Alphonse de Lamartine - Le conseiller du peuple - 1849-1850

Lamartine, Alphonse de. The People's Advisor.

Two years in two volumes: 1849 and 1850.

Paris, Administration. 1849; 1850. 8vo. 541 pages; 456 pages. Publisher’s hardcover bindings, illustrated papers. Humid stamp from a Brussels library on the title page. Library label on the upper left edge of the first cover for the two volumes.

Original edition of the first and second years of this periodical, published in 46 issues from 1849 to 1851. This journal would end in November 1851, after 34 issues. Copies generally in good condition despite foxing on the bindings and inside. Slight wear to the backs, corners, and edges.

The review had been entrusted to Lamartine by Moïse Polydore Millaud, who wished to rely on the poet’s popularity, the latter having just signed the decree abolition of slavery of April 27, 1848. At that time, Lamartine was writing “novels for the people”: Geneviève, histoire d’une servante, first published as a serial in Le Conseiller du peuple, then Le Tailleur de Pierre by Saint-Point (1851). The heroes are often the writer’s mouthpieces, especially Le Tailleur de Pierre, a sort of secular Jocelyn in perpetual communion with God in his generous self-denial. The review also had Eugène Pelletan and Paul de Saint-Victor among its collaborators.

Extremely rare copies in romantic bindings, generally in good condition.