Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases - Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène - 1969

In-quarto luxurious French edition of the Las Cases' Memorial of Saint Helena in original French language, especially printed for the bicentenary of Napoleon's birth (1769-1969), followed by "La Voix de Saint Hélène" by O'Meara, "Les Derniers moments de l'Empereur" by Antomarchi, and "Le Retour des cendres".

The text is printed on watermarked laid-paper and illustrated with 4 frontispieces and 52 engravings printed on fold-out plates by Carle Vernet (1758-1836) a French painter, more especially of military subjects, 100 portrait in text, 46 plates and 32 decorative engravings.

Volumes are whole leather bound in green "Empire" calf enhanced with gilt arms of Napoleon on covers and gilt laurels ornaments, all the edges are gilt, moiré silk end-papers, headbands and bookmarks.

Good overall condition, a few very little scratchs on bindings, the other defects are minor.

¶ The Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, written by Emmanuel-Auguste-Dieudonné Las Cases, is a journal-memoir of the beginning of Napoleon Bonaparte's exile on Saint Helena. The core of the work transcribes Las Cases' near-daily conversations with the former Emperor on his life, his career, his political philosophy, and the conditions of his exile. First published in 1823 after Napoleon's death, the work entered the popular imagination as something like Napoleon's own personal and political testament, and as such became a founding text in the development of the Napoleon cult and the ideology of Bonapartism.