What do you think?
Rate this book
Ourika: The Original French Text
Based on a true story, Claire de Duras's Ourika relates the experiences of a Senegalese girl who is rescued from slavery and raised by an aristocratic French family during the time of the French Revolution. Brought up in a household of learning and privilege, she is unaware of her difference until she overhears a conversation that suddenly makes her conscious of her race―and of the prejudice it arouses. From this point on, Ourika lives her life not as a French woman but as a black woman who feels "cut off from the entire human race." As the Reign of Terror threatens her and her adoptive family, Ourika struggles with her unusual position as an educated African woman in eighteenth-century Europe.
A best-seller in the 1820s, Ourika captured the attention of Duras's peers, including Stendhal, and became the subject of four contemporary plays. The work represents a number of the first novel set in Europe to have a black heroine; the first French literary work narrated by a black female protagonist; and, as John Fowles points out, "the first serious attempt by a white novelist to enter a black mind."
A best-seller in the 1820s, Ourika captured the attention of Duras's peers, including Stendhal, and became the subject of four contemporary plays. The work represents a number of the first novel set in Europe to have a black heroine; the first French literary work narrated by a black female protagonist; and, as John Fowles points out, "the first serious attempt by a white novelist to enter a black mind."
73 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1823
52 people are currently reading
860 people want to read
About the author
Claire de Duras
27 books7 followersClaire de Duras left her native France for London during the French Revolution in 1789, and returned to France in 1808 as the Duchess of Duras. She maintained a famous literary salon in post-Revolutionary Paris and was the close friend of Chateaubriand, who she had met while in exile in London, and who helped her to publish her books.
Ourika was published anonymously in 1823, one of five novels Claire de Duras had written during the previous year; only two of them were published during her lifetime. The three novellas that she did publish were only done so in order to prevent any possible plagiarism.
Claire de Duras treated complex and controversial subjects, primarily dealing with oppressed/marginalized characters. She explored many fundamental principles of the French Revolution, and touched upon the intellectual debates of the Age of Enlightenment, particularly the equality of all men—and women. In holding with these subjects, tragedy is a common theme. For a long time she was seen as the writer of small and unimportant sentimental novels, but recent criticism has revealed her works to be treasure troves of postmodern identity theory. It is likely she has not been well read because her choice and treatment of subject could not be appreciated until recently; she was ahead of her time.
Ourika was published anonymously in 1823, one of five novels Claire de Duras had written during the previous year; only two of them were published during her lifetime. The three novellas that she did publish were only done so in order to prevent any possible plagiarism.
Claire de Duras treated complex and controversial subjects, primarily dealing with oppressed/marginalized characters. She explored many fundamental principles of the French Revolution, and touched upon the intellectual debates of the Age of Enlightenment, particularly the equality of all men—and women. In holding with these subjects, tragedy is a common theme. For a long time she was seen as the writer of small and unimportant sentimental novels, but recent criticism has revealed her works to be treasure troves of postmodern identity theory. It is likely she has not been well read because her choice and treatment of subject could not be appreciated until recently; she was ahead of her time.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews
March 23, 2017
Ourika, first published by Claire de Duras in France in 1823, is a noteworthy short story that discusses that place of Africans in French society during the early 19th century. Madame de Duras (nee Lechat) came from an upperclass family that had to flee the country during Robespierre's reign of terror. While temporarily exiled, her father encountered a Senegalese girl about to be sold into slavery, and insisted that the girl, Ourika, come to live with his family. This forty seven page story is based on the life this girl lived amidst the French upper class.
Ourika lived in France as a loyal servant to Mme de B and remained by her side as they watched France crumble around them. Growing up in Mme de B's household, Ourika became accomplished at art, music, and other subjects that her mistress believed were important to a young girl's future. Yet, because she was both immersed in culture and black, Ourika had no future. Only a man not of wealth could bare the burden of fathering mulatto children, and, as a result, Ourika became cut off from the world. Eventually, she chose to become a nun because it was the only alternative she believed would not remove her from the rest of the world.
Claire de Duras penned this novel twenty five years before the abolition of the slave trade in France. This era was a time when few women were published, and male authors took offense to Mme de Duras being a successful author. Ourika was published as far away as St Petersburg, and enjoyed a wide readership. A few male contemporaries attempted to use Mme de Duras' name as an attempt to have their own works published. She passed away five years after writing Ourika, and only wrote one other circulated novel.
Despite being a short story, Ourika speaks volumes of the rights of blacks and to a certain extent women in revolutionary France. A notable tale of a slave girl, Clare de Duras brought these rights to her readers attention through publication. Despite not being the best of literature, I enjoyed Mme de Duras story from a historical standpoint, and am glad that I included it in my women's history month lineup.
Ourika lived in France as a loyal servant to Mme de B and remained by her side as they watched France crumble around them. Growing up in Mme de B's household, Ourika became accomplished at art, music, and other subjects that her mistress believed were important to a young girl's future. Yet, because she was both immersed in culture and black, Ourika had no future. Only a man not of wealth could bare the burden of fathering mulatto children, and, as a result, Ourika became cut off from the world. Eventually, she chose to become a nun because it was the only alternative she believed would not remove her from the rest of the world.
Claire de Duras penned this novel twenty five years before the abolition of the slave trade in France. This era was a time when few women were published, and male authors took offense to Mme de Duras being a successful author. Ourika was published as far away as St Petersburg, and enjoyed a wide readership. A few male contemporaries attempted to use Mme de Duras' name as an attempt to have their own works published. She passed away five years after writing Ourika, and only wrote one other circulated novel.
