF NEW ORLEANS: OCTAVIA LA QUARTERONNE PLACAGE RACE

Description

"The Quadroons are descended from the Negro race and the Caucasian race, and I must confess that all those that I have known, as well as those I have heard of, were, with few exceptions, beautiful, idyllic beauty. Their grace was unequaled: it bordered in their slightest movement. Everything about them, from the charming waddle they will give to their walk to motherhood to the sweet Creole language that they never departed from in their home, everything was imbued with a pleasure and a charm impossible to describe."
LES QUARTERONNES
DE LA
NOUVELLE-ORLÉANS.
[THE QUADROONS OF NEW ORLEANS]
PAR LOUISE RAYMOND.
PREMIERE PARTIE:
OCTAVIA LA QUARTERONNE.
[CREOLES OF COLOR] [PLACAGE]
[RACIALLY MIXED WOMEN]
Sidonie de la Houssaye. Bonnet Carré, La.:
IMPRIMERIE DU MESCHACÉBÉ,
1894
.
First Edition
. 8vo. 67 pages. French language, printed in double column.
"COPYRIGHT BY CHRLES LASSEIGNE"
on title-page verso. Original printed wrappers, exhibiting agewear, dusted, bleedthrough from old staples; recent archival paper conservation at spine and extremities of covers; textblock evenly agetoned, else clear and unmarked.
The first title in the author's "Quarteronnes de la Nouvelle-Orléans" tetralogy and the only one published in this format, the others were serialized in local newspapers.
In addition to the works de La Houssaye published under her own name, she wrote
Les Quarteronnes de la Nouvelle-Orléans,
a series of four novels, under the pseudonym Louise Raymond. Apparently she used a pseudonym because of the controversial nature of her subject matter: plaçage, a system of concubinage in which wealthy white men took mulatto women as mistresses. The present offering,
Octavia
, a dramatic fictional exploration of race, gender, and other controversial subject matter, set in Antebellum New Orleans, was published in 1894, the year of de La Houssaye’s death; the other three were published posthumously.
Rare