The Story of San Michele

New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1930. Hardcover. Near fine. xvi, 580 pp. Light wear to extremities; contents clean. No dust jacket. Axel Munthe's memoirs. The Story of San Michele "is a series of overlapping vignettes, roughly but not entirely in chronological order. It contains reminiscences of many periods of his life. He associated with a number of celebrities of his times, including Jean-Martin Charcot, Louis Pasteur, Henry James, and Guy de Maupassant, all of whom figure in the book. He also associated with the very poorest of people, including Italian immigrants in Paris and plague victims in Naples, as well as rural people such as the residents of Capri, and the Nordic Laplanders. He was an unabashed animal lover, and animals figure prominently in several stories, perhaps most notably his alcoholic pet baboon, Billy" (Wiki).