96. [HOOK (Theodore). Carnet d'un voyageur, ou Recueil de notes curieuses sur la vie, les occupations, les habitudes de Buonaparte à Longwood. [Title on the cover:] Buonaparte à Sainte-Hélène [Paris], chez Pillet aîné, 1819. In-8, (8)-119-(1 blank) pp. paperback, cover worn, frayed, stained and without spine, volume placed in a slightly worn antique long-grained garnet morocco case. 3 plates out of text engraved with aquatint and hand-coloured: 2 views of the old building of Longwood, one view of the new one, all taken on the spot by the author. ON ONE OF HIS PLATES IS NAPOLEON I. A PICTURE AND VIGNETTE IN THE TONE OF MOCKERY DEVOTED TO THE ISLAND OF SAINTE-HELENE AND ITS PRISONERS BY AN ENGLISH WITNESS. Theodore Hook, Paymaster of Mauritius, was sent back to England on charges of embezzlement. Stopping over in St Helena in October-November 1818, he took notes from which he wrote an irreverent book, often humorous, sometimes crude, based on his own observations but also on the gossip and rumours circulating on the island (it is him who made the countess Bertrand say a famous trashy word when she arrived in St Helena) This propaganda book, which ridicules the French colony, was published in 1819 under the title Facts, illustrative of the treatment of Napoleon Buonaparte in Saint Helena. Being the result of minute inquiries and personal research in that Island (London, printed for William Stockdale). The present work published in French by the bookseller Pierre-Augustin-Jacques-François Pillet is in fact a translation of the travel notes taken by Theodore Hook, and not a translation of the 1819 book, as the publisher's preface specifies: "The curious notes of which I here offer a collection have already been used in the writing of a work which has been published for the last two months in England. As this work seemed to me to be composed with a political intention, I thought that its translation into French would be less pleasant than the publication of the materials as they were collected by the traveller. Arranged in short chapters, the notes of this Caernet evoke the old and new building of Longwood, the habits of the emperor, his companions in exile, but also some of the official personalities of the island (Ibbetson, O'Meara), the residence of Hudson Lowe (Plantation House), the English colonists (who nicknamed Napoleon Bonaparte "Bony"), the foreign commissioners... The three plates illustrating the volume were engraved using those of the London edition as models, with slight variations: for example, the French version of the first plate no longer includes the female character who was at the emperor's side in the English version. NAPOLEON I'S EXAMPLE AT SAINTE-HELENE (bookplate from the Longwood library, with a bookplate in the hand of Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis: "L'empereur Napoléon"). An inveterate reader, Napoleon I took great care to build up a library at Longwood, which he composed of several groups of works. After Waterloo, he was able to take into exile an initial core of around 500 volumes taken from the Château de Rambouillet, which was supplemented on St Helena by purchases made in London on his behalf by Napoleon I (around 280 volumes), by gifts from the famous Lady Holland (around 470 volumes), by books brought by the Abbé Buonavita (around 100 volumes), and by consignments from the English Government (around 1900 volumes). All these books from St. Helena formed a library of about 3,400 volumes in total, which was entrusted to the care of Louis-Étienne Saint-Denis, known as the Mamluk Ali. On the death of the emperor, about 400 volumes were sent to Madame Mère to be passed on to the Duke of Reichstadt (which was not allowed by the Austrians, the books being subsequently divided in 1836 among the heirs of Letizia Bonaparte), the other volumes being sold partly at auction at Sotheby's in 1823, and partly to the booksellers Bossange and Masson. See Jacques Jourquin, "La bibliothèque de Sainte-Hélène", in Sainte-Hélène, île de mémoire (Chevallier, Dancoisne-Martineau et Lentz, dir.), Fayard, 2005, pp. 121-125, Jacques Macé, Dictionnaire historique de Sainte-Hélène, Paris, Tallandier, 2004, pp. 136-139.
We use cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience, perform site traffic analysis, and deliver content and advertisements most relevant to your interests.
Cookie management:
By allowing these cookies, you agree to the deposit, reading and use of tracking technologies necessary for their proper functioning. Read more about our privacy policy.