4to. xxxix, 110 pp, +[9 pp. of music sheets], [1], 1 folding plate (facsimile of a manuscript), text edited by Paul Hazard & Marie-Jeanne Durry, modern half-calf, original wrappers preserved, biblio, appendix, title in red and black, pencil annotations on title page, otherwise copy in very good condition, Librairie Ancienne Honore Champion, Paris, 1926.

Synopsis

Chateaubriand’s novella, Les Aventures du dernier Abencérage, is a tale of thwarted love set in Islamic Granada.
A tale of passion (Chateaubriand is considered the father of French Romanticism, after all) and faith and homeland. Aben-Hamet is the last Abencerage – the last of a tribe of Moors that were exiled from their original home in Spain. He has heard the stories of his people’s valiant fight and ultimate defeat throughout his life and decides one day to embark on a project in his native land. We don’t learn the details of his plan until the end, and in the meantime, he meets and falls in love with Blanca de Bivar. Blanca just happens to be a descendant of the conquering Spanish hero, Le Cid. Also, she is a devout Christian, and Aben-Hamet is an equally devout Muslim. Allison Peers, Romantic movement in Spain . pp. 99 -102.