HALL (Basil). Voyage dans les États-Unis de l'Amérique du No - Lot 33

HALL (Basil). Voyage dans les États-Unis de l'Amérique du Nord, et dans le Haut et le Bas-Canada. Bruxelles, H. Dumont, 1835. 2 volumes in one small in-12, 285 [of which the first 19 in Roman numerals]-(one blank) + 288 pp, black half-chagrin, ornate smooth spine, blue speckled edges; binding a little rubbed (period binding). Published the year after the first French translation of this story, originally published in English in Edinburgh in 1829. AN UNCOMPROMISING PICTURE OF NORTH AMERICA. Basil Hall gives an account of the journey he made with his wife in 1827-1828. He develops a highly critical view of the United States (and Canada), and in particular of the average American, whose lack of culture and commercialism he stigmatizes. Along with Frances Trolope's Domestic manners of the Americans (1832), and Thomas Hamilton's Men and manners in America (1833), this relationship helped to build a stereotypical negative image in Europe that was to last a lifetime. In France, Basil Hall's book appeared at a time when anglophilia was the order of the day in high society, and this was not without its share of remarks: Stendhal, for example, published an anonymous review in March 1829 in the newspaper Le National, in which he ironically pointed out the author's British bias. In the United States, Hall's trip had a great impact and even produced, according to Frances Trollope, "a sort of moral earthquake". SCOTTISH ARISTOCRATE, CAPTAIN BASIL HALL (1788-1844) was the son of a geologist who was President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He joined the Royal Navy in 1801, went to Java, then accompanied Lord Amherst on his embassy to China (1815) and took the opportunity to visit the coasts of Korea and the Ryûkyû Islands (1816-1817) - he published a report of this voyage in 1818. He took part in a second expedition along the Pacific coast of the American continent, and again published a report in 1824. He made further personal voyages and published several more accounts. He was a member of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh.