de Balzac, Honore [Czar Alexander II]Biblio.com
La Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin. The Last Incarnation of Vautrin.
1848ref. 145572Paris: Chez Louis Chlendowski 1848. Finely bound edition of the final volume of 'La Comédie Humaine' from the library of Czar Alexander II of Russia. Octavo three volumes bound in half crushed morocco over marbled boards with gilt titles and ruling to the spines in five compartments. In very condition with some rubbing to the spines and bookplates to the front pastedown of each volume royal bookplate 'A.H.' to the pastedown of each volume loss to the spine of volume I with Russian lettering exposed underneath. From the library of Emperor of Russia King of Congress Poland and Grand Duke of Finland ÐлекÑаÌндр II ÐиколаÌевич or Alexander II. Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was the emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861 for which he earned the title Alexander the Liberator. Other reforms of his included reorganizing the judicial system setting up elected local judges abolishing corporal punishment promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system imposing universal military service removing some privileges of the nobility and promoting university education. He was also unique in his foreign policy mainly his pacifism his support of the United States and his opposition of Great Britain; Alexander backed the Union during the American Civil War and sent warships to New York Harbor and San Francisco Bay to deter attacks by the Confederate Navy and sold Alaska to the United States in 1867 fearing the remote colony would fall into British hands if there were another war. The Tsar's assassination by revolutionaries in 1881 triggered the major suppression of civil liberties in Russia and the return of police brutality. His plans for a parliamentary body and constitution were then also abandoned by his son Alexander III. Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright considered one of the founders of realism in European literature. Full of personality and humanity Balzac imbued life into all of the characters and settings in his writing. His magnum opus 'La Comédie Humaine' a vast series of interconnected novels presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life. The character whose name appears in the title of this work 'Vautrin' whose real name is Jacques Collin appears in several novels of 'La Comédie humaine' inspired by the historical character of Eugène-François Vidocq a former criminal who later became chief of the Paris police. In prison Collin earns the nickname 'Trompe-la-Mort' 'Cheats Death' creating a life as 'Vautrin' after his escape. Although he was a supporter of the Crown Balzac paints the revolutionaries of the 'Comédie' series in a sympathetic light - even though they are the center of the book's most brutal scenes. This was the first book Balzac released under his own name and it gave him what one critic called "passage into the Promised Land"establishing him as an author of note and providing him with a name outside his past pseudonyms. Chez Louis Chlendowski hardcover
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