Vie de Benjamin Franklin, Ecrits par Lui-Meme

FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Vie de Benjamin Franklin, Ecrits par Lui-Meme, Suivie de Ses Oeuvres Morales, Politiques et Litteraires, Dont la Plus Grande Partie N'avoit pas encore des Notes, par J. Castera.

Paris: Chez F. Buisson, An VI de la Republique [1798].

Published during the French Revolution, this edition contains not only the life of Franklin, but also additional posthumous political works which would have had considerable relevance in France at the time.

With the Directory assailed within France from both sides--by the remaining Jacobins and Royalists--popular unrest flaring on the streets and the war of the Second Coalition raging on all fronts, Franklin's observations on America's struggle with Great Britain are strikingly prescient.

Among the various political works included are "Observations sur la Guerre," "Sur les dissentions entre l'Angleterre et l'Amerique," and "Discours prononce dans la derniere Convention des Etats-Unis."

The frontispiece is a version of the Duplessis portrait of Franklin engraved by Tardieu.

Ford notes this edition "is a translation from the English re-translation of the French translation of Gibelin." The missing portion from 1731, reprinted from La Decade and first published here, relates to Franklin's time spent in Passy.