Item #19806 A Tour of Zealand in the Year 1802; with an Historical Sketch of the Battle of Copenhagen. By a Native of Denmark. Andreas Andersen Feldborg.

A Tour of Zealand in the Year 1802; with an Historical Sketch of the Battle of Copenhagen. By a Native of Denmark.

Philadelphia: Printed by Bartram and Reynolds, 1807. First American edition. 12mo, original full sheep, tan morocco label, gilt lettering, 131, [1] pages. Fragile sheep somewhat rubbed; some light foxing; a very good copy. Item #19806

First published in England in 1805, from the Danish author who had come to England in search of work; his position as a Dane in Britain during the Napoleonic Wars was seemingly precarious; this account of travel in Denmark (and of the naval battle at Copenhagen, a victory for the English navy in 1801) would seem to be an attempt at both sales and at a conciliation of the Danes to the English. One assumes this is an early travel account of Denmark to appear in America; Feldborg has a rather jaundiced view of earlier accounts from the pens of foreign authors—Feldborg suggests that Denmark “seems to have been the peculiar province of German travellers to augment their bulky volumes of incomprehensible faslehood, with visionary details on the state of Denmark. Naturally phlegmatic, their splenentic minds, and jaundiced eyes, distort or discolor every object they encounter; and their chaotic brains give and hideous aspect to the prospect which surrounds them.” Includes an account of Elsinor calculated to appeal to the Shakespeare-besotted English nation. American Imprints 12555.

Price: $125.00

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