The Fondation Napoléon’s Summer Selection 2011
The Fondation Napoléon's Summer Selection 2011 continues the formula from recent years. With summer just around the corner (for the northern hemisphere at least), we have put together a list of the latest reading material and cultural events taking place across the world to keep you occupied over the next few months. The digital format is becoming increasingly widespread as e-book readers become more affordable, ever more portable, and easier to use: with this in mind, this year we have included plenty of digital links for all those out there with iPhones, iPads, Kindles, Galaxies, and all the other wonderful gadgets available on the technology market. As well as the Fondation Napoléon's own digital services (napoleon.org, the digital library and Napoleonica. La Revue), for the first time we are bringing you links to certain works of history that can be digitally downloaded. That's not to say, however, that we have neglected the more traditional reading medium: this year's selection still contains plenty of “normal” books (and some, such as Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon…, slightly less “normal”) that you can pick up, hold and flick through at your leisure. All books and media are in English unless otherwise stated.
The Empire & Napoleon
BROERS, Michael, GUIMERÁ Agustín, HICKS Peter (eds.), The Napoleonic Empire and the new European political culture (in Spanish)
The proceedings of the international conference “Imperio napoleónico y la nueva cultura política europea”, held in Madrid in April 2008, have been published in Spanish. This collection of articles takes a look at the Napoleonic Empire and the birth of a new European political culture, and takes into consideration 1) the Napoleonic empire as a collective enterprise, 2) the interaction, both collaborative and antagonistic, between the Grande Nation and the European territories it conquered, and 3) the imperialistic nature and reception of French rule in Europe.
DANCOISNE-MARTINEAU Michel, Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud (in French)
In October 1815, Napoleon and his companions, accompanied by a British garrison charged with guarding him, landed on a remote and rocky island in the middle of the South Atlantic. The quiet history of this tiny colony was to be changed forever by this unexpected arrival. With the history of Napoleon Bonaparte on St Helena already well-known, Michel Dancoisne-Martineau approaches it from a different angle, and takes a look at the lives of those who were caught up in the episode.
eBook version (external link in French)
GUENIFFEY Patrice, Histoires de la Révolution et de l'Empire (in French)
In Histoires de la Révolution et de l'Empire, Patrice Gueniffey, director of studies at EHESS, assembles his early work on the French revolutionary and imperial periods. These essays and studies – which have been revised and edited – cover a number of subjects and offer analysis of some of the great characters and historians of the periods, including La Fayette, Bainville, and of course Napoleon.
Memoirs & letters
AMEUR Farid (ed.), Voyage en Amérique 1861-1862. Un prince français dans la guerre de Sécession (in French)
Arriving in New York in September 1861, five months after the outbreak of the Civil War, the young Princes of Orléans were immediately received by President Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward. Keen to fight the good fight and regain some of their lost glory, the brothers donned the blue uniform belonging to the Unionist soldiers and were commissioned as captains into the Army of the Potomac as part of McClellan's general staff. They participated fully in operations against the Confederates, often serving on the frontline. In July 1862, they left America deeply enriched by this experience.
AYMES Jean-René, BITTOUN-DEBRUYNE Nathalie (trs. & eds.), Memorias sobre la guerra de los franceses en España (in Spanish)
These memoirs, written by Albert Jean Michel de Rocca in 1814, differ from other texts on the War of Independence written by French soldiers in their incisive tone, curiosity, and respect for the Spanish. Through Rocca's elegant descriptions of the Napoleonic army's struggles in Spain, the reader is presented with both the story of the campaign and acute observations of the country and its inhabitants. His first-hand analysis of the practices, reactions, causes and consequences of the conflict allows the reader to relive the experiences and reflections of this French cavalry officer who was not content to simply fight and follow orders.
