Notes of the Duchess of Abrantes, or historical recollections of Napoleon, the revolution, the directory, the ...

Notes of the Duchess of Abrantes, or historical recollections of Napoleon, the revolution, the directory, the Consulate, the Empire, and the restoration of the Bourbons. Volume 7.
Translated from the French by Xenophon Polevoy.

M. in the printing house of August Semyon, at the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy. 1836 363, VIII p. Solid leather binding, size: 13 x 21.5 cm. Good condition, scuffed binding, spots. T

"One of the most extraordinary personalities of that time was Laura Junot, Duchess of d'abrantes, who died in 1838. This lady (nee Permon) was well acquainted with the Bonapartes from an early age. Note, for example, that Napoleon's father Carlo Bonaparte died in the Permons ' house, and Napoleon himself, after arriving in Paris, often visited the Permons (it is even believed that he was in love with Laura's mother).

Laura married General Junot and had four children with him.

Napoleon, as First Consul, at one time paid Laura unequivocal attentions. 

After the tragic death of General Junot and the fall of the Empire, Laura d'abrantes was left alone with four children in her arms. In addition, she had debts of almost one and a half million francs. The ruined widow had to sell all her jewelry, furniture, and wine cellar.

In these conditions, she lived until her acquaintance with Honore de Balzac, who only dreamed of a career as a writer. The Duchess d'abrantes was in her forties, but she was still beautiful and attractive, and from her former greatness she had managed to preserve a noble bearing and a fine knowledge of the world.

Balzac was charmed. Acquaintance with the Duchess, even if she were a Duchess of the Empire, flattered his vanity. Of course, Laura d'abrantes knew Napoleon himself! She lived at court, knew every corner of the Tuileries. She watched world history from both the back stairs and the alcove. And she had a lot of interesting and very useful acquaintances.

Lively, inquisitive and well-read Balzac also did not leave the Duchess indifferent. She immediately realized that he was a talented writer who was forced by fate to do some nonsense in order to earn money, which he really needed. But if he writes under a false name for someone else, why not for her and under her name? And then the Duchess came up with a brilliant idea, as it seemed to her.

Here is what the author of a book about the elegant life of Paris, Anna Martin-Fugier, writes about this:

"The Duchess d'abrantes played an important role at the court of the Emperor, but by the time she met Balzac, she was ruined and became simply the widow of Junot, hoping that a novice writer would help her write a memoir."

Indeed, she knew Napoleon and his era very well, and remembered in detail a lot of court stories and scandals that had begun to be forgotten, real or fictional. Memories of all this could be interesting to readers, could bring a good fee.

Balzac himself, listening to the stories of the Duchess, also believed that she should publish a monumental "Memoir", not one book, but a whole, as they now say, "series" of at least two dozen volumes.

Thus began their collaboration: Laura told the young Balzac interesting stories from her life and the lives of her great friends, and he literary processed her stories and even wrote entire chapters of her "Memoirs"for her.

This work, even with Balzac's superior performance, was long and difficult. It lasted at least several years. However, the time was not wasted. The success of the multi-volume work, called "Memoirs of Madame La Duchesse d'abrantes, or Historical memoirs of Napoleon, the Revolution, the Directory, the Consulate, the Empire, and the Restoration", was immense.

The work in 1831-1834 was published in a huge circulation in France, and was translated into several languages, including Russian.

Around the same time, several other works by Laura d'abrantes were published, including the six-volume History of the Paris salons and Memoirs of the Embassy mission and stay in Spain and Portugal in 1808-1811, etc.Who wrote them, we can only guess.

In any case, anyone who has read these books will confirm that they are written masterfully. From the point of view of the abundance of factual material, only one thing can be stated – the Duchess d'abrantes had a very good memory.

Thanks to these books, Laura again became rich and popular in the world. In return, using her old connections, she also rendered Balzac a number of services that radically changed his entire life and, in fact, made him what he remained in the history of world literature."