44. CHATEAUBRIAND (François-René de). Memoirs,... - Lot 44 - Osenat

Lot 44
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44. CHATEAUBRIAND (François-René de). Memoirs,... - Lot 44 - Osenat
44. CHATEAUBRIAND (François-René de). Memoirs, letters and authentic documents concerning the life and death of H.R.H. Monseigneur Charles-Ferdinand d'Artois, son of France, Duke of Berry. In Paris, by Le Normant, 1820. In-8, (4)-ii-299-(1 blank) pp, green morocco, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and motifs with the mention "DE LA ROULIERE" gilt on the tail, boards framed with a gilt floral frieze with fleur-de-lis in the corners, gilt edges, spine a little faded with stain on the tail, small scuff restored on the first board (period binding). FIRST EDITION. BRILLIANT COMMAND TEXT WRITTEN SHORTLY AFTER THE ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF BERRY BY A PATRIOT NOURISHED WITH REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS AND ADMIRATE OF NAPOLEON I. Chateaubriand deploys his literary talent in the service of the memory of this prince but also to ardently defend the royalist cause ("legitimacy is the very life of France", p. 286): "these Memoirs [...] will teach those who may be unaware of it, what the Bourbons did at a time when the revolution sought to justify its crimes by slander, in order to make its slander the pretext for its crimes" (p. ii). A LEGITIMISM DESPERATE FOR PROPHETIC ACCENTS: "A generation is rising behind us, impatient of all yokes, enemy of all kings, it dreams of the Republic, and is unfit, by its morals, for republican virtues. It advances, it presses us, it pushes us: soon it will take our place. Buonaparte could have tamed it by crushing it, by sending it to die on the battlefields, by presenting to its ardor the phantom of glory, in order to prevent it from pursuing that of liberty, but we, we have only two things to oppose to the follies of this youth: legitimacy escorted by all its memories, the representative monarchy seated on the foundations of the great property, defended by a vigorous aristocracy, fortified by all the moral and religious powers. Whoever does not see this truth, sees nothing, and runs to the abyss: outside of this truth, everything is theory, chimera, illusion [...]. If all men of probity and talent are finally willing to unite in a monarchical system, they will not only spare France from new misfortunes, but they will save Europe, which is threatened by a great revolution [...]" (pp. 285-286 then 289). Provenance: La Roulière's library (gilt mention on the back cover). Several people bore this name at the time, in the Brossier and Chebrou families.
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