LATUDE, Henri Masers de. Memoirs of Henry Masers de Latude, During a Confinement of Thirty-five Years in the State Prisons of France.
London: Printed at the Logographic Press, 1787. First edition of this English translation.
Latude's extraordinary story began with an audacious attempt to win the favour of Madame de Pompadour. He secretly sent the royal mistress a threatening parcel, then presented himself as the loyal informant who had uncovered the supposed plot. The deception was discovered and in 1749 he was imprisoned by lettre de cachet.
There followed decades of confinement in the Bastille, Vincennes and other state prisons, punctuated by remarkable escapes. His celebrated 1756 escape from the Bastille was made with Antoine Allègre using ladders fashioned from firewood and thread drawn from their clothing. The surviving rope ladder is now preserved at the Musée Carnavalet.
Published two years before the fall of the Bastille, Latude's memoir became part of the growing literature attacking arbitrary imprisonment under the ancien régime. His later reputation was complicated by substantial embellishments within his account, adding another dimension to his extraordinary story.
Printed at John Walter's experimental Logographic Press, established only a few years before his Daily Universal Register became The Times.
Contemporary marbled boards, expertly and sympathetically rebacked in calf with raised bands and gilt ruling. Early ownership inscription dated 1828.
Provenance: Early ownership inscription of the Rev. Edward Peacock (1820-1903), dated “Dec. 30. Fifehead” 1828, when Peacock was eight years old. Born at Fifehead Magdalen, the son of its vicar, Peacock later became Vicar of Road Hill, Wiltshire, and was closely involved in the aftermath of the notorious 1860 Road Hill House murder, serving as foreman of the inquest jury.
