BY PAUL JOHNSON
A book that Reinforces the notion that the most dramatic personalities and events are found in real life rather than in fiction.
4 stars out of 5 stars
It would be difficult to find a person who does not know that Napoleon was a key figure in European history in the early nineteenth century. He was First Consul, then General, then Emperor of France. After conquering a large part of Europe, his military campaign in Russia failed miserably, leading to his conclusive defeat by Wellington in Waterloo and to exile in St. Helena, where he died.
However, few of the general public is aware that Napoleon was born of the island of Corsica, which for a long time was part of Italy, that before St. Helena, he was exiled to Elba, and managed to escape back to France and regained power, although only for a short period. Nor is it commonly known the strength and weakness of Napoleon’s character. These are among the reasons that Napoleon remains a fascinating figure. Even though there have had more books written about him than any other individual, with the sole exception of Jesus Christ, publishers regard a Napoleon book as more likely to sell than any other biography. In 2002, the famed British historian Paul Johnson added his book, entitled “Napoleon” to the list.
The following are among the interesting features about Napoleon that this reader learns from Johnson’s book, in which Napoleon was referred to by his first name Bonaparte:
- While we are all aware that Bonaparte must be a master of the battlefield to be able to conquer a good part of Europe, Johnson provided us with specific details. Bonaparte’s grand strategy was to move swiftly in a position where he obliged the enemy to fight a major battle, destroy the enemy’s forces, and then occupy his capital and dictate peace terms. However, he lacked the patience to fight a defensive campaign. He did not appreciate the power of the navy and was not good at naval warfare.
- Bornaparte’s military skill was recognized, even by his opponents. It was interesting that, when the news of his death reached Wellington, Wellington remarked that “Now I think I may say I am the most successful General alive.”
- Napoleon’s narrow world view resulted in the Louisiana Purchase, in which the United States under the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for a paltry sum of $15 million.
- There is a detailed description of the famous Battle of Waterloo and the little-known Battle of Austerlite. The former led to Bonaparte’s demise while the latter was regarded as his most brilliant victory.
- A journalist and admirer, Roederer, wrote that “this superman presided at meetings from 9 a.m. till 5 p.m. with a fifteen-minute break and seems no more fatigued at the close of the session than when it began”.
- Bonaparte’s weakness was captured in the words of his faithful secretary, Fauvelet de Bourrienne: “Bonaparte was a man who, when he was in his cradle, had been given by the Good Fairy gifts beyond the imagination of most men. But he had denied him things that most people, however humble, take for granted – the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood, or right and wrong.”
- I was not aware of the Napoleon Code until I read this book. The 1804 Napoleonic Code replaced the fragmented laws of pre-revolutionary France. It influenced civil law codes across the world, recognizing the principles of civil liberty, equality before the law (although not for women in the same sense as for men), and the secular character of the state.
The following paragraph capsulizes Bonaparte’s high and low points in dramatic language:
“His declension from Europe to Elba was indeed his maxim of the sublime to the ridiculous turned into reality. From ruling half the continent and eighty million, he was now prince of an island 7 miles from the coast of Italy, 19 miles long, 7 wide, 140 square miles in area, and with a population said to be 100,000, but which at the end of the nineteenth century was accurately counted as a little over 25,000.”
On a lighter note, there is the statistics that, at the end of the twentieth century, Lincoln appeared in 137 entries in movies, which was the fifth numerous among all figures, real or imaginary. The four ahead of him were Sherlock Holmes (211), Napoleon (194), Dracula (161) and Frankenstein (159). Thus, according to this measure, Bonaparte fared even better than Lincoln, and is in fact first among real figures, a remarkable achievement indeed.
In conclusion, a book that reinforces the notion that the most dramatic personalities and events are found in real life rather than in fiction.
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