[Napoleon]

Napoleon's Memoirs

Edited and translated by Somerset De Chair.

Volume 1: Corsica To Marengo.               Volume 2: Waterloo Campaign.

Collotype reproductions of two portraits. Title page engravings by John Buckland-Wright.

Two volumes bound in one. Tall 4to. Limited edition of 500 copies, of which this is number 341. Cosway style binding by Bayntun-Riviere in full crimson morocco, two line gilt border with decorative tooling and Napoleonic emblems at each corner, enclosing an original portrait miniature of Napoleon on the upper cover after David's 1812 painting, "Napoleon In His Study", spine lettered in gilt with two line panels, corner tools, emblematic centres and tooled bands, endleaves of cream watered silk, top edge gilt, others uncut. Original map endpapers drawn by the editor are bound in at the end. Contained within a custom made red cloth dropover box. Stock no. 3124.
London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1945.

A fine edition designed by Christopher Sandford, printed in Perpetua type on mould-made paper at the Chiswick Press.

Napoleon's memoirs were dictated during his six year exile on St Helena. The first English translation was published in 1823 and is described by De Chair in his introduction as "a curious assortment of papers", haphazardly compiled by Gourgaud and de Montholon. As editor of this new edition De Chair has presented the self-portrait "scientifically cleaned and hung in a good light." "I have...removed the irrelevant asides, left out what bored me, and arranged the narrative in its proper sequence." He has also translated Napoleon's memoirs of the Waterloo campaign, first published anonymously in 1820, as a companion volume.