Despite being a short story, Ourika speaks volumes of the rights of blacks and to a certain extent women in revolutionary France. A notable tale of a slave girl, Clare de Duras brought these rights to her readers attention through publication. Despite not being the best of literature, I enjoyed Mme de Duras story from a historical standpoint, and am glad that I included it in my women's history month lineup.
May 1, 2013
To imagine that Ourika is a simply a tale about a woman who is distraught over a man is to severely misread the richness of this novel, which offers a complex regard of race, blackness, womanhood, identity, and intercultural acceptance. With its harsh criticisms of political fervor generated by the French Revolution as well as social behaviors--namely, French upper-class elitism--this was a risky novel for its time. It tells the story of a Senagalese girl who, one day, suddenly realizes she is "not-French" (which is to say, black) while overhearing a conversation with her adopted mother and her mother's companion. This remarkable scene is telling of the novel's main premise: whose right is it to negate you as a person, to negate your very being? Yet Ourika comes to discover (and despair) over just this: her status as an outsider is developed by being talked about by the very woman she trusted, loved, and admired. With it begins a continued recognition of negation that accompanies alientation--in addition to not-French, she is not-daughter, not-wife, not-mother, etc. and has no recourse to return home because she is also not-Senegalese, distanced even from understanding the nature of the violent uprisings .
A quote from Trinh Minh-Ha may well summarize how to approach Ourika: "In trying to tell something, a woman is told, shredding herself into opaque words while her voice dissolves on the walls of silence." (Minh-Ha, "Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism") Throughout Ourika's life she is told who she is and who she is not; even the story itself, told by Claire de Duras, is based on a true story; by being retold by a French woman, the true Ourika (the woman whom the story is based on) is erased; the true referent cannot even tell her own story. And yet, Claire de Duras uses her own French-born privilege to tell Ourika's story, in essence giving voice to a woman who otherwise could not.
Ourika's development throughout the novel is a remarkable one; though in some instances she resigns herself to utter despondency, she ultimately comes to realize the advantage knowledge has over ignorance: "Mes peines altéraient sensiblement ma santé; mais, chose étrange! elles perfectionnaient mon esprit." ("What I lost in happiness, and above all health, in what seemed a contradiction perfected my wit/mind") and, "Un sage d'Orient a dit: 'Celui qui n'a pas souffert, que sait-il?'" ('A wiseman from the Orient once said: 'Those who have not suffered, what do they know?'") The knowledge of her status as an outsider brings about her misery, but it ultimately brings about her freedom from her misery and the prison built by socially-constructed means of exclusion.
Lastly, Ourika is the only French novel I have read so far that testifies to the Christian faith. In an interesting and even riskier twist (particularly due to the French Revolution's fervent and obsessive desire to destroy anything resembling a higher power) Ourika finally finds peace in belief in a universal, divine God. Without this key aspect Ourika would be just another novel of endless, pointless despair, but she is able to come to terms with her own adoption by seeing it as a metaphor for the adoption of mankind by a heavenly father. Through God's grace she is able to finally make sense of misery and the problem of Evil, and is ultimately able to make peace with her being.
A quote from Trinh Minh-Ha may well summarize how to approach Ourika: "In trying to tell something, a woman is told, shredding herself into opaque words while her voice dissolves on the walls of silence." (Minh-Ha, "Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism") Throughout Ourika's life she is told who she is and who she is not; even the story itself, told by Claire de Duras, is based on a true story; by being retold by a French woman, the true Ourika (the woman whom the story is based on) is erased; the true referent cannot even tell her own story. And yet, Claire de Duras uses her own French-born privilege to tell Ourika's story, in essence giving voice to a woman who otherwise could not.
Ourika's development throughout the novel is a remarkable one; though in some instances she resigns herself to utter despondency, she ultimately comes to realize the advantage knowledge has over ignorance: "Mes peines altéraient sensiblement ma santé; mais, chose étrange! elles perfectionnaient mon esprit." ("What I lost in happiness, and above all health, in what seemed a contradiction perfected my wit/mind") and, "Un sage d'Orient a dit: 'Celui qui n'a pas souffert, que sait-il?'" ('A wiseman from the Orient once said: 'Those who have not suffered, what do they know?'") The knowledge of her status as an outsider brings about her misery, but it ultimately brings about her freedom from her misery and the prison built by socially-constructed means of exclusion.
Lastly, Ourika is the only French novel I have read so far that testifies to the Christian faith. In an interesting and even riskier twist (particularly due to the French Revolution's fervent and obsessive desire to destroy anything resembling a higher power) Ourika finally finds peace in belief in a universal, divine God. Without this key aspect Ourika would be just another novel of endless, pointless despair, but she is able to come to terms with her own adoption by seeing it as a metaphor for the adoption of mankind by a heavenly father. Through God's grace she is able to finally make sense of misery and the problem of Evil, and is ultimately able to make peace with her being.
March 26, 2020
Thoughts soon.
Want to read
May 26, 2015Free download in French is available at Project Gutenberg.
Free download in English (pdf file) is available at HathiThrust Digital Library.
Free download in English (pdf file) is available at HathiThrust Digital Library.
October 23, 2024
לסקירה מפורטת בעברית, קישור לבלוג שלי -
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/אורי...
https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/אורי...
