A Critical Edition of La tribu indienne; ou, Édouard et Stellina by Lucien Bonaparte.
Edited by Cecilia Feilla.

MHRA Critical Texts Vol. 5
ISBN 0-947623-66-3
20 October 2006
pp. 132
Pbk £9.99 / $15.99 / €11.99
(In French)

Lucien Bonaparte (1775–1840) is best known as the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte who played a key role in the 18th Brumaire coup d'état that brought his brother to power in 1799. He was subsequently named Minister of the Interior of the Empire, though soon fell out of favour with his brother. Lucien maintained a strong interest in the arts and, in addition to the novel La tribu indienne, he also wrote memoirs, travel journals, and an epic poem, Charlemagne, ou, L'église délivrée.

La tribu indienne was published in 1799 but the author had all copies of the novel suppressed shortly after he was appointed Minister of the Interior. It reappeared in 1802 under a different title, Les Tenadores, ou, L'Européen et l'indienne, but without illustrations and without mention of Lucien Bonaparte. In 1848 the novel was reissued under its original title with illustrations by Prudhon and went into several editions.

This edition brings to light a lost text that will be of considerable interest to scholars, contributing to the recent re-evaluation of the French literary canon through consideration of key sentimental texts.

"This re-edition of a novel by Lucien Bonaparte, one of Napoleon’s younger brothers, is the latest in the MHRA’s admirable series of critical texts ... [It] is to be welcomed as providing a new addition to the corpus of Revolutionary literature available for study ... Cecilia Feilla’s introduction is clear and concise, dealing briefly with the author’s life and situating the novel within the tradition of sentimental exoticism."

Jennifer Yee, Modern Language Review, 103:1 (2008), 234-5.

"This is a fascinating reprint of the original edition including illustrations of the only novel ever written by Lucien Bonaparte ... [It] is of particular interest to anybody studying early nineteenth-century French politics."

Kirsty Carpenter, New Zealand Journal of French Studies, 29:2 (2008), 52-3.

"The text of Feilla’s edition—with five lush plates illustrated by Prud’hon—is one of only three extant copies of La Tribu indienne. Revolutionary literary studies are currently a 'hot' topic, but excavating, analyzing, and eventually constructing a viable canon out of this material will occupy scholars for years to come. We are thus grateful to Feilla for this edition of Lucien Bonaparte’s La Tribu indienne."

Julia V. Douthwaite, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, 23:1 (2010), 253-5.

Cecilia Feilla is Assistant Professor of English at Marymount Manhattan College, New York City.

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A Critical Edition of La tribu indienne; ou, Édouard et Stellina by Lucien Bonaparte. Edited by Cecilia Feilla.

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A Critical Edition of La tribu indienne; ou, Édouard et Stellina by Lucien Bonaparte.
Edited by Cecilia Feilla.