Java, Siam, Canton Voyage Autour du Monde

Paris: Henri Plon, 1869. Second Edition. Boards. Near Fine. Second Edition. 451, [1] pages. 4 1/2 x 6 7/8 inches. 1/4 leather over cloth boards (minor wear to high points). Spine red leather gilt, page edges speckled, marbled endpapers, green reading ribbon. Includes both the fold-out frontis and multi-fold colored map (minor tear near attachment point to book). Second edition noted on title page. Text in French. Boards. Assoc. Prof. Wening UDASMORO (Univ. of Gadjah Mada) in his article "Representing the Other: Marquis Ludovic de Beauvoir's Account of Nineteenth-Century Java" (ASIAN STUDIES: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, Volume 53: 2 (2017)) writes: "Marquis Ludovic de Beauvoir's travel report, A Voyage Round the World: Java, Siam, Canton (1870), has shown the author's nuanced perspective on Java. Despite his cultural background as a European, as well as the colonial system that he enjoyed, de Beauvoir partly diverted from the common narrative of indigenous peoples as primitive and barbarian. He recognised that his initial apprehensiveness was misplaced and over time, he became increasingly positive in his appraisal of the Javanese. Though he still believed that the indigenous peoples required colonial rule to prosper, de Beauvoir recognized Java's complex situations—including its social interactions and exercises of power. In doing so, his views were distinct from the generalizations made by fellow Europeans such as Houtman, Verrazane, Caunay, and de Vitré."

A work much reprinted in various translations, here offered in a 1/4 leather binding.