March 24, 2020
This short story reveals much that is wrong in raising a human child be a pet of her patron and much that is wrong in taking in a child of an out group without making a plan for her adulthood.
December 4, 2021
Considering the time period the story was published (1820s), location (France), author (female), subject (Black Senegalese female raised in a white French household from age two, partially during the Reign of Terror, never realizing her "otherness" until an overheard conversation when she is 15), this very short work based on a true story packs a pretty powerful punch. There's a lot to unpack & analyze here from race, gender, changing society/government, religion, isolation, community, the meaning of family, & more. This is an intriguing historical tale.
The Introduction, Foreword, & Notes on the Translation are approximately 20 pages long for the almost 50-page story. I would recommend reading the story first, then all the supplemental material, regardless of the order in the book.
The Introduction, Foreword, & Notes on the Translation are approximately 20 pages long for the almost 50-page story. I would recommend reading the story first, then all the supplemental material, regardless of the order in the book.
January 23, 2015
First, a tangent that I swear has a point:
For several years, I’ve had a copy of A.S. Byatt’s Possession sitting on my shelf. I planned to read it last year, but shortly before starting, I read an article about books inspired by other books. One of the books mentioned? Possession, which tips its hat to John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, which, in turn, tips its hat to a little-known French novella by the name of Ourika.
Naturally, I then decided I could not read Possession until I read the first two novels.
While The French Lieutenant’s Woman is easy to track down, locating a copy of Ourika proved more challenging. Fowles translated it to English several years ago, but that seems to be the only English-language edition in circulation. Only one of the libraries in my area has a copy and it resides in their special collections section, making it restricted from leaving the library building or being checked out beyond a few hours at a time. As Ourika is short, I set aside some time one Saturday to go to the library and read it. While the librarians were tremendously nice, a series of humorous events occurred that resulted in my not being able to see Ourika. So I broke my own rule about only buying books from mortar-and-brick bookstores and ordered it online (once I found an online retailer that had the book available).
The book never arrived. After a series of frustrating phone calls (asking that a company actually send me items I paid for does not make me difficult), I canceled the order.
But the book kept tugging at my thoughts. I had to read this book.
Finally, finally, I successfully purchased a copy of Ourika.
Here’s the craziest part (and the reason for the tangent): the wait and the headache? All worth it.
Loosely based on a true story, Ourika is the tale of an African girl who, rather than be sent to the Americas to be a slave, is adopted by a Frenchman and raised in a wealthy household in the days before the French Revolution. From a historical perspective, the book is interesting because of its use of an African woman as the protagonist and that it was written by a woman in an age where most authors were men (hence why the book was originally published anonymously). Granted, the author is wealthy and white, but, given the time period, that makes her ability to relate to an African woman that much more impressive.
Due to its short length, Ourika is bare bones in places, but that simplicity almost works in the book’s favor. This story could have, in all honestly, been told over the course of 500 pages. While I do wish the story were longer, there’s something intimate about the book’s brevity.
The preface – written by Fowles – does give away the ending, but I’ll let it slide because Fowles does a good job of orienting readers and the ending is more or less a foregone conclusion. That said, for those who prefer to read a story without knowing what happens, perhaps read the preface after the novel. If nothing else, Ourika's short enough that a reader could easily reread the novel after getting the historical and societal context from the premise.
What a fantastic book. Highly recommended.
For several years, I’ve had a copy of A.S. Byatt’s Possession sitting on my shelf. I planned to read it last year, but shortly before starting, I read an article about books inspired by other books. One of the books mentioned? Possession, which tips its hat to John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman, which, in turn, tips its hat to a little-known French novella by the name of Ourika.
Naturally, I then decided I could not read Possession until I read the first two novels.
While The French Lieutenant’s Woman is easy to track down, locating a copy of Ourika proved more challenging. Fowles translated it to English several years ago, but that seems to be the only English-language edition in circulation. Only one of the libraries in my area has a copy and it resides in their special collections section, making it restricted from leaving the library building or being checked out beyond a few hours at a time. As Ourika is short, I set aside some time one Saturday to go to the library and read it. While the librarians were tremendously nice, a series of humorous events occurred that resulted in my not being able to see Ourika. So I broke my own rule about only buying books from mortar-and-brick bookstores and ordered it online (once I found an online retailer that had the book available).
The book never arrived. After a series of frustrating phone calls (asking that a company actually send me items I paid for does not make me difficult), I canceled the order.
But the book kept tugging at my thoughts. I had to read this book.
Finally, finally, I successfully purchased a copy of Ourika.
Here’s the craziest part (and the reason for the tangent): the wait and the headache? All worth it.
Loosely based on a true story, Ourika is the tale of an African girl who, rather than be sent to the Americas to be a slave, is adopted by a Frenchman and raised in a wealthy household in the days before the French Revolution. From a historical perspective, the book is interesting because of its use of an African woman as the protagonist and that it was written by a woman in an age where most authors were men (hence why the book was originally published anonymously). Granted, the author is wealthy and white, but, given the time period, that makes her ability to relate to an African woman that much more impressive.
Due to its short length, Ourika is bare bones in places, but that simplicity almost works in the book’s favor. This story could have, in all honestly, been told over the course of 500 pages. While I do wish the story were longer, there’s something intimate about the book’s brevity.
The preface – written by Fowles – does give away the ending, but I’ll let it slide because Fowles does a good job of orienting readers and the ending is more or less a foregone conclusion. That said, for those who prefer to read a story without knowing what happens, perhaps read the preface after the novel. If nothing else, Ourika's short enough that a reader could easily reread the novel after getting the historical and societal context from the premise.
