SLOANE'S ILLUSTRATED LIFE OF NAPOLEON, HANDSOMELY BOUND
(NAPOLEON) SLOANE, William Milligan. Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: Century, 1896. Four volumes bound in nine. Folio (9 by 12 inches), contemporary three-quarter red morocco, spines gilt-decorated with Napoleon's crest, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. $5500.
First edition of Sloane's monumental account of Napoleon's personal and military life, with over 300 illustrations, portraits and maps, many in color, handsomely bound.
Historian William Sloane was professor of history at Princeton University and president of the American Historical Association. "Of Sloane's writings, that which attracted the most attention was his Life of Napoleon Bonaparte. It was published originally in the form of a serial in the Century Magazine, beginning in November 1894, enlarged into four massive volumes in 1896… The product of many years of elaborate investigation, it was sumptuously illustrated and composed" (DAB). This copy has been bound in eight volumes, with a ninth volume containing the Tables of Contents, Historical Sources, and Index. Engraved armorial bookplate.
Interiors clean and fine, light rubbing to extremities, slight darkening to spines, gilt bright. A handsome, near-fine set.