WEY, Francis. Les Anglais chez eux. Esquisses de moeurs et de voyage. Paris, Giraud, 1854.
Small 8vo. Contemporary green half morocco over pebble-grained cloth, spine with raised bands, ruled and lettered in gilt; pp. [iv], 320 (recte 318); light wear to extremities, internally a little brown-spotted in places only; 1920s Warsaw library stamp to verso of title, with release stamp.
Very rare first edition of this combination of an analysis of the national character of the English with a travelogue full of detailed and sharp observations, written by a French novelist, art critic (the first to write about artistic photography), historian and essayist. Historians of French literature see in this book and details of one trip to England in 1859 as the inspiration for Jules Verne's description of life in London's clubland depicted in Around the World in Eighty Days.
Not in COPAC.
#2088063