[Seven adventure novels of the Americas, in the English publisher's "Magnificent Illustrated Edition"].

£1,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Gustave Aimard (1818-1883) was born in Paris, the illegitimate son of a French noble woman and a Corsican general. He was raised by the Gloux family (his name is sometimes given as Olivier Gloux), who were paid for their trouble. At age 12 he ran away to sea, graduated to the French Navy at 17, and promptly deserted in either Mexico or Chile at the first chance he got. Thus commenced ten years of roving through Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, California, New Mexico, Texas and beyond. He claimed to have been adopted into the Comanche tribe, and many of his novels purport to draw on the firsthand experiences he had living amongst Native Americans. He returned to France in 1847, just in time for the French Revolution, in which he served with the guarde mobile - the “Working Class Army”. After these excitements, he turned his full intensity to writing and galloped through novels with a demon speed - in his lifetime completing at least 78 works. A seeming adventure addict, Aimard appears only very loosely disguised as the character “Valentine Guillois” in many of his novels, which though they could be deemed juveniles, contain every imaginable vice. Whether it be an innocent nun buried alive in cave called “Hell” beneath a Mexican convent, or a Comanche chief nailing the heart of his horse to the door of the woman he is courting, between near constant knife-fights and murder plots, it’s easy to see how Aimard’s work is considered an important early example of the “Western” genre

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