Voyage dans les Etats-Unis de l'Amérique du nord, et dans le haut et le bas Canada

HALL Basil, Captain
Voyage dans les états-Unis de l’Amérique du nord, et dans le haut et le bas Canada
Arthus Bertrand, Paris 1834, in-8 (12,5 x 21,5 cm), (4) xij, 331pp & (4) 351pp., 2 volumes, half Restoration calf
First edition in French with a folding map on thick paper.
Half light brown Restoration calf. Spine with flat bands decorated with two blindtools and a horizontal Romantic tool, thick blindruled and gilt fillets, roulette to foot. Speckled edges. Small spots of discoloration to spine. A very good, very fresh copy.
A British naval officer, Basil Hall was sent on several journeys of discovery, notably in South American and Korea. He undertook this voyage on his own initiative in 1827 and 1828, to see for himself what the young America was like. Despite being a downbeat warning, the narrator presenting a less than glorious image of America, it’s worth noting that Dickens, who made the voyage in 1842, produced a similar portrait of an America that mistrusted Europe and was devoted to a single law and a single God: profit. Includes a number of accounts of the industriousness of America, towns under construction and various landscapes (e.g. Niagara Falls), the author describing each remarkable feature. An interesting account of a voyage by a keen observer.