Empsael Et Zoraide

by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, edited by Roger Little

Book cover: Empsael Et Zoraide

Extent: 188 pages

Publisher: University of Exeter Press

Subjects: Literary Studies

Series: Exeter French Texts

Language: French

Paperback (Published)

(February 1995)

ISBN: 9780859894647

5.83 x 8.27 inches

Price: $30.00

In stock

This new edition of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s play Empsael et Zoraide, presented in a modernised spelling, makes available a text which illustrates his abolitionist stance through its central irony: the masters are black and their slaves white, joining forces in the antislavery debate which reached its height with the French Revolution.


Bernardin de Saint-Pierre is for most people the author of one book: Paul et Virginie. This new edition of his play Empsael et Zoraide, presented in a modernised spelling, makes available a considerably more muscular text which illustrates his abolitionist stance through its central irony: the masters are black and their slaves white, joining forces in the antislavery debate which reached its height with the French Revolution. Bernardin thus introduces into it a rare element of humour which, had his play ever been performed, would have made his audiences sit up and think. This will be of interest to scholars and senior students interested in Black Studies, the French Enlightenment and the literature of revolution.

Frontispice: Afrique de l'ouest, 1719 Introduction Historique du texte Qualites litteraires Une religion de la nature L'antiesclavagisme Questions d'histoire et de geographie Ambassade des peres de la Merci Note technique Bibliographie selective Portrait de Moulay Ismael, 1682 Empsael et Zoraide: Fac-simile d'une page manuscrite (MS 46) Avant-propos de Bernardin de Saint-Pierre Personnages Acte I Acte II Acte III Acte IV Acte V

  • By (author) Bernardin de Saint-Pierre
  • Edited by Roger Little