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Napoleon in Love
In the summer of 1786, Napoleon met the first of the many beautiful women that would accompany him in his rise to power and fame.
He lived and died a romantic, moving from mistress to mistress in search of the ideal mate.
To the majority he was kind, generous and thoughtful, and their tears moved him to a frenzy of tenderness.
Why, then, did the Emperor who could inspire his soldiers to die with his name on their lips fail to inspire an equal devotion in the hearts of the women so eager for his love?
From penniless artillery man to the height of his power to his exile on St Helena, RL Delderfield explores the women who accompanied Napoleon’s rise and fall.
'Napoleon in Love' is the fascinating story of the personal life of one of Europe's most charismatic historical figures.
Praise for R F Delderfield:
“Impressive…vivid, shrewd…This book is stamped with spirit and authority” – Daily Telegraph
“Delderfield writes with gusto, enriching his narrative with innumerable citations from the memoirs and documents of the period and shrewd observations on the characters” – Boston Globe
“He has his intricate material beautifully in hand, and he writes with grace and conviction” – Library Journal
“It is always a pleasure to read R F Delderfield, because he never seems to be ashamed of writing well” – Books and Bookmen
“[Delderfield is] a skilled journalist, a raconteur, and a good storyteller” – Choice
Ronald Frederick Delderfield (12 February 1912 – 24 June 1972) was an English novelist and dramatist, some of whose works have been adapted for television.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
He lived and died a romantic, moving from mistress to mistress in search of the ideal mate.
To the majority he was kind, generous and thoughtful, and their tears moved him to a frenzy of tenderness.
Why, then, did the Emperor who could inspire his soldiers to die with his name on their lips fail to inspire an equal devotion in the hearts of the women so eager for his love?
From penniless artillery man to the height of his power to his exile on St Helena, RL Delderfield explores the women who accompanied Napoleon’s rise and fall.
'Napoleon in Love' is the fascinating story of the personal life of one of Europe's most charismatic historical figures.
Praise for R F Delderfield:
“Impressive…vivid, shrewd…This book is stamped with spirit and authority” – Daily Telegraph
“Delderfield writes with gusto, enriching his narrative with innumerable citations from the memoirs and documents of the period and shrewd observations on the characters” – Boston Globe
“He has his intricate material beautifully in hand, and he writes with grace and conviction” – Library Journal
“It is always a pleasure to read R F Delderfield, because he never seems to be ashamed of writing well” – Books and Bookmen
“[Delderfield is] a skilled journalist, a raconteur, and a good storyteller” – Choice
Ronald Frederick Delderfield (12 February 1912 – 24 June 1972) was an English novelist and dramatist, some of whose works have been adapted for television.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
725 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1959
12 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
R.F. Delderfield
89 books199 followersRonald Frederick Delderfield was a popular English novelist and dramatist, many of whose works have been adapted for television and are still widely read.
Several of Delderfield's historical novels and series involve young men who return from war and lead lives in England that allow the author to portray the sweep of English history and delve deeply into social history from the Edwardian era to the early 1960s.
From Wikipedia
Several of Delderfield's historical novels and series involve young men who return from war and lead lives in England that allow the author to portray the sweep of English history and delve deeply into social history from the Edwardian era to the early 1960s.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 4, 2014
Not so good as expected specially if you already know part of Napoleon's life.
March 24, 2020
Ever read a history book and get the overwhelming feeling that it was written by a man? A man who gave his sex way too much latitude and sympathy, and the feminine far too little room for growth, circumstance, or variety?
That’s this book.
That’s this book.
February 27, 2022
Napoleon's adventures on the 'bonestrewn beach of the Sirens.'
Delderfield was primarily a novelist, famed for popular novels such as A Horseman Riding By (actually a trilogy) and God Is An Englishman, some of which were adapted for TV. I first encountered him via a school teacher friend of my father, who, knowing of my interest in things Napoleoninc, lent me his copy of Delderfield's Seven Men of Gascony, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
As the latter novels title and subject hints at, Delderfield was also interested in history, and Napoleonic history in particular. In fact obsessed would perhaps be closer to the mark. As another reviewer of a Napoleonic Delderfield book said, somewhere amongst all these Amazon reviews, had Delderfield ever appeared on Mastermind, it's pretty clear what he'd have chosen as his subject!
If one compares Delderfield's approach to that of most contemporary authors in this field, his background in popular fiction marks him out as an 'amateur', amongst a predominantly professional field of academics and military types. Before I read this I'd recently read his The March of the Twenty-six, about Napoleon's Marshals: compare this with, for example, the David Chandler edited Greenhill book, Napoleon's Marshals, and they come across, in some respects, quite differently.
