Edward Saids, "Orientalism," First Edition in Original Dust Jacket, 1978

Edward Said

First Edition

SAID, Edward W. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. First edition, first impression. 368 pages. Said, a Palestinian American literary critic teaching at Columbia University, helped establish postcolonial studies through this critique of Western representations of the Middle East. The book argued that the “Orient” was a category constructed through scholarship and cultural representation, inseparable from imperial power.

Contents include “The Scope of Orientalism,” “Orientalist Structures and Restructures,” and “Orientalism Now,” with discussions of imaginative geography, Silvestre de Sacy and Ernest Renan, and modern Anglo-French Orientalism. Gift inscription on the front free endpaper: “To Bill / Happy Birthday and Happy Orienteering. / Ann-Marie,” dated January 24, 1979. Original blue cloth, gilt lettering to spine and upper board, in the original unclipped dust jacket featuring Jean-Léon Gérôme’s The Snake Charmer. Minor jacket edgewear, with bright colors to covers and spine; no internal writing apart from the gift inscription; binding tight and square. Overall in very good condition.

Item #23585

Price: $650.00