Fenby, Jonathan

The General: Charles de Gaulle and the France He Saved with: Ephemera

ISBN: 9781847373922
London, England: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd., 2010. First UK Edition. Hardcover. "No leader of modern times was more unique and more uniquely national than Charles de Gaulle. As founder and first President of the Fifth Republic, General de Gaulle saw himself 'carrying France on my shoulders'. When he first emerged on to the world stage in 1940, his insistence that he spoke for his nation might well have appeared impossibly arrogant for a recently promoted junior general who had never been elected to anything. But he personified many of the traits of his country which fascinate the rest of the world- its pride in itself, its intransigence, its historical and cultural heritage and its quasi-religious belief in the state. In his twenties, he fought for France in the trenches and at the epic battle of Verdun. In the 1930s, he waged a lonely battle to enable France better to resist Hitler's Germany. Thereafter, he twice rescued the nation from defeat and decline by extraordinary displays of leadership, political acumen, daring and bluff, heading off civil war and leaving a heritage adopted by his successors of right and left. Though he endured rejection by his countrymen, he never lost faith in himself and his country." (from front flap) A magisterial biography befitting its subject, "Le General," the great French military & political leader Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970), among the most iconic world figures of the twentieth century. Jonathan Fenby, the acclaimed & prolific British biographer, historian & journalist, authored this lengthy-yet-riveting & exhaustively researched work. With two sections of captioned historical photographs, extensive notes, bibliography & index. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket, first UK edition published two years before the American edition, first printing as indicated by number sequence on copyright page. We found & have retained, between list of Fenby's previous books & title page, two pieces of relevant ephemera: A (very laudatory) review of this volume (American edition) by Josef Joffe in the New York Times Book Review issue of August 19, 2012; & another by Frederic Raphael (also of the American edition, as well as another de Gaulle-related work) in the Wall Street Journal issue of July 7-8, 2012, again laudatory (albeit more critical of its subject). Single sheets, extensively folded & both in very fine condition with only a few surface creases & very slight browning. From the collection of George V. Buehler (1933-2020), who was a prominent real estate developer & collector in Massachusetts & Arizona. Buehler's packing slip of May 2015 for this volume resides between blank rear endpaper & paste-down. A most collectible literary monument to a human-national monument, as it were, in its rarest original form with enriching ephemera & distinguished provenance. Book in fine condition with slight rubbing & occasional spots to black cloth-textured paper front, back covers & spine (with silver-gilt letters on spine completely bright & intact); a touch of wear & some tiny bumps (one with miniscule loss of paper surface at lower corner of front cover); creases at edges & corners of same; slight bend of spine toward front; mild browning to edges of text block. Interior very fine with only light browning mostly to blank margins of page leaves; one small area of folds, creases & bumps at upper corner of one page leaf (pgs. 487-488, likely a minor flaw as issued with slight excess paper); a few tiny spot-stains at mostly blank lower surface of same. Dust jacket near-fine with mild rubbing, faint scratching to front, back covers & spine; slight wear & some tiny bumps, creases at edges & corners of same & flaps; one mostly closed, short tear at mid-upper spine-edge (barely effecting image of Le General's cap). An extra handling fee will be added for shipping due to the weight of this item. Fine / Near Fine. [Item #4834]

Price: $30.00