Isabelle Eberhardt - Notes de Route: Maroc, Algérie, Tunisie - 1908

The Author:
Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) was an extraordinary adventurer and writer who rejected bourgeois codes to live at the heart of the Algerian Sahara. To circumvent colonial prohibitions and integrate with local populations, she converted to Islam and lived exclusively disguised as a man under the name Mahmoud Saadi, even being initiated into a mystic Sufi brotherhood. Her insurgent life, marked by a sword assassination attempt from which she miraculously survived, ended with a tragically ironic twist of fate: having braved all the dangers of the arid desert, she drowned at only 27 in the sudden flood of a wadi, leaving her literary manuscripts partly saved from the mud, including those used for the publication of this posthumous book.

The Edition:
A superb copy of the original posthumous edition of 1908, published by Victor Barrucand. This first printing is distinguished by the complete absence of any fictitious edition statement (no reference to "mille"), a feature highly sought after by bibliophiles.

The work is indeed complete with its magnificent illustrations both in the text and as plates, reproducing the famous works and compositions of great Orientalist masters: Étienne Dinet, Georges Rochegrosse, Maxime Noiré, and Pierre Bonnard. It notably includes the striking portrait of Isabelle Eberhardt in traditional Arab dress (1897).

Binding: Very beautiful period binding in tawny/orange half-leather. Spine with 5 raised bands, adorned with compartments and rich floral gold decorations, title stamped in fine gold. Boards in matching marbled paper. Interior guards in marbled "caillouté" paper.

Condition: Binding in excellent preservation, healthy and bright leather, highly decorative spine, hinges and corners impeccable. Interior well bound. Period paper showing some foxing and light old humidity halos along the margins of certain pages (notably on the illustration plates), with no severity for reading or the overall aesthetics of this fine library copy.