This short post marks a return to actually featuring a Landing Book Shelves book, after a glut of library book reading. Though I have to point out that it was a couple of library books that prompted me to take another look at a longtime resident of the book shelves. As I mentioned a while ago, I had picked up a library book on the Battle of Waterloo; on the strength of that I borrowed an audio version of An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer, which has an excellent account of the battle, for a re-read. That in turn led me to dig out my copy of Madame Tussaud by Leonard Cottrell (Evans Brothers Publishers, 1951) which I bought in Liverpool many years ago and have not looked at again since first reading it.
As usual, after searching on ABE Books I have to report that my edition of this book will fail to make my fortune. No pristine first edition for me (although mine is a nice copy with very little damage as you can see from my photos) but in fairness, this doesn’t seem to be such a rare publication so at least I am not missing out on a fortune. According to the pencilled figures inside the front cover, I paid the princely sum of £3.50 for Madame Tussaud, probably around thirty years ago. The book is illustrated with black and white photographs of some of the well-known historic pieces, including a Mme Tussaud’s self-portrait. The front and back endpapers feature maps of Tussaud’s British exhibition tours of her wax portraits between 1802 – 1833.
The book tells the story of her long life and of her famous exhibition, a fascinating story. I think this is due for a re-read this summer, so I will talk a bit more about the redoubtable Madame Tussaud next time.
That’s part of my summer reading sorted anyway!
