CHASTELLUX (François-Jean de).Voyages... dans l'Amérique sep - Lot 15

CHASTELLUX (François-Jean de).Voyages... dans l'Amérique septentrionale Dans les années 1780, 1781 & 1782. Paris: Prault, 1786. - 2 volumes in-8, 195 x 120 : 8, 390 pp, (1 blank f.), 1 map ; (2 ff.), 362 pp, (1 f.), 1 map, 3 plates. Half-brown basane, smooth spine decorated with a repeated gilt iron representing a bonnet on a pike, decorated with a flower, yellow edges (period binding).Second official edition, bringing together the complete account of the travels of the Marquis de Chastellux (1734-1788), military officer, literary scholar and economist, member of the Académie française. His work, the fruit of close observation of the nascent United States, had initially circulated in two forms: a partial, private edition intended for the author in 1781, followed by a pirate edition in 1785. It was not until 1786 that the text was officially published in its entirety, offering the public an authentic and definitive version of this account of 18th-century America (Sabin, vol. III, no. 12227). "Chastellux's account is highly varied, traveling in all seasons around the battlefields of the dying Revolutionary War, accompanied by noble French lords or American generals; he describes landscapes barely dented by the axe, Indians already proletarianized near settlers' villages - at least in the northeastern states he visits - ice-covered rivers crossed by sledges, isolated inns with often mediocre meals. He observed the United States as a work in progress, marked by war, a society on the move, where children and women were already freer than in Europe. He frequently encounters the founding fathers: G. Washington, whose greatness and simplicity he admires, Madison, whose culture he praises, Jefferson in his native Virginia; he is a mild critic of La Fayette. What is striking in these accounts [...] is their warmth for the Americans, for their national struggle, for the values they defend" (Jacques Portes, Revue française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer, t. 69, 1982, p. 179). The edition is illustrated with 2 maps and 3 fold-out plates. A very fine, well-preserved copy. Antique label from a private library at the top of the spines.