“AH! BOURRIENNE, YOU ALSO WILL BE IMMORTAL!”

(NAPOLEON) DE BOURRIENNE, M. Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte. By M. De Bourrienne, His Private Secretary. To Which Are Now First Added, An Account of the Important Events of The Hundred Days, of Napoleon's Surrender to The English, And of His Residence And Death at St. Helena. London: Richard Bentley, 1836. Four volumes. Octavo, late 19th-century three-quarter red morocco gilt, elaborately gilt-decorated spines with Napoleonic emblems, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, all edges gilt. $2200.

Expanded edition of de Bourrienne’s classic biography of Napoleon, with 27 plates, a facsimile of Napoleon’s abdication, and a folding map depicting the Battle of the Nile, handsomely bound by Root with Napoleonic emblems.

"Bourrienne, a French statesman, studied at the military school of Brienne, where he was on friendly terms with the young Napoleon. In 1797 he became Napoleon's secretary," an appointment which "continued during all the most brilliant part of Napoleon's career" and afforded him the intimacy upon which the Memoirs are based (CBD:189; preface). "The fame of Bourrienne rests, not upon his achievements or his original works… but upon his Memoirs" (Britannica). Frontispiece of Volume I dated 1835.

Interiors clean. Light rubbing to a few joints, bindings sound. A very handsome set in near-fine condition.