This book is titled "Ode To Napoleon Buonaparte", written by Lord Byron and published by John Murray in London in 1815, and it's the Eleventh edition of this historically based poetry. The book focuses on Napoleon's tarnished image towards the end of his days in power, and it was published just a few days after Byron received the shocking news that Napoleon had abdicated. The book is in gray-green boards, with gilt lettering on the spine that reads "Napoleon Buonaparte - Lord Byron 1815", it has blank endpapers with a bookseller's sticker at the top of the front paste-down - the bookseller was in Rome - and "1st ed: 1814" in pencil on the front flyleaf, the half-title "Ode, &c. Entered at Stationers' Hall", then the printer's information (the book was printed by T. Davison, Lombard-street at Whitefriars in London), the title page, one leaf from Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the text ends at page 17, followed by one page of books about Byron published by T. Davison and twenty-nine pages of blank endpapers at the rear, including the paste-down at the end. The first edition was published on 1814 and it predated Waterloo, and Byron actually liked Napoleon. He never met the emperor, but like Beethoven, both thought Napoleon was a genius. The book is a thin 8vo. and measures 8 3/8 x 5 1/4 in. wide and is in very good condition. The binding is tight, the pages are very clean, with light offset on the front flyleaf from the bookseller's sticker on the opposite page, a couple of tiny brown spots in the margins, a mark at the bottom of the publisher's page at the rear, pencilled notes on the rear paste-down, and a very attractive book of this elusive title. Of all the pamphlet-poems published by John Murray in octavo size, the "Ode to Napoleon" is by far the rarest. It is now almost impossible to find a copy in the original printed paper wrapper, and the rare book website we use only has one copy of the eleventh edition offered for sale. Christie's sold a first edition for over $1000 in 2001, even with the half-title missing, and this edition is complete. #107 #1632