ARAGO, Jacques

Voyage autour du monde sans la lettre A. Paris, no name, 1853. In-12 (168 x 117 mm) of 33 pp, 1 f.n.ch., 3 ff.n.ch. (blanks). Paperback, printed yellow cover, modern black half-maroquin case. First edition, very rare. Jacques Arago (1790-1854) was known in his time as a playwright and explorer. He embarked in 1817 as a draughtsman on board the Uranie for the famous voyage around the world, from which he drew in 1820 upon his return his highly successful work Promenade autour du monde. Taking advantage of this popularity, Jacques Arago published multiple versions of this work throughout his life with various titles, one of the most famous of which is Souvenirs d'un aveugle (Memories of a Blind Man), due to the blindness from which he suffered from 1837 onwards, which in no way prevented him from continuing to travel around the world, from California to New Caledonia and even to Brazil. This excerpt from the account of the Journey around the World, worthy of a linguistic fantasy, would have been born from the conversation of a young lady who was Arago's table neighbor at a social dinner and who challenged him to repeat the account of his travel memories, but without the letter A. This challenge was taken up by the author in a text written in eight days, only a few pages long, and published in 1853 under the title Voyage autour du monde, without the letter A. It is therefore a lipogram, a text that is missing a letter. His curious work ends with the answer of a young woman, also written in lipogram. This answer does not contain the letter 'C', it is thus signed by a certain. Aroline'. Nice copy with all margins, with the cover well preserved.