Les Natchez: Roman Indien.
1827 · Paris et Londres
by CHATEAUBRIAND, Francois Auguste, Vicomte de.
Paris et Londres: Chez Henri Colburn, 1827. Book. 3 volumes. 8vo, original boards, cloth spines, printed paper labels. A little rubbed at extremities. An attractive set. A rare three decker edition of this popular Indian novel, printed in London. Chateaubriand spent time among the Natchez during his extensive American travels in the 1790's, and his experience provides his frontier romances with more substantive detail than would characterize subsequent examples of the genre. Les Natchez was completed by 1800, but the author relates in the preface how the manuscript of the novel was guarded for many years by a poor English family to whom it had been entrusted when financial hardships forced him to return to France. It was first published in 1826 as volumes 19-20 of the Oeuvres Completes, followed in 1827 by a Brussels edition and this Colburn edition, which according to a note contains restored text. These first three editions are recorded in the NUC by single copies only. The only copy of any edition of this novel to appear in the auction records of the last 30 years is Bradley Martin's copy of the Paris 1826 printing (1990, FF 4200.) Sabin 12257.. (Inventory #: 1069)