“THE WORLD IS FULL OF HIS GLORY, HIS DEEDS AND HIS MONUMENTS”: EARLY EDITION IN ENGLISH OF LAS CASES’ PRIVATE LIFE AND CONVERSATIONS OF NAPOLEON

(NAPOLEON) LAS CASES, Count De. Journal of the Private Life and Conversations of the Emperor Napoleon at Saint Helena. London: Henry Colburn, 1824. Four volumes. Octavo, contemporary three-quarter tan calf, red and blue morocco spine labels, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, marbled boards, endpapers and edges. $1850.

Early edition in English of Las Cases’ memoir of his time with the exiled Napoleon, illustrated with ten engraved plates (three folding and four hand-colored).

Fascinated by Napoleon, Las Cases shared his exile at St. Helena, recording the emperor's conversations. The resulting work is "of great interest" for passages presenting Napoleon's candid thoughts on the ruinous war in Spain, his failure to dismember Austria after Wagram, his marriage to an Austrian princess ("I set foot on an abyss, concealed by a bed of flowers") and his role as arbiter in the great struggle between past and present (Britannica). The popularity of the Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène upon its publication in 1822-23 was "one of the earliest" signs "that the Légende napoléonienne was forming" (Harvey & Heseltine, 506). Published one year after the 1823 first edition in English, which was issued shortly after the 1822-23 French first edition. The illustrations include portraits of Las Cases and Napoleon, a folding floor plan of Napoleon’s Longwood residence, folding maps of St. Helena and Napoleon's Italian Campaign, and five views, four of which are hand-colored.

Scattered inoffensive foxing to plates and text; contemporary bindings moderately rubbed. A handsome copy of this important early account of Napoleon.