ARAGO, Jacques

Narrative of a Voyage Round the World...

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Treuttel and Wurtz, London, 1823. Two parts in one volume, quarto, with a folding map as frontispiece and 25 engraved plates from original drawings by Arago; a few spots, but a very good copy in period-style full morocco, elegantly gilt to spine. The first edition in English of this private narrative of the 1817-1820 Freycinet expedition to Australia and the Pacific - in fact the first appearance in English of any account of the voyage. The huge multi-volume official account of the voyage was far more serious and scientific in tone, while Arago's book in this and many subsequent editions became one of the voyage best-sellers of the nineteenth century. Included in this English edition is the important official report to the French Academy of Sciences on the collections made in the course of the expedition: this was not included in the French edition published in Paris the previous year.

Arago was the official artist on the voyage, and the lithograph plates here are all after his own drawings. He was a particularly sensitive interpreter of the native peoples encountered by the expedition, and writes in an entertaining style with his text reflecting his keen powers of observation. Throughout, he entirely avoids the conventional forms of the voyage narrative, ignoring the 'eternal repetition of winds, currents, longitude and latitude'. Long portions relate to Australia, firstly the visit to Western Australia and later descriptions of Sydney, the Blue Mountains, and meetings with Governor Macquarie and John Oxley. Arago's work provides an independent account of the time spent in Australian waters, with an excellent summary of life in Sydney and colonial society at the close of the Macquarie era. The French were entertained handsomely by the governor and other members of the local aristocracy, with expeditions to the country estates of the Macarthurs, the Oxleys and the Kings being the order of the day.

The expedition visited Hawaii in August 1819, at a crucial period in the history of the islands, visiting Maui, Hawaii and Oahu. Theirs was 'the last careful examination of the native culture, even as it was being dismantled by the abolition of the kapu system and less than a year prior to the arrival of the first American missionaries' (Forbes).
Davidson, 'A Book Collector's Notes', pp. 112-2; Hill, 29; Judd, 4.

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• Commande nro.: 602_402

• libraire: Hordern House (AUSTRALIA)