1870 The Coup D'Etat of Napoleon buy III Paris in December 1851 by Eugene Tenot

Paris in December, 1851 or The Coup D'Etat of Napoleon III by Eugene Tenot in 1870. Translated from the Thirteenth French Edition with many original buy notes by S. W. Adams and A. H. Brandon, published by Hurd and Houghton, New York, Cambridge: Riverside Press. 350 pages.

Taken from the Translator's Preface, "The work of which a translation is herewith respectfully submitted, was first published in Paris, in July 1868, since which time it has reached its fifteenth French edition. As the object of its author was supply a long needed, correct version of the acts of violence and unlawfulness whereby Louis Napoleon supplanted the Republic of France by the Empire of which he became the head; so the object of the translators has been, to give the "plain, unvarnished tale" a form and style which make it intelligible and popular in the hands of American readers. It is for this reason that they have added a copious appendix of historical, biographical, and explanatory notes. some of these may appear trivial and unnecessary, but it seemed more desirable to explain very fully, than to err, possibly, by the omission of anything that might render the text more thoroughly understood. For the same reason, they have added an alphabetical index."

Louis Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon I, was the first elected President of France from 1848 to 1852. When he could not constitutionally be re-elected, he seized power in 1851 and became the Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. He founded the Second French Empire and was its only emperor until the defeat of the French army and his capture by Prussia and its allies in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He worked to modernize the French economy, rebuilt the center of Paris, expanded the overseas empire, and engaged in the Crimean War and the Second Italian War of Independence. As you can imagine, the author was writing this book while Napoleon III was still empower making this book a rather risky en devour. As so, "M. Tenot states that he has not deemed it expedient to comment unfavorably (to the French Government) upon the facts which he has recorded in his work. Nethertheless, it may not be amiss to remark, that his publishers, in order to avoid the risk of public prosecution, struck out from the manuscripts of the author, certain passages which even he, with all his pains to keep within the French penal enactments relating to the press, had ventured to submit for publication."

Rare copy of the English translation which is now in modern reprint. This is an acceptable copy which does have some damage. Wear to cover which includes shelf wear to edges and corners of spine and boards, splitting of green binding along spine and chipping of spine edges. Names written on inside cover, pencil notations through out. Binding solid, but pages bound uneven which has caused chipping and dog earring to edges and corners of some. Pages slightly tanned with some minor spotting. Solid enough to be read. Worthy of rebinding.