What a fantastic book. Highly recommended.
February 27, 2025
Quin gran descobriment la Claire de Duras; en tan poques pàgines, quantes coses ens transmet.
Tot i l'èxit inicial de les seves obres, va ser una escriptora invisibilitzada. L'autora va esdevenir duquessa de Duras i es movia en cercles d'intel·lectuals i en la novel·la retrata la societat francesa del s. XVII.
Publicada l'any 1823 i inspirada en fets reals, però amb una vigència més que actual on tracta la raça, la classe i la identitat.
A l'inici del relat coneixem l'Ourika, ja de gran i dins del convent, i on la visita un metge per guarir la seva debilitat i la seva ànima. Li explica la seva vida i les lectores anem descobrint la seva història.
A dos anys deixa el seu país, Senegal, i és rescatada de l'esclavitud pel cavaller de B. La trasllada a França i la regala a la seva tia Madame de B.
Es cria en un entorn aristocràtic francès, ple de luxe i on rep una formació culta, juntament amb els dos nets de Madame de B. Amb un dels nets, en Charles, manté una relació estreta, com si fossin germans. Tarda temps a saber la seva història real i és a dotze anys quan pren consciència de la seva negritud.
Un dia, per atzar, escolta una conversa entre Madame de B.i una amiga seva i allò li obre els ulls i posa fi a la seva joventut. Qui voldrà a una negra? S'adona que mai serà acceptada com una igual i que es quedarà sola. No s'ubica enlloc, pensa que a l'Àfrica patiria, però allí es trobaria i reconeixeria a ella mateixa, es comença a tapar gran part del cos per no mostrar el seu color i el patiment i el sofriment li afecten la salut física i mental. Coincideix que ja no manté un vincle tan de confiança amb el Charles perquè ell es casa i ella sent que tot s'ensorra, que el seu lligam es trenca i a més en temps de revolució se'n van a Saint-Germain. En el desordre de la nova situació política troba el seu lloc i té més esperança, però un cop passada torna la pena i la desil·lusió.
La seva salut no millora i es troba en el llindar entre la vida i la mort, finalment se'n surt i això la fa prendre una decisió vital amb la finalitat de trobar la pau interior i es fa religiosa.
Pàgines que ens parlen de la solitud, del racisme, de la salut mental i de la discriminació ètnica i sexual.
Lectures com aquestes ens han de fer reflexionar, revisar-nos i prendre consciència dels nostres privilegis.
Tot i l'èxit inicial de les seves obres, va ser una escriptora invisibilitzada. L'autora va esdevenir duquessa de Duras i es movia en cercles d'intel·lectuals i en la novel·la retrata la societat francesa del s. XVII.
Publicada l'any 1823 i inspirada en fets reals, però amb una vigència més que actual on tracta la raça, la classe i la identitat.
A l'inici del relat coneixem l'Ourika, ja de gran i dins del convent, i on la visita un metge per guarir la seva debilitat i la seva ànima. Li explica la seva vida i les lectores anem descobrint la seva història.
A dos anys deixa el seu país, Senegal, i és rescatada de l'esclavitud pel cavaller de B. La trasllada a França i la regala a la seva tia Madame de B.
Es cria en un entorn aristocràtic francès, ple de luxe i on rep una formació culta, juntament amb els dos nets de Madame de B. Amb un dels nets, en Charles, manté una relació estreta, com si fossin germans. Tarda temps a saber la seva història real i és a dotze anys quan pren consciència de la seva negritud.
Un dia, per atzar, escolta una conversa entre Madame de B.i una amiga seva i allò li obre els ulls i posa fi a la seva joventut. Qui voldrà a una negra? S'adona que mai serà acceptada com una igual i que es quedarà sola. No s'ubica enlloc, pensa que a l'Àfrica patiria, però allí es trobaria i reconeixeria a ella mateixa, es comença a tapar gran part del cos per no mostrar el seu color i el patiment i el sofriment li afecten la salut física i mental. Coincideix que ja no manté un vincle tan de confiança amb el Charles perquè ell es casa i ella sent que tot s'ensorra, que el seu lligam es trenca i a més en temps de revolució se'n van a Saint-Germain. En el desordre de la nova situació política troba el seu lloc i té més esperança, però un cop passada torna la pena i la desil·lusió.
La seva salut no millora i es troba en el llindar entre la vida i la mort, finalment se'n surt i això la fa prendre una decisió vital amb la finalitat de trobar la pau interior i es fa religiosa.
Pàgines que ens parlen de la solitud, del racisme, de la salut mental i de la discriminació ètnica i sexual.
Lectures com aquestes ens han de fer reflexionar, revisar-nos i prendre consciència dels nostres privilegis.
August 7, 2015
Ourika is the name of this short novel's eponymous heroine, a young Senegalese slave woman who is rescued from s life of drudgery and brought up by a French noblewoman around the time of the Terror. For perhaps the first time in literary history, authorClaire de Duras writes about the life of a black heroine surrounded on all sides by whites.