CIRRINCIONE D'AMELIO Ludovica, LUDOVISI BRUZZESE Maria Pia (eds.), Mon cher Lucien: Lettere familiari a Luciano Bonaparte (in French and Italian)
This exceedingly interesting book contains transcriptions (in French) of, and notes (in Italian) on, fascinating intimate letters (a good number of them published for the first time) from members of the Bonaparte family to Lucien, held in the Archivio Campello, itself part of the Fondazione Primoli in Rome.
CROOK Jonathan, The Very Thing: The Memoirs of Drummer Richard Bentinck, Royal Welch Fusiliers, 1807-1823
Drummer Richard Bentinck of the 23rd of Foot (Royal Welch Fusiliers) was a rarity: he survived many sanguinary experiences and recorded his adventures. His writings provide an evocative portrait of an ordinary soldier's perception of living with one of the most experienced Napoleonic infantry battalions. Jonathan Crook has meticulously researched his ancestor's life, finding unpublished first-hand accounts from Bentinck of desperate conflict across the globe, from Copenhagen to Martinique, throughout the Peninsular Campaign and culminating at the battle of Waterloo. These accounts are drawn from interviews that Bentinck conducted with a journalist just before his death.
GLOVER Gareth (ed.), An Eloquent Soldier: the Peninsular War Journals of Lieutenant Charles Crowe of the Inniskillings, 1812-1814
Lieutenant Charles Crowe's journal of the 27th Foot (Inniskillings) of the final campaign of Wellington's army is a rare work for many reasons. It is, perhaps surprisingly, the first memoir about this campaign from this famous regiment to be published. Crowe wrote a daily journal at the time. But what makes it special is that Crowe was extremely well-read and was an accomplished writer, so that when he wrote up his journal in 1842–3, he was able to embellish his basic musings, describing his thoughts, actions and words in beautiful detail. He thus turned his record of his short army career into a masterpiece of journalism.
LENTZ Thierry (ed.), Mémoires de Napoléon: Vol. II La campagne d'Egypte (in French)
This second volume of Napoleon's memoirs delivers his account of the Egyptian Campaign. Despite preferring not to expand on the eventual defeat that brought the expedition to a close, this retelling of the events nevertheless remains an eye-witness account of the highest order. Afforded the very best in military technology and resources, the upmost secrecy surrounded preparations for the campaign, which set off in 1798. Yet to this day it continues to fascinate us, just as it was great cause for fascination at the time. And despite the final result, the expedition nevertheless retains a special place in the Napoleonic legend.
Biographies
BROWN David, Palmerston
A grand and fascinating figure in Victorian politics, the charismatic Lord Palmerston (1784–1865) served as foreign secretary for fifteen years and prime minister for nine, engaged in struggles with everyone from the Duke of Wellington to Lord John Russell to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, engineered the defeat of the Russians in the Crimean War, and played a major role in the development of liberalism and the Liberal Party. This biography, informed by research in the statesman's personal archives, gives full weight not only to Palmerston's foreign policy achievements, but also to his domestic political activity, political thought, life as a landlord, and private life and affairs.
eBook version (external link)
DE LORENZO Renata, Murat (in Italian)
This book takes a look at the military and political career and subsequent downfall of Joachim Murat. Renata de Lorenzo presents this biography of the soldier who made his name on the battlefield, alongside Napoleon, and who later reigned as king of Naples. Taking in his humble origins, his phenomenally successful military career, the famous Italian campaigns, his exploits in Egypt and Prussia, and his arrival on the Neapolitan throne.
The Second Empire, Italian Unification & The American Civil War
CHAUDUN Nicolas, L'été en enfer, Napoléon III dans la débâcle (in French)
The Second Empire's almost instantaneous collapse stunned Europe and saw France thrown into a century of turbulent decline. Much has been made of this period since, all the more so after lightning struck twice with the carbon copy of this “debacle” in spring 1940. Of all the words written about this time, the emperor has figured little, except in the tired old cliché of the vanquished sovereign, desperately seeking a death on the battlefield that would spare him the humiliation of defeat. Yet with his premonition of disaster, his resignation to his fate, the physical trials he endured (including a bladder stone the size of a fist), and the cruelty of his relationship with the empress, Napoleon III is the perfect tragic hero.
