Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$3781.03 + shipping
Description: Quarto, two parts in one, with a folding frontispiece map and 25 lithograph plates, very occasional spotting to plates; modern polished calf, gilt. The first edition in English of this informal narrative of the Freycinet voyage, the great French expedition to Australia and the Pacific commanded by Louis de Freycinet; it is also the first appearance in English of any account of the expedition. Arago was the official artist on the voyage, and the lithograph plates here are all after his own drawings. His narrative is highly readable, not least because he entirely avoids the conventional forms of the voyage narrative, ignoring the "eternal repetition of winds, currents, longitude and lattitude". Full of wry humour, it takes the form of a series of letters to a friend. Long portions relate to Australia, with descriptions of Sydney, the Blue Mountains, and of meetings with Governor Macquarie and John Oxley. There is also a long account (almost 100 pages) of their stay in Hawaii at a crucial period in the history of the islands. Despite the clear evidence of the 'Directions for placing the Plates' present here, there has been some unnecessary confusion about the collation of this book. Ferguson omitted the map from his plate count, while Hill erroneously called for a map and 26 plates. This copy, with the map and 25 plates is complete. .
Seller: Hordern House Rare Books, Surry Hills, NSW, Australia
Price: US$4740.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 2 parts in one volume. 4to., (10 x 8 inches). Folding engraved frontispiece map (strengthened on verso). 25 lithographed plates including two folding (some minor spotting). Modern half brown morocco (extremities a little scuffed). First edition in English, first published in French the previous year. Arago was a draughtsman with cartographer Louis de Freycinet's (1779-1842) scientific expedition to South America from 1817-1820. His is a lively account of their expedition, accompanied by his naturalistic drawings, to Gibraltar, Tenerife and Rio de Janeiro and then on to the Pacific region visiting Hawaii, Maui and Oahu, the Mariana islands, Timor, New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand, Tierra del Fuego, the Malouines, or Falkland Islands, where the "Uranie" was wrecked and the "Physicienne" purchased, then back too Rio de Janeiro and to Le Havre. Arago's narrative focuses on the scenery, people and natural history of the Pacific, in contrast to the complimentary scientific results of the expedition which were published separately by Freycinet as "Voyage autor du Monde " in 1824-1826. Ferguson 885, Forbes 562, Hill 29, Sabin 1865. Catalogued by Kate Hunter.
Seller: Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Price: US$5000.00 + shipping
Description: Quarto, 277 mm x 212 mm. vi, [2], xxvii, [5], 285, [2], 297, [3] pp. plus folding map and twenty-five lithographic plates. 19th century half Russia with marbled boards, spine with slight wear; top edge gilt, other uncut, occasional light offsetting, an excellent copy. Arago was the official artist on Freycinet's voyage (the spine title uses Freycinet's name) and there is an extensive account of his visit to Hawaii, (part 2, pp. 56-154) including six striking lithographs, and a lengthy description of their stay in Australia. Charles Edward Armstrong bookplate. Forbes 562 (See Forbes 537 for the first, French, edition and comments.).
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
Price: US$5500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: [6]+xxvii+[3, Table of Contents and Directions for Placing Plates]+285; [2]+297+[3] pages with folding frontispiece map and 14 lithographed plates (two folding) Part 2: 299 pages with 11 lithographed plates, tables, in-text red line diagram and appendices. Quarto (10 3/4" x 8 1/2") bound in half leather with new spine and original marbled boards. (Ferguson 885; Hill 298; Sabin 1865) First English Edition. Jacques Étienne Victor Arago was a French writer, artist and explorer, author of a Voyage Round the World. Jacques Arago joined Louis de Freycinet as an artist when he left Toulon in 1817 in command of a scientific voyage around the world aboard the corvette Uranie. The expedition returned in 1820 and Arago was the first to publish an account, the Promenade autour du monde, in the form of letters to a friend named Battle, in 1822. An English translation followed in 1823. He continued to expand on his adventures in further editions and in the late 1830s published a much longer version under the title Souvenirs d'un Aveugle (Memoirs of a Blind Man). There are significant differences from the Promenade and the reliability is in doubt. Having been given a challenge many years later by a lady at a social dinner, he then published Voyage autour du monde, sans la lettre A (Voyage around the world, without the letter A), later known as Curieux voyage autour du monde, in 1853, where he tells of his round trip lipogrammatically, that is, without once using the letter "A". the lady replied with a letter without the letter C. "The Uranie, with a crew of 125 men under the command of Captain Louis de Freycinet, entered the Pacific from the West to make scientific observations on geography, magnetism, and meteorology. Arago was the artist of the expedition, which visited Western Australia, Timor, Hawaii, and New South Wales. The original ship was wrecked off the Falkland Islands. Two months later the expedition continued aboard the Physicienne, which stopped for a time at Rio de Janeiro. These letters, written in a lively and witty literary style, provide vivid descriptions of the topography and the inhabitants of the Pacific islands. The book achieved great success." - [Hill, 28 & 29]. The scientific reports were separately published by Freycinet from 1825 to 1844, the most notable of which recorded the measurement of the southern hemisphere. Arago's popular account focuses on the scenery, people and natural history of the Pacific, reflected in the title of the first French edition: Promenade autour du monde. His drawings are among the most realistic expedition illustrations of their time, well outside the classical rendition given to Pacific islanders by Bartolozzi in his interpretation of the drawings of Webber and Hodges on Cook's voyages. Louis de Freycinet had first been to the Pacific with Nicholas Baudin's Australian exploratory expedition of 1800-1803 when he was responsible for its charts and atlases. This 1817 expedition was of his own design, intended for scientific rather than geographic discovery. Sailing east from the Cape of Good Hope in the Uranie, he made for Timor, Micronesia and Hawaii, Australia, and the Malouines (Falkland Islands), where his one ship was wrecked and another was purchased and re-christened Physicienne. Appended are vocabularies for Timor, the Marianas and Carolines, and Hawaii. Condition: Folding lithographed map trimmed with slight loss at right-hand edge. 2 folding plates at foot with short tears to edges, plates foxed and offset, title browned, light water-staining towards end affecting 2 plates. Contemporary half calf rubbed, rebacked, corners repaired else very good.
Seller: The Book Collector, Inc. ABAA, ILAB, Fort Worth, TX, U.S.A.