N. p., 1789.
2 parts in 2 volumes 8vo [220 x 140 mm] of: I/ xv pp., (1) bl. p., 168 pp.; II/ 207 pp. Preserved in its original wrappers, library’s mark on the upper cover of the volumes, untrimmed. Original wrappers.
Edition published the same year as the original of this book that scandalized.
Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, II, 831; Peignot, Dictionnaire des livres condamnés au feu, I, 321.
It was condemned, by judgment of February 10, 1789, to be lacerated and burned at the foot of the grand staircase, by the hand of the executioner.
“Mirabeau (1749-1791) obtains, thanks to Calonne, a secret mission in Prussia. In a ciphered correspondence, he tells the Abbot of Périgord (future Talleyrand) the intrigues of the Prussian court. It will be published under the title ‘Histoire secrète de la cour de Berlin’ and will scandalize.
When he returns to France, the revolutionary movement has just begun. He takes part in it immediately. Calonne refusing to employ him again, he attacks him in his ‘Dénonciation de l’agiotage’ (1787). Rejected by nobility, he runs for office and is elected by the Third Estate both in Marseille and Aix, for which he will opt. At that time, he founds ‘Le Journal des États-Généraux’. One of the first, Mirabeau will insist on the summoning of the latter. A dubious reputation preceded him at the Third Estate; he is believed to be ready for any task, and the representatives of the Third Estate are reserved, if not suspicious. On the other hand, he has against him the court, the ministers, the nobility and the clergy. His task looks difficult. Isolated at the Assembly, Mirabeau is nevertheless one of the few deputies to possess a plan and a method, besides his exceptional gifts as a speaker. He will do his duty with passion, by genius.”
Very pure copy, wide-margined since untrimmed, preserved in its original wrappers, as published.
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