Description

FIRST EDITION of this history of the French Revolution written from 1842 onwards, when Lamartine was devoting most of his time to politics (a 2nd edition illustrated by Auguste Raffet appeared a few weeks later).

The author hoped to fashion a new "revolutionary morality"on the eve of the 1848 Revolution. L'History of the Girondins was one of the biggest bestsellers of the nineteenth century. From the 1860s onwards, however, Lamartine's 'romantic' historiography was severely criticised.

Alain Duhamel wrote in the preface to the 2014 reprint:

This is a monster of a book, a Niagara of motley materials: dreams, torments, idylls, massacres; the joyous processions of festivals, the sombre processions of the scaffold; storms and bonaces; the broad daylight of the galleries and the shadows of the dungeons; a host of unlikely jobs, remorseful jailers, pure-hearted murderers, true prophets and false oracles. You'll come away dazed, having seen the images in this gigantic kaleidoscope, staggering under the onslaught of contradictory emotions, sorrow mixed with pity. An unclassifiable book. A novel? A poet's? Historian?

An astonishing copy, beautifully bound in 16 volumes. - The work consists of 8 volumes - with a subtitle marked "A" or "B" for each volume. Unique binding probably made for a reading cabinet.

Numerous notes in pencil.

Vicaire, IV, 985