Vignemale - Lot 223

Vignemale ABRANTÈS (Laure PERMON, wife JUNOT d') duchess - [VIGNEMALE]. Voyage au Vignemale. Paris, Journal des Jeunes Personnes, 1833-34. In-8, reunion of the 4 parts (the work was published in parts in several issues of the journal); one hors texte engraving by Deroy and printed by Bernard. Green Bradel-style boards, gilt title on spine. In this "Voyage au Vignemale", don't look for the Vignemale, you won't find it. Look for the prism. A confused but lively account, something dizzy and evaporated. The Duchess wants to do better than Queen Hortense and is obsessed with getting to the Vignemale. She set off alone with her valet, two guides, four mountaineers and two isard hunters, as well as Dr. Labat, the Cauterets water doctor. Ascent via Lac de Gaube, return via Gavarnie (Beraldi, Cent ans, I). The duchess has a rare capacity for imprecision. Having known Cauterets since childhood, she writes in her memoirs that the distance from Lac de Gaube to the Vignemale is one hundred toises, and that every evening, from Cauterets, she could see the setting sun staining the ice of the Vignemale. A courtesan, young and beautiful, regularly taking the waters in Bagnères or Cauterets since her childhood, the future smiled upon her. She married a marshal of the Empire. The husband died, the Empire fell and so did the Duchess, who threw herself wholeheartedly into writing to survive. Her "Memoirs" were a success, as were some of her novels, but this did not prevent her from dying "in the saddest destitution".