In the footsteps of Napoleon - his life and its famous scenes
From the introduction:
It chanced that on the eve of the War of the Nations, my errand took me from Corsica through France and Italy to Egypt, the Holy Land, and Syria; over the Alps and through Austria, Germany, and Poland into Russia, and finally to Elba and Waterloo. The Russians and Germans had only lately commemorated their liberation from Napoleon's empire, and the British and other peoples were preparing to celebrate the centennial of his final overthrow at Waterloo when another great European war suddenly burst upon the same fields where the same powers had struggled for mastery 100 years before.
The War of the Nations is the tragic sequel of the Napoleonic wars. Some of the parties may have changed sides for the moment; but in their motives and their strategy, the two wars are strangely alike, and I have depicted the earlier as the forerunner of this later conflict. The centenary of Napoleon's downfall, moreover, seems to offer an appropriate occasion for telling again the story that never grows old, and for telling it in the light of our own times.
An effort has been made, therefore, to find in his rise and fall something more than the miraculous vicissitudes of a legendary superman, or the meaningless sport of blind fortune. I have tried to present him simply as a man of the people who, in a period of chaos, was called out of the crowd to embody and vindicate the race of common men against the privileged few, to sweep away ancient systems and wrongs, and, as the incarnation of the Great Revolution, to be enthroned above monarchs of long descent. In short, I have represented him as the servant of a mighty power not of himself and which, with the pitilessness of nature, cast him away when, blinded by personal ambition, he was no longer faithful and useful to its purpose. This is the Napoleon who, after the lapse of a century, retains his dominion over the imagination of the world, supreme in the admiration and the disappointment, in the applause and reproach of men. Since my wife shared my travels and my labours in the preparation of this volume, I hope I may be permitted gratefully to acknowledge her joint authorship.
Author: Morgan, James
Publication Date:1915
An effort has been made, therefore, to find in his rise and fall something more than the miraculous vicissitudes of a legendary superman, or the meaningless sport of blind fortune. I have tried to present him simply as a man of the people who, in a period of chaos, was called out of the crowd to embody and vindicate the race of common men against the privileged few, to sweep away ancient systems and wrongs, and, as the incarnation of the Great Revolution, to be enthroned above monarchs of long descent. In short, I have represented him as the servant of a mighty power not of himself and which, with the pitilessness of nature, cast him away when, blinded by personal ambition, he was no longer faithful and useful to its purpose. This is the Napoleon who, after the lapse of a century, retains his dominion over the imagination of the world, supreme in the admiration and the disappointment, in the applause and reproach of men. Since my wife shared my travels and my labours in the preparation of this volume, I hope I may be permitted gratefully to acknowledge her joint authorship.
Contents:
I Birth and Birthplace 3
II Schooldays in France 13
III Before the Dawn 22
IV The Man on Horseback 31
V A Love Story 38
VI The Little Corporal 46
VII In the Cockpit of Europe 52
VIII Conquering Austria 60
IX Nations at the Feet of a Youth 65
X The Descent upon Egypt 73
XI The Battle of the Pyramids 82
XII Into the Holy Land 91
XIII His First Retreat 100
XIV Ruler of France 110
XV Crossing the Alps 118
XVI Marengo Lost and Won 127
XVII The Law Giver 135
XVTII Selling Louisiana 143
XIX A Day at Malmaison 147
XX How the Republic Died 159
XXI Twice Crowned 167
XXII The Unconquered Sea 178
XXIII The Fall of Vienna 184
XXIV The Sun of Austerlitz 193
XXV The Matchmaker 206
XXVI The Kingmaker 213
XXVII Crushing Prussia 218
XXVIII Eylau and Feiedland 226
XXIX At Tilsit 238
XXX Napoleon's Marshals ........ 247
XXXI VicTOEiES OF Peace . 252
XXXII Fortune Turns 264
XXXIII His Last Victory 272
XXXIV The Unconqueeed Sex 282
XXXV The Divorce 292
XXXVI The Second Marriage 301
XXXVII The King of Rome 310
XXXVIII A World at War 320
XXXIX On to Moscow 329
XL The Torch That Fired the World .... 339
XLI The Great Tragedy 350
XLII The Rising of the Peoples 361
XLIII The Battle of the Nations 369
XLIV At Bay 382
XLV The First Abdication 392
XLVI Emperor of Elba 402
XLVII The Return prom Elba 413
XLVIII The Hundred Days 425
XLIX Waterloo 433
L The Captive Eagle 448
LI St. Helena 458
LII L'AiGLON AND the Bonapartes 473
LIII Across a Century 485
Chronology op Napoleon's Life 495
Index 505
Author: Morgan, James
Publication Date:1915
Publisher: New York, The Macmillan company
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