Five Books about the Bonapartes, 1800’s. This lot consists of two books about Lucien Bonaparte, two books about Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, and one volume about Napoleon himself and his connection to the French people under his empire. Lucien Bonaparte (1775 - 1840) was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, and as president of the Council of Five Hundred, he was one of the participants of the Coup of 18 Brumaire that ended the French Revolution and brought Napoleon to power in France. In time, he came to oppose many of Napoleon's ideas, but after Napoleon's return to France from exile on Elba, Lucien rallied to his brother's cause, and they joined forces once again during Napoleon's brief return to power. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808 - 1873), also called Napoleon III, was a nephew of Napoleon I and the first President of France from 1848 to 1852; he was elected to the Presidency in 1848 and seized power in 1851 because he could not be reelected constitutionally. He remained as the last monarch of France from 1852 until he was deposed in 1870; he reigned until the defeat of the French Army and his capture by Prussia and its allies at the Battle of Sedan in 1870; after he was released from German custody, he went into exile in England, where he died in 1873. Louis, aka Napoleon III, was a popular monarch who oversaw the modernization of the French economy and expanded the French empire overseas. He aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and around the world, so he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War (1853 - 1856). The title page of the books about Lucien Bonaparte reads “Memoirs Of the Private and Political Life Of Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Of Canino. Translated from The French. In Two Volumes. London: Printed For Henry Colburn, Public Library, Conduit Street, Hanover Square, 1818.” and they are probably first editions in English, especially because of the Errata listed in both volumes. Volume I has a frontis portrait of Lucien Bonaparte, the title page, a two-page Advertisement, twelve pages of a General Table of Contents (v - xvi) with Errata listed at the bottom of page xvi, then an eleven-page Introduction (i - xi), and the text runs from page 15 to 264, with footnotes. Volume II has 290 pages of text and Erratum at the bottom of page 290, and two pages about the Important Works Just Published by Henry Colburn at the rear, and Lucien Bonaparte is spelled “Buonaparte” on the first page of the text in the second volume. The two books about Louis Napoleon Bonaparte are titled “The Political and Historical Works Of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the French Republic. Now First Collected With An Original Memoir Of His Life, Brought Down To The Promulgation Of The Constitution Of 1852; And Occasional Notes. In Two Volumes. London: Published At The Office Of The Illustrated London Library, 227, Strand. MCCCCLII” [1852] Volume I has a frontis portrait of Louis Napoleon, here called Napoleon III, the title page, then a two-page Advertisement, one page of Contents, 389 pages of text, and a chapter called “Historical Fragments, the Revolutions of 1688 & 1830”, for a total of 462 pages of text in this volume, and Volume II has no frontis portrait, but one page of Contents and 439 pages of text. The last book is called “Napoleon and the French People Under His Empire, by the Author of Bonaparte and The French People Under His Consulate, from the German, London: Printed For Tipper and Richards, Leadenhall-Street, by Dewick and Clarke, Aldersgate-street. 1806”, and it is a first English edition. The author was Gustav Graf von Schlabrendorf, but he remained anonymous because he was born in Prussia, lived in France and backed the French Revolution, and his work was openly critical of Napoleon, and somehow he escaped the Revolution with his life. He was considered quirky and eccentric, but he wrote the book mainly for German expatriates, and it’s possible French censors didn’t take him seriously or that he wrote the book in German, which helped the book get past the French censors, or he might not have survived. The book has a 28-page Preface (iii - xxx), a Contents page, 197 pages of text, followed by three Appendices that run from 198 to page 421, with a leaf that mentions Books Printed for Tipper and Richard at the end, and the book is rare in any format. According to an old bibliography, “the work has only two listings in London, the British Library doesn't have a printed copy, while the Library of London does. Also seven copies appear when checking through Copac, but five are for the slightly earlier work "Bonaparte, and the French People Under His Consulate" printed in America in 1804 and it confuses the 2 titles”. We found one copy at the British Library now, and no other listings on WorldCat. All the books are 3/4 bound, with gilt titles on black or black and maroon labels and gilt devices on the spines, marbled endpapers, marbled boards, all the edges are marbled, and all the books are inscribed “Andrews” near the front of each book, except for von Schlabrendorf’s book about Napoleon and the French People under his Empire. All the books are 8vo. and measure 8 5/8 x 5 5/8 in. wide, the bindings are tight and the pages are very clean for the first two sets of books, with a couple of light brown spots on the title page and on some pages at the rear and some spots on pages 144 to 155 in the second volume of the Lucien Bonaparte books, scattered light brown spots in the von Schlabrendorf book, occasional offset, light rubbing at the crown and heel of a couple of the books and mild rubbing along the spines and at the tips, a couple of tips are slightly curled in, and still an attractive and hard-to-find set of books about Napoleon and his royal relatives from the 1800’s. #180 #1539