Young Ourika falls in love with her patroness's son, but Charles marries a sixteen-year-old girl of noble family:
Young Ourika falls in love with her patroness's son, but Charles marries a sixteen-year-old girl of noble family:
God will bear witness, I was happy for Charles. But why had that same God given poor Ourika life? Why wasn't it ended on the slaver from which she had been snatched -- or at her mother's breast? A handful of African sand would have been enough to cover my small body, and I should have found it a light burden. What did the world care whether I lived?Why was I condemned to exist? Unless it was to live alone, always alone, and never loved. I prayed God not to let it be like this, to remove me from the face of the earth. Nobody needed mw, I was isolated from all.This edition was translated by novelist John Fowles, who gave us The French Lieutenant's Woman. While Ourika lacks serious literary merit, its author had psychological insights far in advance of her contemporaries. In France, slavery was not abolished until 1848.
July 19, 2024
très pathétique et touchant
March 28, 2025
Puntuació: 3'5/5 ⭐️
Frase: «Però qui pot dir què és la raó? És la mateixa per a tothom? Tots els cors tenen les mateixes necessitats, i la desgràcia, que potser no és la privació de les necessitats del cor?»
Opinió:
Amb poc més de 50 pàgines, aquest relat (basat en fets reals) ens explica la història de l'Ourika, una nena senegalesa que és "rescatada" de l'esclavitud i portada cap a França. Una vegada allà, va a parar a una família aristocràtica i això li permet criar-se en un entorn benestant, així com accedir a una bona educació (fet estrany per l'època i per la seva condició de noia racialitzada). L'Ourika, aliena al racisme que imperava en la societat, viu feliç i plena de comoditats, però un dia, arran d'una conversa que escolta, s'adona que més enllà de les quatre parets on s'ha criat i de les persones amb qui ha crescut mai serà tractada amb igualtat de condicions ni tampoc podrà tenir un futur, casar-se o formar una família.
La veritat és que tot i ser un llibre escrit l'any 1823 planteja qüestions força interessants, no només entorn del racisme o la classe, sinó també sobre la identitat i el sentiment de pertinença. La veritat és que a mi m'ha sorprès bastant i vos el recoman! I, esper que en un futur tenguem més obres d'aquesta autora en català. 🤭
Frase: «Però qui pot dir què és la raó? És la mateixa per a tothom? Tots els cors tenen les mateixes necessitats, i la desgràcia, que potser no és la privació de les necessitats del cor?»
Opinió:
Amb poc més de 50 pàgines, aquest relat (basat en fets reals) ens explica la història de l'Ourika, una nena senegalesa que és "rescatada" de l'esclavitud i portada cap a França. Una vegada allà, va a parar a una família aristocràtica i això li permet criar-se en un entorn benestant, així com accedir a una bona educació (fet estrany per l'època i per la seva condició de noia racialitzada). L'Ourika, aliena al racisme que imperava en la societat, viu feliç i plena de comoditats, però un dia, arran d'una conversa que escolta, s'adona que més enllà de les quatre parets on s'ha criat i de les persones amb qui ha crescut mai serà tractada amb igualtat de condicions ni tampoc podrà tenir un futur, casar-se o formar una família.
La veritat és que tot i ser un llibre escrit l'any 1823 planteja qüestions força interessants, no només entorn del racisme o la classe, sinó també sobre la identitat i el sentiment de pertinença. La veritat és que a mi m'ha sorprès bastant i vos el recoman! I, esper que en un futur tenguem més obres d'aquesta autora en català. 🤭
July 25, 2024
Rereread January 2023
It seems that I reread this book every two years: 2019, 2021, and now 2023 🤣 I guess see you in 2025, Ourika
Original review February 2019
I had to read it for one of my French class. I found it very interesting. It also sparked a debate on who counts as being "qualified" enough to write about another race's struggles. I felt really bad for Ourika. I totally relate to feeling like we don't belong in a specific category. I wish she could have made peace with her skin color. Apparently there is a play about it? I would love to see it.
It seems that I reread this book every two years: 2019, 2021, and now 2023 🤣 I guess see you in 2025, Ourika
Original review February 2019
I had to read it for one of my French class. I found it very interesting. It also sparked a debate on who counts as being "qualified" enough to write about another race's struggles. I felt really bad for Ourika. I totally relate to feeling like we don't belong in a specific category. I wish she could have made peace with her skin color. Apparently there is a play about it? I would love to see it.
February 6, 2024
i am sick and tired of the white savior narrative
June 11, 2022
You confide in people—then they tell you it was your own fault.The wonderful and the horrible thing about literature is how little a guarantee there is of finding everything there is to offer. It enables the exhilaration of stumbling across whenever and whatever one has access to at any given moment, but it also makes for easy burial of many any author who fell under the glib summary of being "ahead of their time" and was the target of one or more petty white male bitcheries (in the case of Claire de Duras fueled by Stendhal and his egotistical ilk). In this case, we have a white woman who dared not only to write about the French Revolution, but to render that a subsidiary backdrop to another, even more radical story: that of a black woman raised from infancy in the rarefied atmosphere of a white supremacist aristocracy. Such gave the character Ourika sufficient intelligence and taste to realize the full devastation of the cannibalistic society she found herself living in when it came time for her to think about love, marriage, and a lifelong connection with a valued human being, and while the text is awfully short and Duras misses the mark of compassion at times, there is a whole world to think about in terms of the effect of dehumanization via physical characteristics on the human psyche, as well as how such compares and contrasts with the French Revolution with all its ideals and its horrors. Indeed, the more I think about it while composing this review, the more I consider raising the rating, which should tell you something about the ratio of quantity to quality for this particular piece.
