Beschreibung:

TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis de (1805-1859). De la Démocratie en Amérique . Paris: Bourgogne and Martinet for Charles Gosselin 1835-1840. 2 parts in 4 volumes, 8 o (202 x 131 mm). Half-titles in vols. 1 and 2. Vol. 1, 367 pages; vol. 2, 459 pages; vol. 3, 333 pages; vol. 4, 363 pages. Woodcut publisher's device on volume I and II titles. Folding hand-colored lithographed map. (Some occasional minor spotting, lacking terminal blanks.) Vols. 1 and 2 in contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, black morocco lettering pieces; vols. 3 and 4 in contemporary half calf, marbled boards (some light rubbing); brown quarter morocco folding case. Provenance : Sir William Molesworth (bookplates in vols. 3 and 4). FIRST EDITION OF BOTH PARTS. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY DE TOCQUEVILLE on the half-title in volume one: "A Monsieur Genoude(?) hommage de l'auteur," signed with flourished initial. In his classic work on the American constitution, de Tocqueville was the first to wrestle with the spectacle of a "new" society, and the first to deal connectedly with the extraordinary size and natural wealth of America; however his work has been described as "tense with ambivalence." While he believed in the liberal commonplaces of his time, he also distrusted a society based on individualism, and deplored a politics dominated by self-interest. De Tocqueville's is the most perceptive inquiry into the nature and institutions of American society made by a foreign observer. It was written and published in two parts. The first, comprising volumes 1 and 2, was published in Paris in 1835. Its popularity was immediate as two further Paris editions appeared in the same year and another in Brussels. The second part, volumes 3 and 4, appeared in 1840. Goldsmiths' 28902 (part I only); Howes T-278, T-279; Sabin 96060, 96061. PRESENTATION COPIES ARE VERY RARE. (4)