Incredible thing!
Cannot believe I found a book like that, from a subject that I love (Napoleon) at Etsy.com for that price!!!
The book is from 1832 for God's sake!!! And it cost only 23 bucks with shipping!!! How can this be???
At first, I thought that the vendor missed a zero or something, but researching it online, I did find another copy from the same time for more or less the same price...
Let me clarify: a copy from the time that the Duchess was alive, like almost 180 years, costs like 15 bucks and a brand new copy costs almost double. Makes no sense to me, but I am happy ;-)
Well, I am not complaining!
But let's go back to the book itself.
It is a version of the Memoirs of the Duchess D'Abrantes, published in NY in 1832. (Photos from Etsy.com - click to enlarge)
This is soooo fascinating!
The only bad piece of news is that the book is falling to pieces... the covers are very loose, especially the front one. And also the end of the book is missing... Hmmm. Weird... But I really didn't buy that book to read it in bed, but just to browse, and appreciate the age and imagine the amount of people who owned that book during these 180 years... And where it was stored. That would be quite a story...
This is the Duchess (or can I say, many versions of her, because none of them look alike!):
According to her Wikipedia page:
Laure Junot, duchesse d'AbrantèsLaure Junot, duchesse d'Abrantès (6 November 1784 – 7 June 1838) was the wife of French general Jean-Andoche Junot.
She was born Laure (Laurette) Martin de Permond at Montpellier. She was the daughter of Charles Martin de Permond and his wife Panoria, to whom during her widowhood the young Napoleon Bonaparte made an offer of marriage—such at least is the version presented by the daughter in her celebrated Memoirs. Her mother, Panoria, was descended from the Comnene family, the last Greek dynasty from the Empire of Trebizond.[1] The Martin de Permond family, after various vicissitudes, settled at Paris, and Bonaparte certainly frequented their house a good deal after the downfall of the Jacobin party in Thermidor 1794.
Mlle. Permon was married to Junot in 1800, early in the Consulate. She at once entered eagerly into all the gaieties of Paris, and became noted for her beauty, her caustic wit, and her extravagance. The First Consul nicknamed her petite peste, but treated her and Junot with the utmost generosity, a fact which did not restrain her sarcasms and slanders in her portrayal of him in her Memoirs. During Junot's diplomatic mission to Lisbon, his wife so displayed her prodigality, that on his return to Paris in 1806 he was burdened with debts, which his own intrigues did not lessen. She joined him again at Lisbon after he had entered that city as conqueror at the close of 1807; but even the presents and spoils won at Lisbon did not satisfy her demands; she accompanied Junot through part of the Peninsular War.
On her return to France she displeased the emperor by her vivacious remarks and by receiving guests whom he disliked. The mental malady of Junot thereafter threatened her with ruin; this perhaps explains why she took some part in the intrigues for bringing back the Bourbons in 1814. She did not side with Napoleon during the Hundred Days. After 1815 she spent most of her time at Rome amidst artistic society, which she enlivened with her sprightly converse; a monarchist on her return to Paris during the Restoration,
she compiled her spirited but somewhat spiteful Memoirs with the encouragement and supervision of Balzac, her lover since 1828. The memoirs were published at Paris in 1831–1834 in 18 volumes. Many editions have since appeared.
Of her other books the most noteworthy are Histoires contemporaines (2 vols., 1835); Scènes de la vie espagnole (2 vols., 1836); Histoire des salons de Paris (6 vols., 1837–1838); Souvenirs d'une ambassade et d'un séjour en Espagne et en Portugal, de 1808 & 1811 (2 vols., 1837).
Ridiculed by Gautier as the "Duchess of Abracadantès" and fallen into poverty, she died in a nursing home in 1838.
You can read her book
here (Google Books)... Isn't that Fabulous?
Now let's look at the little bit of info about the printers: J & J Harper.
 |
| A print from circa 1858 |
ANOTHER fantastic fact (at least for me ;-) ), is that one of the J & J Harper publishers of this book , Mr James Harper, lived literally a few blocks from where I live now - he used to live in a townhouse that I've always loved: 4 Gramercy Park!!!
What a coincidence!!!
I've always loved this well-preserved gem... Now I do know more about it!
 |
| Group portrait of the four Harper brothers, ca. 1860. Left to right: Fletcher, James, John, and Joseph. |
Ha! Has anyone heard about Harper's Bazar (later Bazaar) and HarperCollins??? Precisely!!!