There is something humiliating in not knowing how to tolerate the inevitable.For a long while now, I've made a habit of avoiding pieces of literature that have an almost 100% chance of amounting to little more than artfully contrived (black/yellow/brown)face. It's a matter of recognizing how much unpicking of my thought processes I would have to do should I engage with this kind of content written during an age of continued racialized stratification and segregation, and the more I gained access to voices that far more credibly represented their non status quo personas and cultures, the less I was tempted by the easy pickings born of primarily of exotification. Still, there are times when the piece itself comes from such a singularly rare place that I undertake the risk in hopes that the reward will be sufficient, and here, while it certainly helped that the text didn't take all too long to get through, the writing itself was both unpretentious and incisive enough to impress me. Couple that with the rare view of a certain highly charged portion of history, and you have a recipe for what I dare say can be easily be called, for all the reservations I have about the inherent nature of the material, a classic. Such a statement won't be of much comfort to those who are served up a warmed up TV dinner version of this text through various school assignments, but it spawns enough contentment for me.
I had done nothing—and yet here I was, condemned never to know the only feelings my heart was created for.Shorter works have proved a boon of late due to the severe cramping of my schedule, and it was nice to encounter something relatively out of the blue that managed to surmount my usual dislike of extreme brevity and prove itself all the more impressively in a very short span of pages. I'm not going to demand that Black readers agree with my positive assessments, but there is something to be said for how the character is believable in both her qualities and her flaws, and were she removed to modern times, I feel she would have an easier time not demonizing the entirety of her race based on one sensationalized through severe decontextualization event or another. In any case, this proved to be one of those reads that opened a veritable Pandora's box of, what else did Duras write? Did she have any comrades in feminine authorship of the time? And what is that delightful looking list of translations at the back of this particular edition? So, I move on from this in hopes that I will do some more stumbling in fruitful directions, now knowing that the phrase 'MLA Texts & Translations' is a herald for promising things. I won't promise you that this book has a happy ending. But I can guarantee that it will leave you thinking, and that sometimes is all one can ask.
March 2, 2025
Descubrí este relato cuando hacía el TFM, así que mi alegría fue inmensa cuando me enteré de que por fin tendríamos una traducción al catalán de la mano de una de mis editoriales independientes favoritas. Una nouvelle poderosísima que sorprende a partes iguales por haber sido escrita hace más de 200 años y por la vigencia que, lamentablemente, tienen todavía actualmente las experiencias de la joven Ourika con la adopción y, sobre todo, con la discriminación racial y de género. Aunque breve y enmarcado en una historia de amor no correspondido, Claire de Duras construye habilidosamente un relato lleno de capas que ponen en evidencia las vergüenzas de la educada sociedad imperialista francesa, pero también de todos aquellos que permiten, hoy en día, la perpetuación del aislamiento sufrido por Ourika. Mañana reescribiré la reseña para poner el foco en las complejidades de la adopción y de los niños y niñas a caballo entre dos culturas, desarraigados de la de origen y rechazados, en cierto modo, por la de acogida.
Una lectura obligatoria por los temas que trata, pero también para descubrir a una gran autora.
Una lectura obligatoria por los temas que trata, pero también para descubrir a una gran autora.
October 5, 2022
English review below the French one, they say about the same thing. Le français n’est pas ma langue maternelle, ne jugez pas trop dur s’il vous plaît, etc., etc.
Quand j’ai vu ce livre sur la liste de livres pour le semestre, j’avais hâte de le commencer! Le dos de livre remarque que “Ourika est la première grande héroïne noire de la littérature occidentale” (mots de Wikipédia ici parce que je n’ai plus le livre).
En fin de compte, je crois que le livre est trop long pour ce qui se passe, bien que le livre ait juste ~50 pages 🤣. Il n’y a pas beaucoup d’intrigue,
En même temps, le livre et son histoire sont très intéressants pour faire des analyses. Je ne veux pas dire beaucoup parce que je m'inquiète que des étudiants peuvent essayer de chercher des analyses ici 👀 (pourquoi la plupart de critiques ici sont-elles en anglais? Ce livre est-il lu seulement dans les cours?), mais les thèmes que Duras explore, me rappellent les thèmes des œuvres de la renaissance de Harlem, particulièrement Quicksand par Nella Larsen, pour exemple. Mais les implications de ces thèmes sont différentes quand une auteure blanche (comme Duras) écrit une telle personnage noire, à mon avis. Je me demande ce que la vraie Ourika dirait si elle lisait le livre. Je crois que si c'était moi, je me fâcherais. Comment Duras avait-elle l’audace de créer une telle histoire sur la base de ma vie, sans jamais me connaître? Néanmoins, c’est un livre intéressant à analyser; pas juste l'écriture, mais aussi les implications d’une auteure blanche qui écrit une telle histoire (+ la grande popularité de livre à la sortie).
Intéressant pour analyser mais, à défaut, très ennuyeux. Si le français n’est pas ta langue maternelle, il pourrait être un peu difficile à lire.
Citation préférée:
_______________________________
When I saw this book among the assigned list for the semester, I was really excited to read it! The back of the book noted that “The novel marks a critical point in European literature. It is the first French text to depict a black woman character with a complex psychology” (from Wikipedia since I no longer have the book).
