Manuscript Transmitted from St. Helena, by an Unknown Channel. Translated from the French.

Tall 8vo., attractive modern binding of marbled paper boards, printed paper label to spine; outer edges untrimmed; new endpapers; pp. [v], 2-146, [ii]; the binding fine; internally very good, cleaner than often found, with just some light spotting and browning, mostly affecting the prelims, and a contemporary ownership inscription in ink to the head of title.

First UK edition in English of these memoirs, reportedly written by the exiled ex-Emperor and smuggled to London for anonymous publication. An early handwritten envelope is also loosely laid in, addressed to ‘le Maire’ (“The Mayor”). 

It has been suggested that the true author was Jacob Frederic Lullin de Chateauvieux (1772–1841), who served in the French Army and later in the General Council. A friend of Germaine de Staël, he was a regular member of the Coppet circle, and became one of the most important Genevan agronomists of the 19th century, as well as being the editor of the English Agriculture series for the Bibliothèque britannique.

Due to the fact that the work was published just two years after Napoleon’s abdication, it was immediately banned in France by Louis XVII. Nonetheless, pirated copies were subsequently circulated by the Bonapardists, and the memoirs caused great sensation throughout Europe.

A fascinating publication, reflecting the intense British and continental interest in Napoleon's fate following his imprisonment on the island in October 1815.  

SKU: 1800184