LULLIN DE CHATEAUVIEUX Manuscript from Saint Helena One of t - Lot 231

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Lot n° 231
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800 - 1000 EUR
LULLIN DE CHATEAUVIEUX Manuscript from Saint Helena One of t - Lot 231
LULLIN DE CHATEAUVIEUX Manuscript from Saint Helena One of the handwritten copies 176 handwritten pages (20 blank pages). Bound in half calf. 17 x 11 cm. A.B.E. History: Frédéric Masson on the writings of St. Helena: During Napoleon's exile, a booklet appeared at the bookseller Murray: "Manuscript come from St. Helena in an unknown way". It is impossible to ignore its author. I do not write commentaries," it read on the first page, "because the events of my reign are well known and I am not obliged to feed public opinion. I give the details of these events because my character and intentions can be strangely disfigured, and I want to appear as I was, in the eyes of my son as well as in the eyes of posterity. Such a writing met the universal expectation so well that it seemed made on purpose to satisfy it. In a few days, in London, editions followed one another, although the Manuscript was in French. No one doubted that it was from the Emperor. It was much better when, thanks to diplomatic bags, it had invaded Europe. As it was a rarity, it was snatched up. In Paris, in the royalist salons, at the home of the Duchess of Duras, and at the home of the Duchess of Estissac, it was read aloud to select audiences. The magistracy, which is infallible, solemnly proclaimed it by condemning to destruction the European Censor where Comte and Dunoyer had had the audacity to print the Manuscript as a document: correctional court, royal court, court of cassation, the magistracy at all levels took it as faith that the pamphlet was by Buonaparte and that it insulted the king. Some wise people suspected its authenticity, and published articles and pamphlets in response, but these criticisms and invectives, whose disinterestedness the public suspected, only increased its curiosity and passion for a book so violently attacked. The clandestine editions printed in Belgium, and wherever a press and type were secretly available, were not sufficient to arouse the general emotion: no book, since very remote times, perhaps since the invention of printing, has been so often copied by hand. "The Manuscript from St. Helena" has become like a gospel, and, as it should be, it is apocryphal. For amusement, during a stay in the country, a Genevan who had letters and who had followed the events of his time, M. Lullin de Châteauvieux, had amused himself with this pastiche, and, to see the effect, had, in some unknown way, sent it to the publisher Murray. And the bomb went off. "LULLIN DE CHATEAUVIEUX MANUSCRIPT FROM SAINTE-HELENE HANDWRITTEN COPY
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