FOREMAN Amanda, A World on Fire
During the titanic struggle between North and South, both sides demanded Britain's support. British volunteers fought on both sides; British guns and bullets littered the battlefields. The South depended on British-built cruisers to make up its navy, and British blockade runners to supply its armies. This book portrays the extraordinary web of relationships between the two countries through the lives of over a hundred participants – soldiers, mercenaries, politicians, spies, journalists, diplomats, doctors and nurses who, at home or abroad, recorded their experience of the war.
eBook version (external link)
GLIKMAN Juliette, Louis-Napoléon prisonnier. Du Fort de Ham aux ors des Tuileries (in French)
In 1840, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, in exile since his uncle Napoleon I was chased from the French throne, attempted a night-time landing on the beaches of Boulogne. His goal: to march on Paris. The attempt failed miserably and the prince, now the laughing stock of France, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Château de Ham. But this punishment, far from casting him out of mind, proved the basis for Louis-Napoleon's unexpected political rebirth: on the back of impassioned pamphlets denouncing the government and meetings with the major players of the Republican movement, he forged his new identity, and in the process thrust himself back into the political arena.
eBook version (external link in French)
ROSSI Lauro (ed.), Un laboratorio politico per l'Italia: La Repubblica romana del 1849 (in Italian)
This rich volume is a collection of essays, documents and images recounting the places, the events, the protagonists, and the remembrance of the political foundations stones laid in 1849 in the construction of modern Italy. This brief historical episode left a rich patrimony, and it is one which is worth rediscovering so as to savouring today the values without which it was not possible, at the time, to build the nation, and without which it would seem today difficult to live together in a civic society worthy of the name.
Military
CANDELA Gilles, L'Armée d'Italie. Des missionnaires armés à la naissance de la guerre napoléonienne (in French)
Published with assistance from the Fondation Napoléon, this book is a study of the Armée d'Italie between 1792 and 1797. During the period, this war machine mobilised by the Revolution was a petri dish for strategic and tactical experimentation. Over the course of a long positional war strung out along the Alps, the revolutionary army proceeded to develop new methods of warfare.
DIVALL Carole, Inside the Regiment: The Officers and Men of the 30th Regiment During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
In this companion volume to her 2009 book, Redcoats Against Napoleon, Carole Divall tells the inside story of a typical infantry regiment during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Rather than focusing on the history of the 30th Regiment of the Line in action and on campaign, she explores its organization, traditions and hierarchy, its personnel, and the ethos that held it together. Using primary source material, in particular surviving regimental records, War Office documents, letters and journals, Divall reconstructs the life of the 30th Foot – and the lives of the men who served in it – during a critical period in Europe's military history.
For the coffee table
CASTLE Alison, Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon, The Greatest Movie Never Made
For 40 years, Kubrick fans and film buffs have wondered about the director's mysterious unmade film on Napoleon Bonaparte. Slated for production immediately following the release of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick's “Napoleon” was to be at once a character study and a sweeping epic, replete with grandiose battle scenes featuring thousands of extras. This edition features the original script, essays examining the screenplay, Jean Tulard's essay on Napoleon in cinema, transcripts of interviews conducted by Kubrick with Oxford professor Felix Markham, costume studies and nearly 17,000 Napoleonic images (accessed via the online database).
CHANTERANNE David, PAPOT Emmanuelle, Napoleon: His Life, His Battles, His Empire
Napoleon Bonaparte is one of history's greatest leaders. Famed for his outstanding success on the battlefield, which saw France become the greatest continental imperial power since that of Rome, his enduring influence extends far beyond the military sphere, shaping the Europe we know today. Napoleon: His Life, His Battles, which includes twenty items of painstakingly researched facsimile memorabilia, examines the battles which made him a legend – Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram – and looks at his social and political reforms which revolutionized the western world.
