Saint-Simon - Mémoires de Saint-Simon - 1873-1904

Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon, Hachette, 1904, 21 volumes. Complete edition based on the Chéruel edition of 1856. (Reissue of 1904...). Old bound book, in 12, half green cloth, title on beige leather vignette. Good condition, solid binding. Analytical table in volume 20; with Sainte Beuve's preface.
Additionally: genealogical tables from the La Pléiade edition.
This edition reproduces the Chéruel/Hachette edition of 1856, a reference edition as it was the first to faithfully and completely reproduce Saint-Simon's text. 'This edition was established based on an exact collation of the original manuscripts belonging to Mr. the Duke of Saint Simon' (1856 introduction).
The Duke of Saint-Simon, courtier and memoirist, 'a shrewd and fanciful spy of Versailles and the behind-the-scenes of power,' is a major witness to the end of Louis XIV's reign and the Regency. These Memoirs are a personal account, composed with settings and adventures, heroes and secondary characters, passions, psychology, philosophy, and style. One can speak of the 'universe of Saint-Simon' as one speaks of the universe of Balzac or Proust.