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De Saint Pierre, J H B : A Voyage to the Isle of France, the Isle of Bourbon, and the Cape of Good Hope; with Observations and Reflections upon Nature and Mankind. Translated from the French. To which is added Some Account of the Author

London: J Cundee, 1800. Octavo, pp xxiv + 334 pp. Contemporary half brown calf with marble boards. 5 Raised bands on spine, 6 spinal compartments, leather title label to spine with gilt decorative devices in the compartments. Title page repaired (sensitively with contemporary paper stock). Tear at the base of pp 233/2334 (5. 5 cm) with no loss. Small puncture to pp 333/ 334 (0.5 centimetres in diameter). Foxed throughout. Front hinge cracked internally. End-papers significantly browned. Some pencil notes throughout. One line underlined in ink on page 43. One line ink notation on page 205. Inked name “JHB S Pierre, Martinique” on the title-page. This is unlikely to have been the author's copy though as it would appear that he visited Martinique with his uncle prior to 1757. I cannot find any evidence of him having returned to the island. The following has been referenced from both Wikipedia and “Chest of Books”. Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, also called Bernardin de St. Pierre (9 January 1737 Le Havre – 21 January 1814 Éragny, Val-d'Oise) was a French writer, botanist, novelist and naturalist. He is best known for his 1787 novel Paul et Virginie which is still in print today. The novel's title characters have been friends since birth. They fall in love, but sadly die when the ship Le Saint-Geran is wrecked. The story takes place on the island of Mauritius then under French rule, and named Île de France. Apparently written on the eve of the French Revolution, the novel is hailed as Bernardin's finest work and has been translated into many languages. It records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the false, artificial sentimentality that prevailed at the time among the upper classes of France. He became a close friend of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He also appears to have been an early abolitionist. On discovering that the real object of an expedition to Madagascar in 1776 was the slave trade, he left it and went to Mauritius instead. In 1795 he was elected to the Institut de France, in 1797 manager of the Botanical Gardens and in 1803 member of the Académie Française. His principle works are as follows : Études de la nature (1784), Paul et Virginie (1788), La Chaumière indienne (1790), Le Café de Surate (1790), Les Vœux d’un solitaire (1790), De la nature de la morale (1798) Voyage en Silésie (1807), La Mort de Socrate (1808), Harmonies de la nature (1815). Although he was very unpopular in his lifetime (he refused to bow to convention and his practice of etiquette was apparently somewhat limited) he was rumoured to have had affairs with the Empress Catherine II as well as a polish princess (which reportedly left him broken hearted).

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