Memorial De Sainte Helene, Count De Las Cases 1823. These are two volumes about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte when he was in exile on St. Helena.The books are titled “Memorial De Sainte Helene - Journal Of the Private Life And Conversations Of The Emperor Napoleon At Saint Helena, By The Comte De Las Cases”, published in Boston by Welles and Lilly, Court-Street in 1823. They part of a four-volume set that is hard to come by and gives you insight into the life of Napoleon while he spent his last days isolated and away from the affairs of Europe, and it is necessary to understand the role of the Comte De Las Cases in all this. Emmanuel-Augustin-Dieudonné-Joseph, comte de Las Cases (1766 - 1842) was a French atlas-maker and author, famed for his admiring book about Napoleon, Le Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène ("The Memorial of Saint Helena"). Las Cases went into exile at the outbreak of the French Revolution and published an important historical and geographical atlas in 1803, which catapulted him from poverty to riches, and he was able to return to France after the Treaty of Amiens, which marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars. Las Cases sided with the royalists and supported Napoleon, and after Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, it was Las Cases who first proposed and strongly urged the emperor to throw himself on the mercy of the British nation. Las Cases made overtures to Captain Maitland of HMS Bellerophon to let Napoleon go into exile at St. Helena; Napoleon rebuffed the idea, then came around to it because he had no other choice - the British forced him to go to St. Helena: the island was so remote, they wouldn’t take him anywhere else, and that prevented Napoleon from returning to France and starting another continental war. Las Cases accompanied the ex-emperor to Saint Helena and acted as his secretary, taking down detailed notes of Napoleon’s conversations, which thereafter became the famous Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène, but the book should be read today with great caution, because Las Cases did not hesitate to insert his own thoughts and to colour the expressions of his master. In some cases, he misstated facts and even fabricated documents; pages corrected in the hand of Napoleon are in the Wisbech & Fenland Museum in Wisbech, England. Las Cases tried to leave the island when he had accumulated enough literary material, but he infringed on British regulations in such a way that he was actually expelled by the British governor in 1816. The comte took up residence in Brussels, and after the death of Napoleon, he was allowed to go to Paris and take up residence there, where he published the Mémorial and made a fortune from it. Both books have gilt titles and gilt decorations on the splne, and the titles read “Cases’ Journal” on the spines, gilt fans and flower borders on the covers, gilt dentelles and the bookplate of Richard Tylden Auchmuty on marbled endpapers, a fold-out frontispiece titled Plan of the Grounds of Longwood, which was Napoleon’s residence on St. Helena till he died, the title page, a two-page Preface, three pages of Contents to the First Part of The First Volume, followed by 198 pages of text and a six-page Index to the First Part, then the Second Part of the First Volume, which is made up of three pages of Contents and another 186 pages of text and a five-page Index to the Second Part of the First Volume. The second volume has a large fold-out map of the campaign of Italy dictated by Napoleon to the Count Las Cases at the front, followed by a frontispiece engraving of the Home in which Napoleon was born at Ajjacio, in Corsica, the title page, the Contents to the Third Part, 185 pages of text and a six-page Index to the Third Part, then the Fourth Part, which is made up of two pages of Contents, 157 pages of text, and a six-page Index, all the edges are gilt, and both volumes are an early American edition of the this title. Richard Tylden Auchmuty (1831 - 1893) was a Union officer in the American Civil War, an architect, and philanthropist. His designed buildings in New York and Massachusetts, including St. Mary's Episcopal Church on Classon Avenue in Brooklyn and Trinity Episcopal Church in Lenox, Massachusetts, both of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His grandfather signed the Declaration of Independence, and Auchmuty served in the Fifth Corps and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel, and a letter he wrote said he served at Gettysburg. The books are 8vo. and measure 9 x 5 3/4 in. wide, with faded spines, browning, foxing and occasional offset, the bindings are tight, with one loose page in the first part of the first volume (page 72), the Longwood frontispiece has some wear, and the two volumes are still scarce and provide a great resource and contemporaneous first-hand account of Napoleon’s last years in exile. #173 #1559