Recollections of Forty Years

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, beginning with accounts of diplomatic missions to Rome and Madrid during the political unrest of the late 1840s, and continuing with substantial coverage of the Suez project. He also 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.