Reference
MASCILLI MIGLIORINI Luigi (ed.), Italia napoleonica: Dizionario critico (in Italian)
The idea for this book was that it should stand alongside the important critical dictionaries of Europe. Hence it is a tool, designed not only to be a source of information but also a guide for further research. Via its hundred or so entries, Italia napoleonica offers not only a wealth of bibliographical information but also an exhaustive account of the events and problems of the Napoleonic period in which – as Giuseppe Galasso notes in his preface – “the Italian national question is seen as the main and fundamental question for Italians.”
Other media
DORMER Tom, DUFF Andrew, SAUNDERS Tim, The Waterloo Collection: Ligny and Quatre Bras (DVD)
This is the first part of a suite of programmes that will cover the Waterloo Campaign as a whole, from the concentration of the Armies astride the north eastern frontier of France, through to the Allied pursuit of Napoleon's defeated army to Paris. DVD one comprises an introduction covering the political and strategic situation facing both Napoleon and the Allies, along with detail of the opposing armies and their deployment prior to the campaign's opening moves, which will then be followed by programmes on the twin battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny.
FONDATION NAPOLEON, Digital Library
The Fondation Napoléon's digital library features sixteen rare or hard to find monographs, maps and memoirs, as well as all twenty volumes of Adolphe Thiers' Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire, and five PhD theses from Fondation Napoléon study grant awardees. Not only can every one of these documents can be viewed in high-definition via our website, but they can also be downloaded to your computer.
FONDATION NAPOLEON, Napoleonica. La Revue
The Fondation Napoléon's academic review, Napoleonica. La Revue, is freely consultable and downloadable via cairn.info. Every issue, from the latest edition (n° 10) – which was released recently – to the very first (released back in 2008) and the special “Musiques sous l'Empire” edition (released in 2010), is available online. Issue n° 10 includes articles on Russia's involvement in the Franco-Austrian war of 1809, Napoleonic medals from the Spanish campaign, and contemporary American observations on the Napoleonic regime.
Exhibitions
“Wives and Sweethearts”, London, UK
Until 30 July, 2011
Wives and Sweethearts” explores soldiers' relationships from the 18th century to the present day through a deeply-moving selection of letters and photographs.
“French Romantic gardens (1770-1840)”, Paris, France
Until 17 July, 2011
This exhibition, which features several hundred paintings, watercolours, drawings and objets d'art, offers the visitor the chance to explore the gardens and parks of Romantic-era France.
“Making Italians”, Turin, Italy
Until 20 November, 2011
Part of the 2011 commemorations marking the 150th anniversary of Italian unification, “Making Italians” tells the story of Italy from unification through to the present day.
“Of Elephants and Roses: Encounters with French Natural History, 1790-1830”, Philadelphia, USA
Until 31 December, 2011
Taking place at the APS Museum in Philadelphia, “Of Elephants and Roses: Encounters with French Natural History, 1790–1830” takes a look at natural history in post-revolutionary France.
“George III in caricature”, Richmond, UK
Until 25 September, 2011
Kew Palace, the home of King George III, will be marking the 250th anniversary year of his coronation with an exhibition of rarely-seen Georgian royal caricatures, united for the first time with personal objects belonging to the victims of their “humour”.
“Tarragona during the war with France, 1808-1814”, Tarragona, Spain
Until 3 July, 2011
This exhibition at the Centre for maritime studies in Tarragona commemorates the bloody siege of the city and port of Tarragona by Suchet's troops from May to June 1811.
“Magnificence and Grandeur of the Royal Houses in Europe”, Monaco
11 July – 11 September, 2011
To celebrate the wedding of HSH Prince Albert II to Miss Charlène Wittstock, a momentous occasion in the life of the Principality, the Grimaldi Forum's summer exhibition is “Magnificence and Grandeur of the Royal Houses in Europe”, which runs from 11 July to 11 September, 2011. The Fondation Napoléon – a participating institution – has loaned twenty-three objects to this exhibition, which takes the visitor on a visit to the courts of the royal and imperial powers through the ages.