Mémoires du comte Horace de Viel Castel sous le règne de Napoléon III (1851-1864) publiés d'après le manuscrit original

First edition of this capital work for understanding the Second Empire. Preface by Louis-Antoine Léouzon Le Duc. Volume 1 is in second edition. A frontispiece portrait in lithography.

Copy with the cipher at foot of the Duke of Massa, Jean Louis Napoléon Régnier Duke of Massa (1875-1946). His cipher is JRM crowned and surmounted by an eagle.
Contemporary half chocolate shagreen bindings, spines with five raised bands decorated with various ornamental tools, including a mask, a ship... Rubbing to spines. 5 corners slightly bumped. One tear to the third volume in the last compartment. The Duke's usual binder was Affolter, but no binding is signed. Original wrappers preserved.
These memoirs were partly seized and destroyed at the request of the author's family; they form, in the manner of a chronicle, year by year, day by day, a major source for knowledge of Second Empire society. His writing breaks brutally with the style of classical memoirists, using short and incisive sentences.