The Congress of Vienna: A Study in Allied Unity: 1812-1822.

NICOLSON, Harold.

Item Number: 129837

New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1946.

First edition of Nicolson’s acclaimed work on the Congress of Vienna. Octavo, bound in full crushed red morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling and fleuron cornerpieces to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, illustrated with 8 portraits including frontispiece. In fine condition.

In 1812, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a congress convened in Vienna in which the fate of Europe was to be determined for the next hundred years. Attending were the great statesmen of the time -- the wily French foreign minister, Talleyrand; his brave but misguided British counterpart, Lord Castlereagh; the conservative Austrian chancellor, Prince Metternich; and the idealistic but unstable tsar Alexander. Beginning with Napoleon's harrowing retreat from Moscow, the pace of the narrative holds throughout the negotiations in the Austrian capital, where the power struggle to both restore a lost world and ensure a stable future took place. "With swift pace, clear focus and a series of brilliant character sketches, this is narrative history at its best." -- The New York Times