Geographie Pittoresque et Descriptive par Bandes. l ere Canees 1 ere cande. Depuis le Pole Arctique jusqu au Cercle Polaire Arctique

Manuscript. N.d. [1838]. Hardcover. folio. 32cm, unpaginated c.[220]pp.), manuscript, fine closely written script, quarter brown contemporary cloth backed marbled boards, gilt spine title, several leaves torn not affecting text, in fine condition. (cgc) WorldCat, no results. - A neatly handwritten world gazetteer (without maps) , based on longitudes and latitudes, by French author, Leonie D'Aunet (1820-1879). Signed on title page and in gilt on lower spine "Leonie L.L.D." She is noted as taking part in the Gaimard expedition to Spitsbergen, with her husband artist Francois Biard, in 1838. She later described this expedition in "Voyage d'une femme au Spitzberg" (1854). Leonie later received notoriety when her affair with Victor Hugo was exposed for which she was imprisoned. The author describes the Arctic pole, the Esquimaux, the area north of Hudson Bay, about Greenland, gives location and how to arrive through Davis Strait and Baffin Baie, about the naming of Greenland, the climate, what the people do for work, and their physical description, how short they are "few taller than five feet", "religion in Greenland is a mix of Christianity and paganism". The population is about 10,000. Spitzbergen - talks about the name, indicates that winters in Spitzbegen are excessive and rigorous. "Lumination de nord , nothern lights, which the snow reflects, she talks about other explorers coming to Spitz, but doesn't name who. Includes stops in Laponie, Nouvelle Tremble. - 2ieme bande. Depuis le clerle Polaire d'Arcticque all the way to the 60th degree of latitude. Talks about going down the north west coast past Alaska, Bristol Bay, about the European people of origin, about slaves coming from Africa to the new continent. Among the many places discussed are Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russie, Septrionale. - 3ieme bande, from the 60th degree to 50th degree. Labrador - etc. Some other areas described are Canada, Upper and Lower, 1840; Louisane Occidentile; Chile; etc. Lonie Thvenot d'Aunet (July 2, 1820 - March 3, 1879) was a French author, novelist, playwright and Arctic explorer. An 18-year-old Parisian girl travelling under the name Mme. Biard (1820-1879; ne Lonie d'Aunet) undertook a journey to Spitzbergen in 1838 together with her husband, the artist Francois Biard. He in turn was taking part in the Gaimard expedition to Spitsbergen in the same year. The route home went via Norwegian Finnmark and the Swedish side of the Torne Valley. Five years after the journey, she met the author Victor Hugo, and became his mistress. After two years the affair became publicly known, when the two were caught red-handed. Lonie was sentenced to two months' imprisonment, while Hugo was let off more lightly. The relationship lasted until the coup d'tat in 1851, (The French coup d'tat of 2 December 1851 was a self-coup staged by Prince Louis-Napolon Bonaparte, at the time President of the French Second Republic'.), when Victor Hugo left France. In 1854 Lonie's book about the journey of 1838 was published, and in the next thirty years, it was reprinted no less than nine times. The book is in the form of a letter to her brother, Lon de Boynest. On 19 June at four in the afternoon, having rounded God knows how many points, passed thousands of islands and missed innumerable rocks, we reached the Arctic Circle. As you surely know, it lies at latitude 66 degrees north. When you approach the Arctic Circle the mountains become even higher and steeper. The snow, which at Trondheim lay spread in patches, eventually covers all the mountainsides, the vegetation becomes sparser; you see only stunted birches here and there, and lichen which with its thin root-fibres manages to cling on to the ice-eroded mountain rock. "Early on the morning of the 20 June I was standing watching the sea through the captain's telescope. It was calm around us, but I discovered an odd change in the sea, and was completely fascinated. Waves as high as mountains were rushing toward us from all directions, breaking agains.