Memoires d'une Contemporaine ou Souvenirs d'une Femme sur les Principaux Personnages de la Republique du Consulat, de l'Empire, etc.; 8-Vol. Set, Complete

Brussels: P J Voglet and H Tarlier, 1829. Fifth Edition. Hardcover. Fair/None. Scarce. Gray-some with pink and yellow-marbled boards, toned with age, quarter brown leather with gilt titling and deco to spine, 32mo., corners bumped and edgewear. Blue stippled page edges. Spines of 2, 3, 6, 7 are distinct and fine; the others are sunned and cracked, with more chips to spine ends; the spines have started on top of 1 and bottom of 3. Vol. 3, pg. 10 stuck and incurred 1/4 in. closed tear at inner margin. Bindings are sound and interiors clean and unmarked. 4 and 8 have moderate foxing first few pages. Vol. 2 publisher, H Tarlier, though it is exactly the same format. NOT a reprint or print-on-demand. Not ex-library. This is an original. Overall, quite readable and nice once you get past the shabby board edges, though the marbling is lovely. These writings are 'more confessions than memoir,' explains the adventuresome St-Elme, a.k.a. Maria Johanna Elselina Versfelt and Elzelina av Aylde Jonghe, or by her pseudonym La Contemporaine. St-Elme was a Dutch writer and stage actress who lived a wild life, (1776-1845). She married a merchant but was known for her love affairs, particularly overlapping, long term affairs with two generals. After the French Conquest in 1795, she left the Netherlands to follow her lovers in their military campaigns across Europe. She worked as an actress in traveling theatres in France and Italy, and in 1827, published these memoirs, which made her famous. Ships from US. Elzelina av Aylde Jonghe; Maria Johanna Elselina Versfelt