Novel
Les Mémoires imaginés de Jean-Baptiste Quéau de Quinssy
Not translated into English
Guy Lionnet · 1988
Synopsis
Jean-Baptiste Quéau de Quinssy, an aristocrat, lands in the Seychelles on 9 September 1793 as civil administrator and commandant of the archipelago. Seven months later, he surrenders to Newcome's English squadron, but stays in place for eighteen more years, so that he is both the last French commandant and the first English commandant of the islands. The book lends him his memoirs: a capitulation turned into an adventure, in the service of the monarchy, the Revolution, the Consulate and the Empire.
Context
Lionnet had already devoted a play to the figure, staged on the airwaves of Radio France Internationale in 1978, among other plays, most of them unpublished, drawn from the history of the archipelago. The book appeared in 1988 in the list of ARS Terres créoles; its digital reissue by FeniXX associates with the author's name those of Mario Serviable and René-Paul Victoria. The author had also edited, with Annegret Bollée, the first known text in Seychellois Creole.
Who it is for
A historical novel in French, of nearly three hundred pages, on the French period of the Seychelles.
Prizes and reception
The book was reissued in digital form by FeniXX, which takes over the catalogues of defunct publishers.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.