Lahontan, Louis Armand, Baron de:

$4,250 · Offered by William Reese Company

VOYAGES DU BARON DE LA HONTAN DANS L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE.... [with:] MEMOIRES DE L'AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE, OU LA SUITE DES VOYAGES. SECONDE EDITION, REVUE, CORRIGÉ, & ... Second edition of Lahontan's narrative, a curious blending of fact and fantasy. His account of his travels in the Great Lakes region is one of the most important travel narratives of the day, but his claims to have journeyed west of the Mississippi are highly doubtful. However, his assertions had great impact on geographers of the time, who adopted much of his imaginary geography. The most notable map is the "Carte Que Les Gnacsitares...Carte de la Riviere Longue...," depicting an imaginary river extending westward from Lake Superior. The "Carte Generale de Canada," the frontispiece in the second volume, is also considerably confused geographically. The second volume also contains the "Dictionaire de la Langue des Sauvages." The work remains a classic voyage, even if partially imaginary, written by a man "of more than ordinary learning and intelligence" - Sabin. Regarding this edition Sabin writes: "[t]he alteration is mainly in the 'Dialogues' which are rewritten; the voyages to Portugal and Denmark are omitted, and the whole work is thus brought into two volumes.""Although much of the work has been condemned as over-imaginative, it did influence the subsequent growth of primitivism in France and England, as reflected in the works of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Jonathan Swift, and others. For example, he te

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