Ultimately, I think that the book is too long for what little happens in it, even at just ~50 pages 🤣. There’s not a lot of plot,
At the same time, the book and story are very interesting to analyze. I don’t want to say a lot because I fear that students may try to find analyses here 👀 (why are the majority of reviews in English? Is this book only read in courses?), but the themes that Duras explores, reminded me of themes in works from the Harlem Renaissance, particularly Quicksand by Nella Larsen, for example. But the implications of these themes are different when a white author (like Duras) writes such a black character, in my opinion. I wonder what the real Ourika would think of this book. I think if it were me, I would be mad. How could Duras have the audacity to create such a story based on my life, without even knowing me? Nonetheless, this book is interesting to analyze; not just the writing but also the implications of a white author writing such a story (+ the book's wide popularity upon release).
Interesting for analyzing but otherwise very boring. If French is not your first language, it could be a bit difficult to read.
Favorite quote:
_______________________________
Original review (Oct 25, 2021):
1.5 stars.
Might write a better review later.
Just wanted to say that this book proves my point about schools making students read the most depressing books possible. This book could have been 10 pages max if Ourika would shut up about how much her life sucks all the time and just get to the point. Made me feel like that guy in Silver Linings Playbook-- can't people just be happy for once?
Quand j’ai vu ce livre sur la liste de livres pour le semestre, j’avais hâte de le commencer! Le dos de livre remarque que “Ourika est la première grande héroïne noire de la littérature occidentale” (mots de Wikipédia ici parce que je n’ai plus le livre).
En fin de compte, je crois que le livre est trop long pour ce qui se passe, bien que le livre ait juste ~50 pages 🤣. Il n’y a pas beaucoup d’intrigue,
En même temps, le livre et son histoire sont très intéressants pour faire des analyses. Je ne veux pas dire beaucoup parce que je m'inquiète que des étudiants peuvent essayer de chercher des analyses ici 👀 (pourquoi la plupart de critiques ici sont-elles en anglais? Ce livre est-il lu seulement dans les cours?), mais les thèmes que Duras explore, me rappellent les thèmes des œuvres de la renaissance de Harlem, particulièrement Quicksand par Nella Larsen, pour exemple. Mais les implications de ces thèmes sont différentes quand une auteure blanche (comme Duras) écrit une telle personnage noire, à mon avis. Je me demande ce que la vraie Ourika dirait si elle lisait le livre. Je crois que si c'était moi, je me fâcherais. Comment Duras avait-elle l’audace de créer une telle histoire sur la base de ma vie, sans jamais me connaître? Néanmoins, c’est un livre intéressant à analyser; pas juste l'écriture, mais aussi les implications d’une auteure blanche qui écrit une telle histoire (+ la grande popularité de livre à la sortie).
Intéressant pour analyser mais, à défaut, très ennuyeux. Si le français n’est pas ta langue maternelle, il pourrait être un peu difficile à lire.
Citation préférée:
_______________________________
When I saw this book among the assigned list for the semester, I was really excited to read it! The back of the book noted that “The novel marks a critical point in European literature. It is the first French text to depict a black woman character with a complex psychology” (from Wikipedia since I no longer have the book).
Ultimately, I think that the book is too long for what little happens in it, even at just ~50 pages 🤣. There’s not a lot of plot,
At the same time, the book and story are very interesting to analyze. I don’t want to say a lot because I fear that students may try to find analyses here 👀 (why are the majority of reviews in English? Is this book only read in courses?), but the themes that Duras explores, reminded me of themes in works from the Harlem Renaissance, particularly Quicksand by Nella Larsen, for example. But the implications of these themes are different when a white author (like Duras) writes such a black character, in my opinion. I wonder what the real Ourika would think of this book. I think if it were me, I would be mad. How could Duras have the audacity to create such a story based on my life, without even knowing me? Nonetheless, this book is interesting to analyze; not just the writing but also the implications of a white author writing such a story (+ the book's wide popularity upon release).
Interesting for analyzing but otherwise very boring. If French is not your first language, it could be a bit difficult to read.
Favorite quote:
_______________________________
Original review (Oct 25, 2021):
1.5 stars.
Might write a better review later.
Just wanted to say that this book proves my point about schools making students read the most depressing books possible. This book could have been 10 pages max if Ourika would shut up about how much her life sucks all the time and just get to the point. Made me feel like that guy in Silver Linings Playbook-- can't people just be happy for once?
March 5, 2025
Vale, aquest llibre és la història d'una noia senegalesa, rescatada de l'esclavatge, que es criada a França en una casa benestant, però que acaba descobrint que la seva condició racial la condemna a una vida de rebuig i alienació.
Llavors, coses:
- aquest llibre és de 1823
- la història està basada en una persona real
- però l'autora no és aquesta persona, sinó una dona blanca que sabia d'aquesta persona, i a qui no li va demanar l'opinió (no ho sé del cert, però ho sospito)
- evidentment, la visió de raça no està a l'altura de 2025
- aquest llibre se m'havia descrit com un text precursor del feminisme perquè "aborda de discriminació ètnica i sexual", cosa que es podria considerar veritat perquè la protagonista és una dona negra no demonitzada, però la veu en primera persona de la narració és realment la veu que una dona blanca pot pensar que té una dona negra
- ara bé, potser per ser 1823 està bé perquè no sé quina visió tenien les dones negres educades en l'aristocràcia francesa prerevolucionària de la seva pròpia ètnia
- llavors, aquest llibre, realment, va sobre la solitud i l'aïllament (un sentiment universal)
- en aquest punt, el llibre està molt bé
Llavors, coses:
- aquest llibre és de 1823
- la història està basada en una persona real
- però l'autora no és aquesta persona, sinó una dona blanca que sabia d'aquesta persona, i a qui no li va demanar l'opinió (no ho sé del cert, però ho sospito)
- evidentment, la visió de raça no està a l'altura de 2025
- aquest llibre se m'havia descrit com un text precursor del feminisme perquè "aborda de discriminació ètnica i sexual", cosa que es podria considerar veritat perquè la protagonista és una dona negra no demonitzada, però la veu en primera persona de la narració és realment la veu que una dona blanca pot pensar que té una dona negra
- ara bé, potser per ser 1823 està bé perquè no sé quina visió tenien les dones negres educades en l'aristocràcia francesa prerevolucionària de la seva pròpia ètnia
- llavors, aquest llibre, realment, va sobre la solitud i l'aïllament (un sentiment universal)
- en aquest punt, el llibre està molt bé
Read
February 21, 2024An interesting read, there is an elequent and beautiful call to be satisfied and fulfilled in God alone, even in the midst of the greatest suffering caused by racism and the sin of others. Unsurprisingly my prof hated it.
