Ouida  (Maria Louise (de la) Rame 
Under Two Flags  
Published by Chatto & Windus in 1909  - New Impression costing two shillings.
Under Two Flags was first published in 1867.
 
Her pen name of 'Ouida' (a playful version of her name Louise) was a prolific author starting aged just 20 writing short stories in 1859, followed by a highly successful career writing more  than 50 books, novellas, a host of short stories and journal articles. 
During the 1860s when she was in her early twenties  her first was 'Held in Bondage' in 1864. 
She was born in Bury St Edmunds in the UK, and lived the later years of her life in Italy. 
 
Her journal article entitled “The New Woman" published in 1894 [The North American Review, Vol. 158, No. 450 (May, 1894]  is highly revealing of her personality and well worth reading.
   “Nothing tends so to destroy modesty as the publicity and promiscuity of schools, of hotels, of railway trains and sea voyages.”
 
A great author to collect and the original Chatto and Windus series  of early 1900 as is this book,  is particularly rarer to find and all the more prized.
 
Following her literary trail visit  Bury St Edmunds and you'll find a bronze memorial erected by her friends.   Her lavish tomb can be found in Vareggio near Florence in Italy. 
 
The book is 114 years old and condition  is fair to good. Pages are age-toned and the covers age related bumps and scuffs.  The spine head and foot is worn and scuffed.  Please do look at the images to help you assess the condition. 
 
Under Two Flags  - An exciting tale of war, adventure, romance, and tragedy.
Handsome young Bertie Cecil, star horseman, pride of the Queen's guards, and heir to the Royallieu fortune, is forced to flee England when he accepts the blame for a scandal that threatens the honour of his mistress and the reputation of his younger brother. Faking his death, Cecil heads to Algeria, where he enlists anonymously in the Foreign Legion and serves under the French flag. Determined to live and die in obscurity and sworn never to return to England, Cecil finds his resolution shaken by his relationships with two women who love him, the haughty Princess Venetia Corona and the young soldier Cigarette. And when Cecil is forced to make a choice between the two flags of England and France, a terrible sacrifice will have to be made, which will lead to tragedy. Ouida's phenomenal success Under Two Flags was first published in book form in 1867 and remained in print continuously until the mid-twentieth century and also appeared in a number of film versions.