Search Results: Thailand from John Randall (Books of Asia)

Trevoux: Par La Compagnie, 1741. Nouvelle edition, augmentée d'une table des matieres, 12mo, pp.[ii], 512. A very good crisp copy bound in later full speckled calf, spine gilt, all edges red. The last few pages of the table of contents are bound out of order but all are present. The new edition of Choisy's account of his journey to Thailand with Chevalier de Chaumont, the first French ambassador for King Louis XIV, first published in 1687. François Timoléon, abbé de Choisy (1644-1724) was famous in his youth for being cross-dressed by his mother for the amusement of Louis XIV and his court. Madame de La Fayette convinced him to continue his use of women's clothes and make-up into adulthood, gaining a reputation for using androgyny to cause scandal at court, especially as he was an ordained priest. Modern historians have cast doubt over the extent of this reputation, suggesting it more likely that these were rumours invented by his opponents. Alexandre,… Read More