Beschreibung:

LAS CASES, Emmanuel de (1766-1842). Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, ou Journal ou se trouve consigné, jour par jour, ce qu’a dit et fait Napoléon durant dix-huit mois . Paris: Lebégue for the author, 1823. [ With :] – Suite au Mémorial . Paris: Carez for Raynal and Roret, 1824.
LAS CASES, Emmanuel de (1766-1842). Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, ou Journal ou se trouve consigné, jour par jour, ce qu’a dit et fait Napoléon durant dix-huit mois . Paris: Lebégue for the author, 1823. [ With :] – Suite au Mémorial . Paris: Carez for Raynal and Roret, 1824. Together 10 volumes, 8º (200 x 125mm). With errata in vols 1-4, and 6 and 8, adverts in vols 4-5, and supplementary note in Suite vol. 1. Engraved portrait frontispiece in Suite vol. 1, Two folding maps and one folding table. (Small loss in margin of vol. 4 leaf *3, occasional light browning, repaired tear in margin of vol. 5 leaf 24.8, occasional marginal dampstain in vol. 2.) 19th-century red quarter leather, flat spines gilt in compartments, yellow edges (some spine lightly discoloured, corners lightly rubbed). Provenance : Gaspard Gourgaud (1783-1852, General; author's presentation inscription to him, perhaps secretarial, stamp in the last volume, manuscript inscription, trimmed, responding to Las Cases in vol. 1, p.95) – N. Dumas (title stamp in each volume) – some pencilled marginal annotations. FIRST EDITION OF THE ‘BIBLE’ OF THE NAPOLEONIC LEGEND, A FINE COPY INSCRIBED TO ONE OF ITS MAIN ACTORS. The complete copy with all plates and engraved maps as well as the supplementary volume published a year later. As Jean Tulard once stated: ‘to anyone who asks which was Napoleon's main victory among Rivoli, Austerlitz or Wagram, should not the answer be: St Helena? Defeated, dethroned, showered by the insults of hundreds of pamphlets, leaving as his only legacy in 1815 the memory of having been a modern Attila, Napoleon succeeded, through one single book, to revise his image, this Mé morial which recalled his glorious past and his misery at St. Helena... In his Mé morial Napoleon portrayed himself as the chief promoter of liberal and national ideas, as well as a martyr of the Coalition. Vive Napolé on! was often the motto shouted by the insurgents during the 1830 revolution. Thanks to Las Cases, Napoleon managed to confiscate for his own profit the two rising forces of 19th century’. THE COPY WAS INSCRIBED BY LAS CASES TO ONE OF NAPOLEON'S GREAT YET CONTROVERSIAL OFFICERS, BARON GOURGAUD. Las Cases and Gourgaud rivalled for Napoleon’s attention. It must have been with some reluctance, undoubtedly, that Las Cases inscribed his book to the glorious soldier, but he may also have enjoyed the idea of proving through its publication that he himself was Napoleon's favourite. Next to a paragraph that is critical of him Gourgaud writes ‘Ce passage est absolument faux’, and explains why. This is one of the few mentions of Gourgaud in the Mé morial , while in his own memoir of his exile on St Helena, Gourgaud's is often dismissive of Las Cases, nicknaming him ‘The Jesuit’. The two keepers of Napoleon’s flame never became friends: Gourgaud was a man of action for whom seeing Las Cases, an intellectual, become his idol’s confidant was pure torture. But Napoleon eventually grew weary of Las Cases, discharging him in 1818, saying to General Bertrand: ‘Qu'on ne me parle plus de cet homme. C'est un fou. Il était amoureux de moi. Que diable! Je ne suis pas sa femme et ne puis coucher avec lui!’ ['I want to hear no more about this man. He is mad. He was in love with me. For God’s sake, I am not his wife and I cannot sleep with him!']. Together with: Gourgaud, Napoléon et la Grande Armée en Russie ou Examen critique de l'ouvrage de M. le comte Ph. de Sé gur ... Seconde Edition (Paris: Bossange Frères, 1825) in contemporary red quarter morocco. This sharp critique of Ségur's work provoked a duel between the two men in which Ségur was injured.