François René de CHATEAUBRIAND

Rare and sought-after first edition, first issue.

Includes the subscribers' list and the foreword, later removed when the remainder of this edition passed into the hands of another publisher, Dion-Lambert. It also features the pagination error in volume two: page 164 instead of 364. 

Black half-morocco bindings, smooth spines with double gilt fillets and double blind-stamped compartments, black paper boards...

First edition.

Contemporary Romantic bindings in half green Empire calf, flat spines slightly faded, richly gilt with Romantic decorative motifs, marbled paper-covered boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns; Romantic period bindings.

A few light spots of foxing; a discolouration mark on a blank endpaper of the first volume.

First edition, complete with the large folding map — often missing — and the facsimile in Arabic. Copy originally issued in plain temporary wrappers, therefore without the printed covers, as specified by the publisher’s sale notice.
Contemporary green half sheep binding. Smooth spine decorated with three gilt tools and fillets. Rubbing; hinges of volume 1 mostly cracked along the upper joint with some small losses. Internally very fresh. Untrimmed copy bound as issued in quires.

The supporting documents occupy pages 217 to 370 of volume 3.

Autograph note by François René de Chateaubriand, 12 lines in black ink on a bifolium, addressed to Madame Amédée de Duras, rejoicing in her improved health.
A tear with loss, due to the seal having been broken to facilitate reading the note.
"Mde de CH[ateaubriand]. me dit de vous répondre: si je meurs, madame, ce sera à vos pieds le matin. Non pas à midi, mais à trois heures et demie. Je me porte à merveille chez ma soeur. Que cela ne soit pas vous, mais mde de Lévis qui m'ait vu perdre ma longue barbe er mon mouchoir turc. Ne venez pas, vous ne devriez pas venir. Mde de Ch[ateaubriand] est inconsolable... "

Rare and sought-after first edition, first issue, with exceptionally added plates from the first illustrated edition, published that same year. 34 full-page engravings after Demoraine, Gagnier, Staal and engraved by F. Delannoy.

Includes the subscribers’ list and the foreword, which will be removed for the second issue when the remainder of this edition was bought by another publisher, Dion-Lambert. It also features the pagination error in volume two: page 164 instead of 364.

With a scribal letter...

| "the time for planting has come" |
Autograph letter signed by François-René de Chateaubriand, dated March 14, 1827. 3 1/2 pages in black ink on a bifolium, addressed to Michel-Augustin Varcollier.

Chateaubriand writes to the husband of his goddaughter, Atala Stamaty-Varcollier, the first to bear the name of the heroine of his famous novel that propelled him onto the literary scene in 1801. Head of the Fine Arts Division of the Seine Prefecture, Michel-Augustin Varcollier acted as Chateaubriand's intermediary in the development of the grounds of l'Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse, his wife Céleste's grand project to house...

"Je me suis fait Monsieur, une loi de ne rien changer au texte...

First collected edition of the works of François-René de Chateaubriand, issued in parts between 1826 and 1831 and here gathered in 32 volumes. Partly a first edition, the series includes the first appearances of Les Natchez, Le Dernier Abencérage, Voyage en Amérique and Moïse. Each volume is illustrated with a wood-engraved frontispiece by Charles Thompson, the English engraver established in Paris from 1816, showing a young woman seated beside a stone inscribed

First collected edition, partly original, by far the most important and most sought-after (cf. Clouzot), with Chateaubriand having revised and reworked a large part of his writings.
This set also contains in first edition several texts including Les Natchez, Le Dernier Abencérage, Le Voyage en Amérique, and Moïse (placed at the end of vol. XXII and often lacking).

Each volume illustrated with a frontispiece...

First edition.
Copy in its original wrappers with printed title labels at head of spines.
Some discreet restorations to spines and wrappers' edges.
Occasional foxing.

Autograph letter signed by François-René de Chateaubriand to Ferdinand Denois, written in Rome and dated 11 August 1829, 2 pages and two lines in black ink on a bifolium. A tear caused by the opening of the letter on the blank portion of the final leaf, not affecting text.

"I must also, Sir, thank you once again: my poor friend La Ferronays [the Minister of Foreign Affairs Auguste Ferron de La Ferronnays was to resign two weeks later due to poor health] has written to me that all his ailments have returned, that he feels unwell two or three times a day, and that he cannot consider returning to public affairs, etc. I believe that the interim will...

Exceptional printed invitation with several manuscript additions in black ink, notably the date and the names of the illustrious recipients: "Madame Récamier, par Monsieur de Chateaubriand." (Madame Récamier, through Monsieur de Chateaubriand)

Usual traces of folding, some lack of paper to left margin, paper slightly creased at lower right, minor spotting.

The leaf bears a signature, possibly painter Charles Thévenin's, suggesting he may have overseen the issuing of...