Olympe de Gouges - Lettre aux représentants de la nation - 1789

Paris, Louis Jorry, (September) 1789.
Original edition.

Visionary and deeply reformist, Olympe de Gouges defended the abolition of slavery, equality between women and men, the right to divorce and to free marriage, the creation of maternity facilities, as well as a voluntary tax to save the kingdom from deficit. While women were excluded from public debate, she published numerous political pamphlets and more than thirty plays.

In 1789, she provoked the Crown with Royal Session, a bold fiction featuring a Louis XVI overwhelmed by events. Accused of Orleanism, she defended herself in her Letter to the Representatives of the Nation, claiming to act solely out of patriotism and to preserve the unity of the kingdom.

Engaged since 1788 with her Patriotic Remarks and her Project of a Patriotic Fund, she proposed concrete reforms, often adopted without giving her the credit. She even pledged the revenues from her abolitionist play to the Patriotic Fund.

A political figure ahead of her time, she was the only woman guillotined for her political writings. Fifteen days after her execution, her works were seized and largely burned, deemed “infinitely dangerous.” Her pamphlets, printed in small quantities, are today extremely rare.

Long forgotten, Olympe de Gouges was truly rehabilitated only thanks to the work of Olivier Blanc, who restored her place in the history of the French Revolution.

Beautiful copy, perfectly preserved.

Bibliography:
Olivier Blanc. Olympe de Gouges. From Women’s Rights to the Guillotine.
Benoîte Groult. Ainsi soit Olympe de Gouges.