[IMAGINARY VOYAGES; NEW ZEALAND] Den unga vilden. by LEJEUNE, Augustin-Laurent

Öfversättning af Joh. P. Renmark. I-II. Stockholm : C. F. Marquard, 1802. Octavo (172 x 106 mm), handsome contemporary half calf over marbled papered boards, spine with gilt rule and contrasting title- and number-pieces in gilt; pp. [2], 176 + 240; separate title-pages for each part; some browning and very occasional and minor marginal stains; early manuscript correction to subtitle of the first chapter (p. 1); front pastedown with ex libris of Gustaf Berndtsson; a fine example. Le jeune sauvage dans la société was originally published in Paris in 1799. This obscure novel of the late Enlightenment was written by Augustin-Laurent Lejeune, a close associate of the notorious Saint-Just, ""Archangel of the Terror"", who appointed Lejeune Chief of the Police Bureau during the Revolution. The story opens with a shipwreck where the protagonists Stingel and Basill end up on an island in the South Seas whose position - calculated by the stars - is not far from New Zealand. Very rare. OCLC locates no copies of the 1802 Swedish edition in libraries worldwide, and only a handful of copies of the 1799 French edition (none in New Zealand or Australian collections).