Lettres de Benjamin Constant à Madame Récamier

The rare first edition. A manuscript note bound at the beginning of the work states: First edition suppressed by court order, it contains 74 unpublished letters. One can read on a manuscript leaf bound before the title: "Edition seized and destroyed when it was about to be put on sale at the request of Benjamin Constant's sister and the niece and universal legatee of Madame Récamier, Madame Charles Lenormant. Is not in the Bibliothèque Nationale." A second manuscript leaf on Louis Colet has also been bound following the first.
Modern half morocco binding with tan corners signed Alix at the bottom of the pastedown. Jansenist spine with raised bands. Gilt title. Gilt edges. Covers and spine preserved. Uncut copy with full margins.
Very handsome copy.
"Few love letters are as beautiful as those from Benjamin Constant to Mme Récamier". Jean Mistler, in La Revue des deux mondes. Mistler specifies that Lenormant's 1882 edition was much altered whereas Louise Colet's edition is accurate. Introduction and preface by Louise Colet.