The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon on the Reign of Louis XIV and the Regency. Abridged from the French. [3-volume set]
DETAILS: (London): Chapman & Hall, 1857. First edition. Contemporary red cloth binding. xxvii, 377; xi, 395; xi, 390pp. 8vo (standard sized books). This is a heavy item weighing over 1.5kg with packaging.
CONDITION: Very Good to Good . All volumes: Some dirt and edgewear to boards and spine. Previous owner's inscription to title pages of two volumes ('Marquis of Ailas [?] / 1857' - see below). Foxing to edges, light to margins of some pages, heavier to a few pages. Heavier sunning to Volume 3. Bindings solid. *Photo(s) given of actual book.
CONTENTS: A three-volume collection of the abridged memoirs of Louis de Louvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon. Aside from some scattered foxing, this is a solid set, in contemporary binding.
The Duc de Saint-Simon was born on January 16, 1675, in Paris. As a young aristocrat, he studied horsemanship and fencing as much as letters and entered the elite King's Musketeers at the age of 16. Three years later, apparently inspired by the memoirs of Marshal Bassompierre and others, which he read in the field, he began making notes for memoirs of his own.
Passed over for promotion in 1702, Saint-Simon abandoned his military career and went to live at the court of Versailles. He apparently continued to make notes and read extensively in the works of other memorialists and historians, to the point that his fellow courtiers often consulted him on questions of history, genealogy, and court etiquette. However, both his resignation from the army and his sometimes unwelcome knowledge of court traditions irritated Louis XIV, who excluded him from any official post for the rest of his reign.
After the death of Louis XIV in 1715, Saint-Simon played an important role as public and private counselor to the regent, Philippe II d'Orléans, retiring upon the death of the latter in 1723. After spending several years on such other historical projects as his 'Notes on the Dukedoms and Peer-ages' and his 'Additions' to the Marquis of Dangeau's 'Journal', he began revising and writing out his 'Memoirs' in 1739.
In the 'Memoirs', Saint-Simon's observations allowed him to describe vividly both the elegance and the corruption of the court of Versailles. Despite some errors of fact and interpretation, his knowledge of history made him aware of the breakdown of traditional checks and balances that underlay Louis XIV's royal absolutism and which was to lead, in the next century, to the French Revolution.
Saint-Simon's intensely written accounts of court intrigues and such events as the deaths of the Grand Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and Louis XIV himself - as well as his incisive word portraits of his fellow courtiers - make him perhaps the world's greatest writer on the prestige, the ambitions, the uncertainties, and the ironies of public life. He completed his 'Memoirs in 1752. Saint-Simon died on March 2, 1755, in Paris."
This set appears to have belonged to a Scottish marquis, and bears his signature to two title pages. We think this was the Marquis of Ailsa (please see photo), who would presumably have been Archibald Kennedy, 2nd Marquess of Ailsa (1816-1870).
Archibald Kennedy Titles in Lords
Baron Ailsa September 8, 1846 - March 20, 1870
Earl of Cassillis September 8, 1846 - March 20, 1870
Lord Kennedy September 8, 1846 - March 20, 1870
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Extensive publication of Saint-Simon's Memoirs did not proceed until the 1820s. The first and greatest critical edition was in the Grands écrivains de la France series. The most accessible modern edition consists of nine volumes in the Bibliothèque de la Pléïade.
English-language translations of the Memoirs
There are a number of English-language translations of selections of the Memoirs:
Memoirs on the Reign of Louis XIV, and the Regency. Abridged by Bayle St. John. London: Chapman, 1857.
The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon on the reign of Louis XIV, and the Regency. 2nd edition. 3 volumes. Translated by Bayle St. John. London: Swan, Sonnenschein, Lowrey, 1888.
Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon on the Times of Louis XIV and the Regency. Translated and abridged by Katharine Prescott Wormeley. Boston: Hardy, Pratt, 1902.
Louis XIV at Versailles: A Selection from the Memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon. Translated and edited by Desmond Flower. London: Cassell, 1954.
The Age of Magnificence: The Memoirs of the Duke de Saint-Simon. Edited and translated by Sanche de Gramont (Ted Morgan). New York: Putnam, 1963.
Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon. Edited by W.H. Lewis. Translated by Bayle St. John. London: B.T. Batsford, 1964.
Historical Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon, volume 1 1691-1709. Edited and translated by Lucy Norton. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1967.
Historical Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon, volume 2 1710-1715. Edited and translated by Lucy Norton. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1968.
Historical Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon, volume 3 1715-1723. Edited and translated by Lucy Norton. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1972.
Saint-Simon at Versailles. Edited and translated by Lucy Norton. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1980. Includes selections which are omitted from the three longer volumes, which together include about 40% of the whole work.