Ludovic de Beauvoir, A Voyage Around the World. Vol. I–II. [1872]

Title: A Voyage Around the World by de Beauvoir. Vol. I–II (in 1 vol.).

Author: Ludovic de Beauvoir (1846–1929) [French traveler, writer, and diplomat; participant in a round-the-world expedition from 1865 to 1867].

Publisher: Warsaw, Editorial Board of “Wędrowiec” (under the direction of Filip Sulimierski). Series: Library of Recent Travels, No. 2.

Year of publication: 1872.

Format: 18 cm.

Volume: Vol. I: 302 pp.; Vol. II: 352 pp.; Vol. III: 164 pp.

Binding: Period half-leather binding.

Ludovic de Beauvoir’s account of his round-the-world expedition reached Polish readers in 1872 as the second volume in the “Library of Recent Travels” series. The series was published by the editorial staff of the Warsaw-based *Wędrowiec*, founded in 1863 by Józef Unger, the most prominent and longest-running Polish travel magazine of the 19th century. The volume presented here combines two bound-together volumes: the first devoted to Australia, the second to Java, Siam, and Canton. The author describes her arrival in Melbourne, her travels through Victoria, Tasmania, and New South Wales, and the gold mines there. He goes on to describe crocodile and rhinoceros hunts in Java, the splendor of princely courts and the attire of the Javanese nobility, as well as the royal cremation ritual in Siam. He concludes with a stay in Hong Kong and Macau, where he wrote indignantly about the opium trade. The Polish edition was part of the Positivist program to popularize knowledge, which the magazine *Wędrowiec*, edited by Filip Sulimierski, carried out with exceptional vigor.

Ludovic Hébert de Beauvoir, initially a count and later a marquis, was born in 1846 in Brussels to a noble family from Normandy. At the age of nineteen, he set out with his childhood friend, Prince Penthièvre, on a journey that, between 1865 and 1867, took them both through Australia, the Dutch East Indies, Siam, China, Japan, and the United States. The first two volumes of his account, *Australie* and *Java, Siam, Canton*, were published immediately upon his return and were highly successful. The third, “Pékin, Yeddo, San Francisco,” was published in 1872, the same year as this translation. Beauvoir fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 and subsequently entered the service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was a Knight of the Legion of Honor. He died in 1929.

Provenance: H. Karpiński’s bookplate is affixed to the front endpaper.

This is an early Polish translation of a renowned French travelogue from the “Wędrowca” series, in a period half-leather binding, with a bookplate. A must-have for collectors of vintage travel literature, enthusiasts of Australia and the Far East, scholars of Polish Positivism, and researchers of the history of Warsaw’s publishing scene.

Period half-leather binding with visible signs of wear.

Catalog ID: 6290-18-A-Y