Description
(Literary Utopia travel). Denis Vairasse d'Allais. "History of the sevarambes, peoples who inhabit a part of the third Continent, commonly called the Southern Land. Containing a relation of the government, the manners, the religion and the language of this Nation, unknown until now to the peoples of Europe ". Amsterdam, at the expense of Estienne Roger, 1716 (new edition revised and corrected). Small in-12 bound in full contemporary basane, decorated spine, colored endpapers. 5 engravings outside the text including a frontispiece. Leather of the boards a little dry, two corners dull. A good copy. Volume 1 only. French writer, "one of those adventurers who did not have a literary career, but who, by an original and audacious work, acquired a place in the history of ideas" (E. von der Mühle). (E. von der Mühll). Born in Languedoc to a Protestant family, Denis Veiras took part in the Piedmont war and then became a lawyer. In 1665, he was in England where he attracted powerful protections and illustrious friendships (Buckingham, Locke...). In 1675, he published the first part of a utopian novel,The History of the Sevarites(probably the first book written in English by a Frenchman), but the fall of Buckingham forced him to return to France where, out of caution, he changed his name to Sieur d'Allais, his native town, and it is in French that the complete edition of theHistory of the Sevarambes(1677-1679). Veiras settled in Paris where he saw some of his English friends again, made friends with Intendant Riquet, the builder of the Canal du Midi, and earned his living by teaching French and English, history and geography (he published in 1681 aMethodical Grammarof which he gave an abridged version in English two years later). He went to Holland during the revocation of the Edict of Nantes: his whereabouts were soon lost. L'History of the Sevarambestells of an imaginary voyage, but to which the author gives all possible plausibility, that of Captain Siden to the southern lands, this "third continent" whose existence was supposed, and describes the ideal state, rationally organized, that he discovers there. A disappointed ambitious, Veiras lends to the founder of this state, Sevarias (anagram of Vairasse), the prestigious career of which he himself had dreamed, and makes him carry out a grandiose enterprise, analogous to those that his friends Locke and Duquesne projected, one for Carolina, the other for Bourbon Island, and which, them, will fail. But this "Cartesian utopia" (E. von der Mühll), which abolishes private property and class privileges, which founds society on work and which establishes freedom of conscience (provided that public peace is preserved) and a state deism, depicts not so much an imaginary country as France such as Riquet (to whom the work is dedicated), and especially Colbert, would like to build it. It is by its "realism" that theHistory of the Sevarambesdistinguishes itself from all the other utopias, it is to him that it owes its success, and its importance (Bernard Croquette in " Encyclopédie Universalis ")
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(Literary Utopia travel). Denis Vairasse d'Allais. "History of the sevarambes, peoples who inhabit a part of the third Continent, commonly called the Southern Land. Containing a relation of the government, the manners, the religion and the language of this Nation, unknown until now to the peoples of Europe ". Amsterdam, at the expense of Estienne Roger, 1716 (new edition revised and corrected). Small in-12 bound in full contemporary basane, decorated spine, colored endpapers. 5 engravings outside the text including a frontispiece. Leather of the boards a little dry, two corners dull. A good copy. Volume 1 only. French writer, "one of those adventurers who did not have a literary career, but who, by an original and audacious work, acquired a place in the history of ideas" (E. von der Mühle). (E. von der Mühll). Born in Languedoc to a Protestant family, Denis Veiras took part in the Piedmont war and then became a lawyer. In 1665, he was in England where he attracted powerful protections and illustrious friendships (Buckingham, Locke...). In 1675, he published the first part of a utopian novel,The History of the Sevarites(probably the first book written in English by a Frenchman), but the fall of Buckingham forced him to return to France where, out of caution, he changed his name to Sieur d'Allais, his native town, and it is in French that the complete edition of theHistory of the Sevarambes(1677-1679). Veiras settled in Paris where he saw some of his English friends again, made friends with Intendant Riquet, the builder of the Canal du Midi, and earned his living by teaching French and English, history and geography (he published in 1681 aMethodical Grammarof which he gave an abridged version in English two years later). He went to Holland during the revocation of the Edict of Nantes: his whereabouts were soon lost. L'History of the Sevarambestells of an imaginary voyage, but to which the author gives all possible plausibility, that of Captain Siden to the southern lands, this "third continent" whose existence was supposed, and describes the ideal state, rationally organized, that he discovers there. A disappointed ambitious, Veiras lends to the founder of this state, Sevarias (anagram of Vairasse), the prestigious career of which he himself had dreamed, and makes him carry out a grandiose enterprise, analogous to those that his friends Locke and Duquesne projected, one for Carolina, the other for Bourbon Island, and which, them, will fail. But this "Cartesian utopia" (E. von der Mühll), which abolishes private property and class privileges, which founds society on work and which establishes freedom of conscience (provided that public peace is preserved) and a state deism, depicts not so much an imaginary country as France such as Riquet (to whom the work is dedicated), and especially Colbert, would like to build it. It is by its "realism" that theHistory of the Sevarambesdistinguishes itself from all the other utopias, it is to him that it owes its success, and its importance (Bernard Croquette in " Encyclopédie Universalis ")