As an author of fiction Delderfield has a gift for words that makes him eminently readable, but one also wonders if he's not also perhaps somewhat susceptible to an understandable love of colourful anecdote. Dry-bones academic and professional historians might sometimes read more stodgily, but be - one hopes? - more concerned with fact than fiction. This is of course to some degree true, but Delderfield shows himself aware of these issues in numerous places in all his books, as, for example here, when he says, regarding the memoirs of Napoleon's valet Constant that 'one cannot help feeling that he has no scruples about sacrificing the truth for sensational reading.'
Another very interesting point is made in the bibliographical notes, where he quotes another Napoleonic historian, expressing their mistrust of the typical scholarly bibliography. I have to say this rings true for me: if you look at some bibliographies (many, perhaps the majority nowadays?) the authors appear to have spent every single waking minute since birth speed-reading the literature on their subject. Can they possibly have read so many of the works cited in any other manner other than very cursorily? Or do they all have teams of researchers?
The latter is certainly true for a lot of the big name authors, especially the TV celebrity types. And the truth is that, for all the armourial titles - sounds very feudal! - of the professionals and scholars, often enough one finds they are as susceptible to myth and propaganda as anyone else. Comparing The March Of The Twenty Six with Napoleon's Marshals, and despite their differences, shows this to be true.
Anyway, having addressed issues of pro vs amateur, and authority and reliability, etc, what of this book itself? Well, it's certainly both fun and informative, ranging from Caroline Colombier, Napoleon's first love, via streetwalkers, mistresses and wives, to his final female companions on the lonely isle of St. Helena.
And what an amazing life Bonaparte lived, filled with epoch making war, statesmanship and, as here, love and sex. Also, whilst a great deal of British writing has, traditionally, been blatantly anti-Napoleonic, Delderfield is clearly a Boney-phile.
For those who don't know much about this aspect of Bonaparte's incredible life, I won't spoil things by going into any detail, and for those who do know... well, you already know! I will just note that the catchphrase 'Not tonight, Josephine' makes no appearance, despite the author covering the whole subject fairly thoroughly.
From a practical perspective the book is well structured, being chronological, and divided in to many short easily digested chapters. As a read it whizzes by, thanks to it being relatively short, those nice brief but plentiful chapters, and the authors enjoyably straightforward yet evocative prose style. As reliable history, despite his own professed awareness of the issues of reliability, Delderfield is both rather partisan and clearly fond of colourful anecdote, although he will often qualify where he thinks stories may be unreliable.
Napoleon the man, and the Napoleonic world, remain endlessly fascinating, as witness the still fecund publishing industry that erupts continually, a veritable Vesuvius of words and opinions, and I can't really pretend to anything approaching professional knowledge on the subject.
Yet my own fairly obsessive interest in this area leads me to think that there has been a sea change in the way it's written about: most modern books tend to focus on more narrow aspects: a particular campaign, or a particular aspect of the era or the man (or other figures, like Wellington, Nelson, The Czar, etc.), whereas in years past treatments were often more holistic, e.g. Sir Walter Scott's many volume epic, recently re-published in a single abridged volume (The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte).
If I'm not mistaken, very often those older books would include a fair amount of coverage of this aspect of Napoleon's life, whilst most modern books more or less ignore it. Given what some (Adam or Marx?) might call this 'advanced capitalist' style of specialisation, Delderfield's book is a welcome addition to any Napoleonic library, filling in a once much read and popular area now often left blank in the vast contemporary Napoleonic literature.
Anyway, in the end I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed this, and give it five stars for the pure pleasure of reading it. If I was being fussily academic, I might give it only three or four... but I'm not, so it gets the full five, for fun. And besides, even taking into consideration his amateur status as a historian, and his pedigree as a writer of fiction, this remains a good solid informative read, even if clearly written by a fan of Bonaparte with a penchant for colourful anecdote. Whichever way you slice it, I'd heartily recommend this.
Delderfield was primarily a novelist, famed for popular novels such as A Horseman Riding By (actually a trilogy) and God Is An Englishman, some of which were adapted for TV. I first encountered him via a school teacher friend of my father, who, knowing of my interest in things Napoleoninc, lent me his copy of Delderfield's Seven Men of Gascony, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
As the latter novels title and subject hints at, Delderfield was also interested in history, and Napoleonic history in particular. In fact obsessed would perhaps be closer to the mark. As another reviewer of a Napoleonic Delderfield book said, somewhere amongst all these Amazon reviews, had Delderfield ever appeared on Mastermind, it's pretty clear what he'd have chosen as his subject!
If one compares Delderfield's approach to that of most contemporary authors in this field, his background in popular fiction marks him out as an 'amateur', amongst a predominantly professional field of academics and military types. Before I read this I'd recently read his The March of the Twenty-six, about Napoleon's Marshals: compare this with, for example, the David Chandler edited Greenhill book, Napoleon's Marshals, and they come across, in some respects, quite differently.
