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1838 · 167701 — Paris: Ladvocat 1838. The most important French socialist-feminist of the 1830s and 1840s Second edition published the same year as the first of the radical philosopher's only novel vividly articulating her goal of social revolution through female emancipation. Méphis is uncommonly met with; we trace only one previous auction listing for any edition. The philosophy of Flora Tristan 1803-1844 linked the nascent socialist theories of class struggles with the contested position of women in contemporary society. Following the mixed reception of her previous political works in Méphis she employs the conventions of the novel to visualise her conception of social reform. The work centres on the titular protagonist's relationships with two aristocratic women and the tensions implicit therein - both in his proletariat origins and in the broader patriarchal conventions weighing on them. Tristan draws several "vivid evocations of feminist role models" Cross & Gray p. 2 thereby winning the novel "a secure place in French Romantic literature" Puech quoted in Cross & Gray p. 2. The work gained further notoriety due to the events surrounding its publication. In 1838 Tristan's estranged husband - a failed artist enraged by her literary success - shot her in the street in broad daylight. Miraculously she was not seriously injured and the resulting trial boosted her sales considerably. Tristan's socialist-feminist philosophy anticipates several aspects of Marx and Engels: she most notably coined the term "Workers of the world unite" a full five years before they deployed it in the Communist Manifesto. She is consequently considered "the most important French socialist-feminist of the 1830s and 1840s" Collins & Weil-Sayre p. 229. The second volume includes two of Tristan's articles on the history of western art which had formerly appeared in L'Artiste. 2 vols octavo 209 x 131 mm pp. iv vii 1 365 1; pp. iv 390 2. Wood-engraved vignette to title pages. Contemporary red quarter sheep spines lettered ruled and elaborately decorated in gilt red marbled sides marbled endpapers edges sprinkled black blue silk bookmarkers. Moderate rubbing faint sunning to spines light sporadic foxing and marginal damp staining to contents: a very good copy. Marie M. Collins and Sylvie Weil-Sayre "Flora Tristan: Forgotten Feminist and Socialist" Nineteenth-Century French Studies vol. 1 no. 4 1973; Màire Cross and Tim Gray The Feminism of Flora Tristan 1992. unknown