Mémoires d'Outre-tombe

Eugène & Victor Penaud frères, Paris 1849-1850, 13,7x22,5cm, 12 volumes, half calf binding.
Rare and sought after first edition, first printing.
Half blond calf binding, spines gilt and blind tooled, black Russian morocco title and volume pieces, marbled boards, mould-made paste downs and endpapers.
This copy is complete with the "avertissement" to the reader and the list of subscribers, removed from most copies after transferring the rights to publisher Dion-Lambert.
Some foxing throughout the entire set, sometimes more pronounced to a few leaves; a few discrete restorations on the bindings, skilfully restored margins on pages 335-336 (vol. 5).
32 illustrations by Staal and Moraine (Clouzot mentions only 30) exceptionally added to this copy.
An autograph letter by Chateaubriand to the Duchess Amédée de Duras mounted at the head of the first volume. 7 lines on one leaf, trace of wax stamp and autograph address on the back.
"I wanted to go yesterday evening to your house. Mrs. de Ch.[ateaubriand] was ill and had to stay. Do we know anything about the unfortunate young man? I beg you for a word. I am leaving in the morning at eleven o'clock for the Valley with the Giant (?); I would like it to be with you. Thursday 9 a.m." "J'ai voulu aller hier au soir chez vous. Mme de Ch. s'est touvée mal il a fallu rester. Sait-on quelque chose du malheureux jeune homme ? Un mot je vous en supplie. Je pars le matin à onze heures pour la Vallée avec le Géant (?) ; je voudrais bien que ce fut avec vous. Jeudi 9 heures du matin"
Chateaubriand writes to Claire de Duras, one of the most important women in his life. Only daughter of the Girondin Count of Kersaint, she was a cousin by marriage of Chateaubriand's mistress Natalie de Noailles. Confidante and soon rival of Madame Récamier, Chateaubriand's great love, Claire de Duras was the most faithful of his admirers and fell under his spell from their first meeting at the Château de Méréville in April 1808. The physically unprepossessing Duchess was quickly spurned by the writer who was then still under Madame de Noailles' influence. Nevertheless, she concluded a friendly agreement with him and was an attentive sister for years, holding the privilege of being first reader of many of his works, notably Les Aventures du Dernier Abencérage [The Last of the Abencerrajes], inspired by his love affair with the Countess of Noailles. For her part, the Duchess managed to cope with this unrequited love despite her consuming passion for Chateaubriand, who was the subject of her best-selling novel Ourika, about the tragic and impossible love of a young African woman for a Frenchman.
Rare first printing copy with an autograph letter by the author, and a complete set of engravings of one of the most important texts of 19th-century French literature, set in elegant contemporary bindings.