Histoire De Louis Anniaba

Roi d'Essenie en Afrique sur la Cote de Guinee

edited by Roger Little

Book cover: Histoire De Louis Anniaba

Extent: 92 pages

Publisher: University of Exeter Press

Subjects: Literary Studies, Social Sciences 

Series: Exeter French Texts

Language: French

Paperback (Published)

(May 2000)

ISBN: 9780859896702

5.83 x 8.27 inches

Price: $30.00

In stock

Based on fact, Historie de Louis Anniaba was first published in 1740 but has never before been reprinted. The story allows a degree of narrative and geographical fantasy, but the legal context of the period, in this volume brought into play for the first time, throws into relief the author’s free-thinking stance.


The African prince Anniaba is the first black hero in French fiction. With his French queen, he also forms the first mixed-race couple. Based on fact, Historie de Louis Anniaba was first published in 1740 but has never before been reprinted. The story allows a degree of narrative and geographical fantasy, but the legal context of the period, in this volume brought into play for the first time, throws into relief the author’s free-thinking stance. In other respects it is a period piece, full of travel and adventure in Africa, on the high seas, in France and on the Barbary Coast. Anniaba’s relatively fair complexion, impalusable for some, is a mark of his common humanity and of the author’s refusal to accept that everything out of Africa is monstrous. It is important to rediscover this forgotten text in a world still bearing ths cars of racism. This is a volume in the Textes littEraires/Exeter French Texts. The text, introduction and essential notes are all in French.

Introduction, v
Questions d'histoire et de geographie, vii
Questions de couleur, xii
Questions de style et de narration, xv
Questions d'originalite, xix
Note technique, xxv
Bibliographie selective, xxvii
Histoire de Louis Anniaba, 1
Avertissement, 3
Premiere Partie, 5
Seconde Partie, 49
Table des matieres, 89

  • Edited by Roger Little