Hordern House

[BASTON, Guillaume A.R.] Narrations d'Omaï... Rouen, chez de Boucher 1790

Four volumes, octavo, portrait and view combined as engraved frontispiece ("Omaï amené en Angletere par le Capitaine Furneaux"); an excellent set in contemporary sprinkled calf, flat spines banded in gilt, double labels.

A fine copy of Omai's fictional autobiography. This rare romantic account of the Tahitian islander brought back to England by Cook is, with Elliott's Hildebrand Bowman, one of the two key imaginary voyages which relate specifically to Cook's voyages.

Despite Cook's initial objections, Omai was taken on board Furneaux's Adventure, which returned to Portsmouth in July 1774. Given into the custody of Banks and Solander, Omai was feted and adored by the English public as the ideal of the noble savage or natural man then in vogue because of the works of Rousseau. The public's fascination was reflected by the huge success of the long-running pantomime Omai: or a Trip Round the World staged by Loutherbourg and Shield.

Baston's long novel is a much more involved work, purporting to be the autobiography of Omai translated from the Tahitian (it includes a 4-page glossary of difficult Tahitian terms). Seen by Tarlton and McCormick as Omai's 'supreme literary tribute', the fantasy borrows heavily from the utopian imaginary voyage tradition by depicting Omai as the 'saviour of his people, a leader who on returning from England purges his society of all its evils while he introduces only the benefits of European civilization' (Auckland City Art Gallery, The Two Worlds of Omai, 1977, p. 14).

With passages on Cook and a lengthy section on Christianity, Baston's work could not be further removed from the other major French contribution of his compatriot Diderot, whose writings on Aotourou, the Tahitian who returned with Bougainville to France, are marked by bitter regret at the European influence on the Pacific.
Beddie, 4560; Holmes, 74; Kaeppler, Artificial Curiosities, 99; Kroepelien, 54; O'Reilly-Reitman, 9312.

$A9850

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