OGER-BLANCHET
197
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PONTIS, Louis de - Mémoires du Sieur de Pontis, Officier des…
See original version (French)
197
-
PONTIS, Louis de - Mémoires du Sieur de Pontis, Officier des…
See original version (French)
Estimate €150
Voluntary lot
Description
PONTIS, Louis de - Mémoires du Sieur de Pontis, Officier des armées du Roy. Paris, Guillaume Desprez, 1676. 2 vols. in-12, (5) ff, 551 pp; (1) ff, 444 pp, some light spotting in vol. II, half marbled fawn, smooth spine decorated.
SHF 689. First edition. Memoirs from 1596 to 1652. Disappointed with his military career, Pontis retired to Port-Royal around 1653. These memoirs were written by another Solitaire, Thomas Du Fossé, based on conversations that Pontis constantly sought out. Madame de Sévigné set great store by them: "He recounts his life and the time of Louis XIII with such truth, naivety and good sense that I cannot get away with it. Sainte-Beuve defended him against those who, questioning his sincerity, described his memoirs as historical novels in the manner of Courtilz de Sandras: "Let us not accuse him of lying or of falsifying facts, nor of deliberately enlarging them in order to amuse the reader: he talks, he is animated, he is central in his accounts, he abounds, like any old soldier, in enumerating his services and the injustices of fate." (Port-Royal II, Appendix)
See original version (French)
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