A sketch of the comparative beauties of the French and Spanish languages... Preceded by introductory remarks by Alfred Elwes, Esq.37, [3(blank)]p., family coat of arms on title-page, London: Trübner &

£750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A remarkable and eccentric ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ by the author. In his ‘Introductory Remarks’ to the first work, Alfred Elwes (1818-99), ‘author of various works on Philology and Belles Lettres’ (including some books for boys) informs us that the author is ‘a soldier, and a scholar’ and we know from other sources that he claims to have taught Spanish widely in England, the USA, France and Germany. In what seems to be his first publication in London published in 1832 (Palau lists nothing under his name) Martinez de Morantin describes himself as ‘Spanish commander of the column of Rifles belonging to the district of Tudela, in the province of Navarra in the years 1822 1823, who is now a refugee in England’. This must mean that he had fought in the royalist war. From the tone of the views expressed in the third work in this collection, he would not have fought on the repressive royalist side and he became therefore a Spanish exile in London, remaining here for the rest of his life. From his advertisement we know that he lived in 1860 at 3, St. George’s Terrace. Lonsdale Square, Islington, and from the dedication we know that A. Parisot had been a pupil of Martinez de Morentin. The last of his various works was published in Spanish in London in 1864, a treatise on hygiene (copies in BL and Bodley) and the letter to Emma Owen Parisot (see below) is dated 24 November 1864. The first work is written largely in response to a work by Antoine Rivarol (1754-1801) who in 1784 in Berlin publi

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