VERY GOOD
CONDITION
This sale is for a
vintage hardback FIRST LIMITED and NUMBERED EDITION entitled “Napoleon at the Briars,” by Faith Compton Mackenzie (1878-1960).
It was published
by Jonathan Cape Ltd., of London, and is the 1943 FIRST LIMITED EDITION
(stated), which was limited to 1,000 copies for sale – this one is No. 880 of
the 1,000 numbered copies for sale at the time.
Betsy Balcombe was a 15 year old English girl who lived in 1815 at The
Briars, a pretty white cottage on the island of St Helena, with her father, an agent
for the East India Company, along with her mother and sister. In October 1815 Napoléon Bonaparte was exiled
to Saint Helena by the British government. Initially, Napoleon was housed in a
pavilion near 'The Briars.'
Betsy took to Napoleon and he liked her…
Lucia Elizabeth Balcombe Abell (1802−1871) “Betsy Balcombe” was a
friend of Napoleon I during his exile at Saint Helena. The French officers and servants were jealous
of this young English girl, who addressed Napoleon as "Boney",
without being reprimanded by him.
After Napoleon was removed to Longwood House, Balcombe would often
visit him. The European press recognised the relationship between the 47-year-old
Napoleon and the teenage girl and wrote about a love story. In March 1818, the
Balcombes left St. Helena and went back to England. Saint Helena governor Hudson
Lowe disapproved of the friendship between the Balcombes and Napoleon,
suspecting them of smuggling secret messages out of Longwood House.
Napoleon died in his place of exite; Betsy grew up and grew dull. But in these pages Faith Comptom Mackenzie,
using Betsy’s recollections (in 1844 she published a book “Recollections of
Emperor Napoleon”) and the plentiful memoirs of the St Helena exiles, has
brought back the forgotten interlude and restored alike the last happy moments
of Napoleon, and Betsy’s lost childhood.
The book measures 7.75
inches x 5.25 inches and has 62 pages.
The book is in good,
neat condition for its age, with wear and tears, with a little loss to the edge
of the original dust-jacket (neatly price-clipped). There are NO
inscriptions/book-plates and NO other ink or pencil markings in the book (save
the limitation number). The binding is very
good with no loose or missing pages.
A wonderful
vintage FIRST LIMITED EDITION.
COMBINED POSTAGE - ALL BIDDERS: We offer 20% off the total
postage & packing/‘shipping’ for additional items after the cost of the
heaviest book – please wait for a combined invoice.
Please
click on “View Sellers Other Items” towards the top right hand side of this
page for other vintage editions.
Buyer to pay postage
& packing
For
or 1st Class = £3.90
European Union Postage: = 6.95 GB Pounds
USA Postage: Air
Mail (USA) = 13.45 GB
Pounds
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Surface Mail (Anywhere
in the World) = 13.20 GB Pounds
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