Lot 08234

THIERS Adolphe, “HISTOIRE de la RÉVOLUTION FRANÇAISE / Treizième Edition”, FURNE et Cie, Paris : 1846-1847. COMPLETE, in 10 Volumes, in 8vo, pp. xxxiii,[2],391 + [6],469 + [6],389 + [6],405 + [6],411 + [6],395 + [6],391 + [6],437 + [6],427 + [6],538,[2]. Each volume with a frontispiece and a total of 44 engravings by Raffet, Burdet, Geoffroy, Hopwood, Lefevre et. al.

Ad. Thiers was a French statesman and historian, who elected the second President of France and first President of the French Third Republic. He was just one example of 19th century French writers who also had prominent political careers, like Victor Hugo, Alphonse de Lamartine, and Alexis de Tocqueville. “History of the French Revolution” was his first major literary work (ten-volume), along with and his twenty-volume history of the following period, the “Consulate and Empire of Napoleon I”. Both works were filled with Thiers personal opinions and judgments, but also benefited from his personal access to many of the participants.

This first work, on the French Revolution, first published between 1823 and 1827, was highly praised by French critics. It was the first major history in French of the Revolution and won Thiers a seat as the second-youngest elected member of the Académie Françoise, and in addition was a major commercial success. It condemned the violence of the Terror and the most radical leaders, including Marat, Robespierre, and Saint-Just, and glorified the ideals and the more moderate leaders of the French Revolution, including Mirabeau, Bailly and Lafayette, though at the time the book was published France was still a monarchy, and the singing of the Marseillaise was still forbidden.

Binding of the period, half red leather, spine with raised bands and golden title and numbering, marbled carton boards; slight external rubbing and bumping; only on Vols 1 & 2 with cracked lower spine parts. Marbled endpapers, with coloured ex libris label. Despite scattered foxing and spotting, internal pages are clean and tight. Good copy overall.