First edition, rare, of the famous fantasy novel Journey to my room by Xavier de Maistre (Chambéry, 1763 St. Petersburg, 1852). A Savoyard officer in the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, de Maistre wrote the Journey during the 42 days he spent in isolation in his room in the fortress of Turin, to which he had been sentenced for having engaged in a duel. In the 42 chapters of the book (one for each day of confinement), de Maistre recounts the sedentary journeys through his square room, with a perimeter of thirty-six steps, which he explores thoroughly, walking in a straight line, diagonally or in a zigzag, often balanced on the back legs of his beloved armchair. In his journey, de Maistre carefully describes all the objects he encounters, starting from the bed and other furniture, up to the paintings and engravings on the walls, including the portrait usually most appreciated by his guests: the mirror. 
The novel, written in full revolutionary ferment, expresses both the temptation to escape from everything, even if imaginary, and the utopia of a retreat into study. Both the place of printing and the date are false; the novel was in fact published, without the author's knowledge, in Lausanne in 1795 at the expense of his older brother Joseph, a famous philosopher and key figure of the Counter-Enlightenment, who was then taking refuge in Switzerland. Like his brother, Xavier de Maistre was a staunch counter-revolutionary and a fierce opponent of Napoleon and for this reason, after the French invasion of Savoy, he refused to swear allegiance to Bonaparte and instead chose to enlist in the Russian army, eventually reaching the rank of major general and taking up residence in St. Petersburg.
Barbier, IV, 1060; Cioranescu, II, 41876; Cohen de Ricci 148; Le Petit, p. 573; Lewine 62; Monglond, La France révolutionnaire et impériale, III, 229; Querard, I, 335; Rahir, Bibliothèque de l'amateur, (1907) p. 276; Sander 159.