As an author of fiction Delderfield has a gift for words that makes him eminently readable, but one also wonders if he's not also perhaps somewhat susceptible to an understandable love of colourful anecdote. Dry-bones academic and professional historians might sometimes read more stodgily, but be - one hopes? - more concerned with fact than fiction. This is of course to some degree true, but Delderfield shows himself aware of these issues in numerous places in all his books, as, for example here, when he says, regarding the memoirs of Napoleon's valet Constant that 'one cannot help feeling that he has no scruples about sacrificing the truth for sensational reading.'
Another very interesting point is made in the bibliographical notes, where he quotes another Napoleonic historian, expressing their mistrust of the typical scholarly bibliography. I have to say this rings true for me: if you look at some bibliographies (many, perhaps the majority nowadays?) the authors appear to have spent every single waking minute since birth speed-reading the literature on their subject. Can they possibly have read so many of the works cited in any other manner other than very cursorily? Or do they all have teams of researchers?
The latter is certainly true for a lot of the big name authors, especially the TV celebrity types. And the truth is that, for all the armourial titles - sounds very feudal! - of the professionals and scholars, often enough one finds they are as susceptible to myth and propaganda as anyone else. Comparing The March Of The Twenty Six with Napoleon's Marshals, and despite their differences, shows this to be true.
Anyway, having addressed issues of pro vs amateur, and authority and reliability, etc, what of this book itself? Well, it's certainly both fun and informative, ranging from Caroline Colombier, Napoleon's first love, via streetwalkers, mistresses and wives, to his final female companions on the lonely isle of St. Helena.
And what an amazing life Bonaparte lived, filled with epoch making war, statesmanship and, as here, love and sex. Also, whilst a great deal of British writing has, traditionally, been blatantly anti-Napoleonic, Delderfield is clearly a Boney-phile.
For those who don't know much about this aspect of Bonaparte's incredible life, I won't spoil things by going into any detail, and for those who do know... well, you already know! I will just note that the catchphrase 'Not tonight, Josephine' makes no appearance, despite the author covering the whole subject fairly thoroughly.
From a practical perspective the book is well structured, being chronological, and divided in to many short easily digested chapters. As a read it whizzes by, thanks to it being relatively short, those nice brief but plentiful chapters, and the authors enjoyably straightforward yet evocative prose style. As reliable history, despite his own professed awareness of the issues of reliability, Delderfield is both rather partisan and clearly fond of colourful anecdote, although he will often qualify where he thinks stories may be unreliable.
Napoleon the man, and the Napoleonic world, remain endlessly fascinating, as witness the still fecund publishing industry that erupts continually, a veritable Vesuvius of words and opinions, and I can't really pretend to anything approaching professional knowledge on the subject.
Yet my own fairly obsessive interest in this area leads me to think that there has been a sea change in the way it's written about: most modern books tend to focus on more narrow aspects: a particular campaign, or a particular aspect of the era or the man (or other figures, like Wellington, Nelson, The Czar, etc.), whereas in years past treatments were often more holistic, e.g. Sir Walter Scott's many volume epic, recently re-published in a single abridged volume (The Life of Napoleon Buonaparte).
If I'm not mistaken, very often those older books would include a fair amount of coverage of this aspect of Napoleon's life, whilst most modern books more or less ignore it. Given what some (Adam or Marx?) might call this 'advanced capitalist' style of specialisation, Delderfield's book is a welcome addition to any Napoleonic library, filling in a once much read and popular area now often left blank in the vast contemporary Napoleonic literature.
Anyway, in the end I can only say that I thoroughly enjoyed this, and give it five stars for the pure pleasure of reading it. If I was being fussily academic, I might give it only three or four... but I'm not, so it gets the full five, for fun. And besides, even taking into consideration his amateur status as a historian, and his pedigree as a writer of fiction, this remains a good solid informative read, even if clearly written by a fan of Bonaparte with a penchant for colourful anecdote. Whichever way you slice it, I'd heartily recommend this.
June 8, 2019
Very very good, very easy and interesting to read,not dry or textbook like at all. My only reason not to give 5 stars is I hoped more of Napoleon's actual letters and quotes would be included. Being the king of love letters and this being a book on his love life,I expected more in that area.
March 23, 2015
Brilliant evocation of the early phase of Napoleon's life - brings him, his achievements and millieu to vivid life...
May 27, 2017
Save the Victorian-era bias of the author, it is pleasurable only if one knows Napoleon not as much. It is after-all a mainstream account of his affairs along-with slight tinge of his battlefield stories. However, it is a good light read if one is solely driven by the pleasure of it and not by so-called life-story that it claims to cover.
July 20, 2016
Very interesting book and shows a very different side of Napoleon. I remember a wonderful book about Deseree his first love years ago so this backed that up for me. I learned a lot and enjoyed it very much.
February 13, 2011
Truly wonderful book written about Napolean and Josephine's love. A side to Napolean rarely shown and written about.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews