Recollections of Forty Years

This autobiography, in an 1887 translation, describes the career in Europe and Africa of the man behind the Suez Canal.

Ferdinand de Lesseps (Author), C. B. Pitman (Translated by)

9781108026406, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 March 2011

332 pages
21.6 x 1.9 x 14 cm, 0.42 kg

The French diplomat and engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805–1894) was instrumental in the successful completion of the Suez Canal, which reduced by 3000 miles the distance by sea between Bombay and London. This two-volume memoir, written towards the end of his life and dedicated to his children, was published in this English translation in 1887. In it, de Lesseps describes his experiences in Europe and North Africa. He includes reflections on European and colonial history and politics, an essay on steam power, and a report on the 1879 Paris conference that led to a controversial and abortive early attempt by a French company to build the Panama Canal. Volume 2 focuses on the Suez project, quoting extensively from de Lesseps' correspondence, and also contains facts and figures relating to the 'interoceanic canal', political essays, and the speeches for his inauguration into the Académie française.

4 (continued). The origin of the Suez Canal
5. A question of the day
6. After the war of 1870–1871
7. The Interoceanic Canal and the congress of 1879
8. Steam
9. Algeria and Tunis
10. Abd-el-Kader
11. Abyssinia
12. The origin and duties of consuls
13. The French Academy.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX]