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Napoleon is Dead in Russia
Good+ condition book with dust jacket. Complete DJ is clean, has fresh colours and has little wear to edges. Book has clean pages with some light toning/spotting to page ends
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 23, 2015
This was a pleasant surprise. I'd read a long, scholarly biography of Napoleon recently and have had an interest in the French revolution since high school. Seeing this title and another about Bonaparte's Elba exile on the sale cart at a local Half-price Books I decided to pick both up despite their being translations. Besides, I remembered nothing of there having been an almost-successful coup against the emperor.
In fact, while Napoleon was in Moscow, a cashiered Republican general did almost pull off the overthrow of the imperial government, this almost single-handedly by means of forged documents announcing a provisional government formed upon news of the death of Bonaparte. Of course, he was well, personally if not militarily, in Russia, but no one knew that, news from the front taking weeks to reach Paris. Using these documents he, General Claude-François de Malet, was able to commander first one, then another, then another brigade of troops and office of the government, only to be stopped at the verge of making a general, publc announcement.
Author Artom's narrative is detailed and novelistic, records of the events of that day allowing an almost minute-by-minute description of events and motives. So well translated is this account that it reads like a novel--or, better, the basis for a cinematic screenplay.
In fact, while Napoleon was in Moscow, a cashiered Republican general did almost pull off the overthrow of the imperial government, this almost single-handedly by means of forged documents announcing a provisional government formed upon news of the death of Bonaparte. Of course, he was well, personally if not militarily, in Russia, but no one knew that, news from the front taking weeks to reach Paris. Using these documents he, General Claude-François de Malet, was able to commander first one, then another, then another brigade of troops and office of the government, only to be stopped at the verge of making a general, publc announcement.
Author Artom's narrative is detailed and novelistic, records of the events of that day allowing an almost minute-by-minute description of events and motives. So well translated is this account that it reads like a novel--or, better, the basis for a cinematic screenplay.
February 18, 2019
In the small hours of Friday October 23, 1812, a man arrived, with just two companions and a wad of official-looking papers, at the Barracks of the Paris National Guard. His name was Claude-Francois Malet, and he was engaged on a project anticipating Eric Frank Russell's "Wasp" (read my review of that if you don't know what I mean) - to bring down an Empire single-handed.
Malet was an old Jacobin, disgusted by Napoleon's neo-Monarchical regime. Though for a time he grudgingly accepted service under the Empire, its officials knew his attitude, and promotion was not forthcoming. Malet, increasingly discontented, found himself drifting perforce into the company of his old enemies, the French Royalists, who of course also objected to Napoleon and had already made several plots against his life - all unsuccessful as the Emperor was too well guarded and his intelligence service too efficient. By 1812 the survivors were mostly behind bars at La Force Prison.
Assuming leadership, Malet made one of those discoveries which is obvious to all - after someone else has thought of it. It was not necessary for Napoleon to have been really killed - just as long as people believed he was. For Napoleon was far away in Russia, a two week journey by courier. If authentic looking documents announced the Emperor's death, it would take nearly a month for their falsity to be established. By then, so many important men would have compromised themselves by accepting the new government that there could be no going back.
Malet proceeded to draft such papers, announcing Napoleon's death, abolition of the Empire, and appointment by the Senate of a new government comprising both Royalists and old Republicans, plus anyone else who didn't like Napoleon.
For an incredible moment, it seemed to go like clockwork. Malet provided himself with a set of confederates simply by arriving at La Force Prison, with impressive looking documents ordering the release of the men he wanted. His dispute with the Prison Governor because one of his documents was "signed" by the wrong man recalls the similar break-out in "Wasp". With two of the released men, he proceeded to the National Guard Barracks, to present more papers putting himself in command and ordering the arrest and imprisonment of various important officials.
Perhaps I display the prejudice of a lifelong civilian, but I find something irresistibly comic in the spectacle of all these armed men, presented with bits of paper by someone with the right badges of rank, being told to "go and arrest the government" and just trotting off and doing it, as unquestioning as a bunch of robots. It recalls Gogol's fictional "Government Inspector", or Prussia's real "Captain of Kopenick". Gilbert and Sullivan could have made a wonderful comic opera out of it.
But it was not to be. One of Malet's henchmen got drunk and failed to carry out his assignment, while one officer (smelling a rat because he happened to know the Senate hadn't met) saw through the deception and managed to capture Malet rather than vice versa. From here on, it was all downhill, essentially over by midday with order restored and Empress Marie-Louise, legally Regent in Napoleon's absence, or for his son if he had really died, finally told what was afoot. Till now, she and her child had been totally ignored by all concerned.
