ARAGO (Jacques). Promenade autour du monde pendant les année - Lot 10

ARAGO (Jacques). Promenade autour du monde pendant les années 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820, sur les corvettes du roi L'Uranie et La Physicienne, commandées par M. Freycinet. Paris, Leblanc, 1822. Two volumes in-8 and an atlas of plates in-folio, [2] f., XXX-452 p. + [2] f., 506 p. + [2] f., [26] p., contemporary homogeneous red boards, small velvet corners, smooth spine, green morocco title-piece, gilt lettering, untrimmed (minor wear, one corner worn, spine of atlas faded with snag at head, very rare foxing). First edition of Jacques Arago's account of his voyage around the world aboard the Uranie between 1817 and 1820, as the expedition's draftsman. The narrative is accompanied by an atlas containing 26 lithographic plates depicting the rarities that caught the author's eye. Arago's letters differ from the style used in travel books of the time. His descriptions of Western Australia and the colonial territories of the Pacific offer a narrative detached from grand scientific descriptions and cumbersome navigational details [ which makes] his book easier to read and more interesting to the public. These entertaining letters, written in a lively and witty literary style, provide vivid descriptions of the topography and inhabitants of the Pacific islands (after Hill). (Sabin 1867; Chadenat 6; Hill 28).