Souvenirs, impressions, pensées et paysages, pendant un voyage en Orient (1832-1833)

First edition. The half-titles all bear the heading: Oeuvres complètes de Lamartine. A steel portrait at the frontispiece, 2 folding maps of the Mediterranean and Syria.
Bound in slightly later red half-shagreen. Spine with raised bands decorated with cold-stamped roulettes and thick fillets, as well as gilt fillets. Joints of volume 1 cracked at foot over 2cm. Rubbing, notably to the boards. One corner bumped, without loss. Scattered foxing on title pages and margins. On the second volume, trace of pale dampstaining to upper margin throughout. The folding table of Arab tribes is torn along one fold, without loss. Owner's name at foot: M. Troulé.
Remarkable for its description of landscapes and sites, Lamartine's journey is a seminal text in the literature of traveling writers. The work marked Lamartine's beginnings in prose and all his writing is like an intimate diary. Presented in the form of a journal, the work also brings together portraits, notes, poems, dialogues. In his enthusiasm, Lamartine clearly distinguished Lebanon. The book is a vast panorama of the Orient so dear to the Romantics, and even the political vision is not absent from it.