Napoleon on Napoleon

Fülszöveg

During the six years of exile on St Helena, between Waterioo and his death, Napoleon dictated memoirs, notes, letters, and batde commentaries to the generals who shared his captivity. He then corrected the material himself.
Napoleon used his time in captivity to explain the motives, beliefs and doubts that drove him: to analyse strategies which turned France's Revolution into the French Empire and examine the tactics that made the Grand Army masters of Europe. He recorded his birth at Ajaccio in 1769, and his genteel but impoverished Corsican childhood. He notes his entry at the age of 10 to the military school in Briennes, and his own early enthusiasm for the Revolution, which lessened in the face of the Terror.
Promoted to Brigadier-General at the age of 24, he was the next year arrested on the death of Robespierre and released only through family influence. Disgraced, and with his pay reduced to a minimum, he was considering service with the Sultan of Turkey when insurgents... Tovább

Fülszöveg

During the six years of exile on St Helena, between Waterioo and his death, Napoleon dictated memoirs, notes, letters, and batde commentaries to the generals who shared his captivity. He then corrected the material himself.
Napoleon used his time in captivity to explain the motives, beliefs and doubts that drove him: to analyse strategies which turned France's Revolution into the French Empire and examine the tactics that made the Grand Army masters of Europe. He recorded his birth at Ajaccio in 1769, and his genteel but impoverished Corsican childhood. He notes his entry at the age of 10 to the military school in Briennes, and his own early enthusiasm for the Revolution, which lessened in the face of the Terror.
Promoted to Brigadier-General at the age of 24, he was the next year arrested on the death of Robespierre and released only through family influence. Disgraced, and with his pay reduced to a minimum, he was considering service with the Sultan of Turkey when insurgents besieged the Convention in Paris. Napoleon intervened successfully and was appointed General of the Army of the Interior as his reward. His military career was assured - and his rise to
power had begun.
In this book, Somerset de Chair has incorporated much new material from three further volumes of notes and miscellanies dictated by Napoleon at St Helena, in addition to the four volumes of Memoirs published in 1823. As before, he has let Napoleon speak in the first person throughout, rather than in the more formal third person of the original text.
The result is a fascinating account of Napoleon's life in his own words, from his childhood in Corsica to his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. Private concerns, such as feuds with his brothers and divorce from Josephine, are mixed with such matters of state as the rebellion of Toussaint-Louverture and the retreat from Moscow. Over 90 carefully selected illustrations make this a superbly illustrated, detailed autobiography of one of history's great characters.
During his lifetime, Somerset de Chair (1911-95) established himself as one of the leading experts on Napoleon's career and writings. He originally edited Napoleon's Memoirs for the Golden Cockerel Press in 1945. His first book. The Impending Storm, was published in 1930, when he was still an undergraduate at Oxford University. More than 30 volumes of history, novels, poetry and autobiography followed until his last publication. Morning Glory, an account of his experiences in World War Two, published by Cassell shorüy before the
author's death in 1995. ^
Front cover illustration: Napoleon Cmssing The Alps Vissza