November 16, 2025
maintenant je suis triste 😔
February 28, 2024
has some good lines. overall an interesting read and discusses things that are way ahead of its time, like intersectionality.
February 7, 2025
Hagués fet una abraçada tan forta a l’Ourika durant tot el relat…. Que trist i que fort tot! Llàstima que sigui tan curtet!! Buscarem les altres històries escrites per Claire de Duras!!
March 22, 2025
Brevísima historia de hace menos de un cuarto de siglo sobre una realidad injusta y todavía actual: las dificultades de una niña de raza negra en una sociedad blanca.
July 1, 2009
This brief, bittersweet novel was a courageous pheonmenon in France in the 1820s. At a time when the abolition movement was gaining momentum in France, the traditionalist and conservative element was busy making new rules to take more rights away from people of African heritage. Therefore, it is astonishing that Ourika was published when it was (1824) and received the (limited) respect it did for its lovely, black heroine, the title character. (I say "limited respect" because white French people in the various African and Caribbean colonies of the time did not like this book. Slavery in French colonies would not be abolished until 1848). The story takes place just as the French Revolution is breaking out. Ourika is a three-diminsional character rather than a stereotype, who narrates most of her own story. At age 2, she was brought from Senegal to France by a colonial governor who plucked her off of a slave boat after he saw her mother had died. He gave Ourika to his aunt to raise. The loving Madame de B. . . adored and protected Ourika and gave her a fine education. At first Ourika had no notion that she was different because of the color of her skin, but by age 12, she overheard the gossip that she would never be able to marry a white man, at least not one of her lofty station. Ourika considered asking her mistress to send her back to Africa, but realized she would not be understood or accepted there either. “Hélas! Je n’appartenais plus à personne. J’étais étrangère à la race humaine entière!" Ourika falls in love with her adoptive mother's grandson, but he, of course, cannot reciprocate her love. The outcome of Outrika's story I will not reveal, but I recommend it highly as a bold statement about the issue of race that usually was not dealt with in this much depth in early 19th-century France.
October 1, 2020
An interesting period piece, and a sad story indeed. Like many French novels of its time, there are plenty of extreme emotions, making it a bit over-the-top to a modern reader.
One thing that struck me was Ourika's (and therefore the author's) reaction to the massacres perpetrated in Saint-Dominque by enslaved Blacks--it makes her ashamed to be a member of a "race de barbares et d'assassins." But when the dead bodies pile up under the Terror, there's no similar indictment of Whites. Again, it's a period piece.
One thing that struck me was Ourika's (and therefore the author's) reaction to the massacres perpetrated in Saint-Dominque by enslaved Blacks--it makes her ashamed to be a member of a "race de barbares et d'assassins." But when the dead bodies pile up under the Terror, there's no similar indictment of Whites. Again, it's a period piece.
November 7, 2010
One of the worst books I've ever read.
February 7, 2022
White woman uses black voices and bodies to tell her own thoughts / feelings. Rubbed me the wrong way and even besides that overall just did not enjoy the read
December 28, 2024
Het klooster was niet het best mogelijke einde voor Ourika but ok
(Na 2de keer lezen wel sterretje bijgegeven)
(Na 2de keer lezen wel sterretje bijgegeven)
August 31, 2025
Ourika és una història de solitud, desamor, raça i d’aïllament. Ourika és una esclava que una família aristòcrata francesa rescata i cuida com una filla més. Allí es crea un conflicte on ella s’acaba creient que realment pertany allí, fins que li demostren que no, que fora del seu cosí i la seva mare adoptiva no té cap cercle, que sense ells ella no té res. Aquí entra en un pou del que ja no surt, una condemna que la persegueix per sempre.
No coneixia a Claire de Duras, l’altra Duras i la seva història m’ha interessat molt, una autora desconeguda i oblidada que haurem de recuperar i llegir. Tanmateix, la història beu directament d’un fil real on un governador del Senegal va regalar una esclava al duc d’Orleans i ell i la seva dona la vam cuidar com una filla.
No coneixia a Claire de Duras, l’altra Duras i la seva història m’ha interessat molt, una autora desconeguda i oblidada que haurem de recuperar i llegir. Tanmateix, la història beu directament d’un fil real on un governador del Senegal va regalar una esclava al duc d’Orleans i ell i la seva dona la vam cuidar com una filla.
December 21, 2022
This was interesting piece of literature. Beautiful prose, simple yet intriguing story and the ever-present self-examination of the main character way before of true progression in the case of equality of all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 172 reviews