At this point, the Malet Conspiracy closely parallels the 1944 Stauffenberg Plot - also essentially the work of one man. That too, despite the failure of the bomb, seemed to be going smoothly, until Dr Goebbels, knowing that Hitler was alive, talked the officer sent to arrest him into allowing a telephone call to the Fuhrer. Both plots are classic cases of "The Power of One"
Even now there were hiccups, In a scene worthy of Dad's Army, the Prefect of the Seine, released from prison, sought to repossess his office, but the soldiers on guard, not abreast of the latest news, assumed that the "former Prefect" had escaped from jail, and sent him into undignified flight as they attempted to rearrest him. Another officer refused to accept the revocation of his orders from Malet, as these were given him by a general and "of course" could not be countermanded by a mere major. But the joke quickly turned sour as the last remnants were mopped up, and the whole thing ended with fourteen executions. Even innocent officers who had acted in good faith were shot, on the grounds that even had Malet been telling the truth, it was all still treasonable as Napoleon's son was his lawful successor. Their duty had been to cry "Vive Napoleon II".
This, of course, was precisely what nobody, of whatever sympathies, had made the slightest attempt to do. The Empire's own succession laws had been totally ignored by everyone. Napoleon's reprisals were in vain, against the knowledge that all his efforts to solidify his regime, even divorcing Josephine in order to get an heir, had been energy wasted. Even should he escape military defeat, the moment he died, even of natural causes, all his work was doomed to vanish in a puff of smoke. The Emperor, in fact, had no clothes.
One final irony. On October 25, just two days after Malet's attempted coup, Napoleon rode out to reconnoitre enemy positions on the battlefield of Maloyaroslavetz, and escaped only by the skin of his teeth from the mass of Cossacks that swept down on him. One can't help trying to picture the reactions of those who, just a week or two after executing the conspirators, received the news that Napoleon really was dead in Russia - or at least a prisoner there. That would have been the biggest laugh of all, except of course for the families of the condemned.
A fascinating book, about an historical event which would be utterly incredible as fiction, yet which really happened. If you are remotely interested in the period, grab it.
Malet was an old Jacobin, disgusted by Napoleon's neo-Monarchical regime. Though for a time he grudgingly accepted service under the Empire, its officials knew his attitude, and promotion was not forthcoming. Malet, increasingly discontented, found himself drifting perforce into the company of his old enemies, the French Royalists, who of course also objected to Napoleon and had already made several plots against his life - all unsuccessful as the Emperor was too well guarded and his intelligence service too efficient. By 1812 the survivors were mostly behind bars at La Force Prison.
Assuming leadership, Malet made one of those discoveries which is obvious to all - after someone else has thought of it. It was not necessary for Napoleon to have been really killed - just as long as people believed he was. For Napoleon was far away in Russia, a two week journey by courier. If authentic looking documents announced the Emperor's death, it would take nearly a month for their falsity to be established. By then, so many important men would have compromised themselves by accepting the new government that there could be no going back.
Malet proceeded to draft such papers, announcing Napoleon's death, abolition of the Empire, and appointment by the Senate of a new government comprising both Royalists and old Republicans, plus anyone else who didn't like Napoleon.
For an incredible moment, it seemed to go like clockwork. Malet provided himself with a set of confederates simply by arriving at La Force Prison, with impressive looking documents ordering the release of the men he wanted. His dispute with the Prison Governor because one of his documents was "signed" by the wrong man recalls the similar break-out in "Wasp". With two of the released men, he proceeded to the National Guard Barracks, to present more papers putting himself in command and ordering the arrest and imprisonment of various important officials.
Perhaps I display the prejudice of a lifelong civilian, but I find something irresistibly comic in the spectacle of all these armed men, presented with bits of paper by someone with the right badges of rank, being told to "go and arrest the government" and just trotting off and doing it, as unquestioning as a bunch of robots. It recalls Gogol's fictional "Government Inspector", or Prussia's real "Captain of Kopenick". Gilbert and Sullivan could have made a wonderful comic opera out of it.
But it was not to be. One of Malet's henchmen got drunk and failed to carry out his assignment, while one officer (smelling a rat because he happened to know the Senate hadn't met) saw through the deception and managed to capture Malet rather than vice versa. From here on, it was all downhill, essentially over by midday with order restored and Empress Marie-Louise, legally Regent in Napoleon's absence, or for his son if he had really died, finally told what was afoot. Till now, she and her child had been totally ignored by all concerned.
At this point, the Malet Conspiracy closely parallels the 1944 Stauffenberg Plot - also essentially the work of one man. That too, despite the failure of the bomb, seemed to be going smoothly, until Dr Goebbels, knowing that Hitler was alive, talked the officer sent to arrest him into allowing a telephone call to the Fuhrer. Both plots are classic cases of "The Power of One"
Even now there were hiccups, In a scene worthy of Dad's Army, the Prefect of the Seine, released from prison, sought to repossess his office, but the soldiers on guard, not abreast of the latest news, assumed that the "former Prefect" had escaped from jail, and sent him into undignified flight as they attempted to rearrest him. Another officer refused to accept the revocation of his orders from Malet, as these were given him by a general and "of course" could not be countermanded by a mere major. But the joke quickly turned sour as the last remnants were mopped up, and the whole thing ended with fourteen executions. Even innocent officers who had acted in good faith were shot, on the grounds that even had Malet been telling the truth, it was all still treasonable as Napoleon's son was his lawful successor. Their duty had been to cry "Vive Napoleon II".
This, of course, was precisely what nobody, of whatever sympathies, had made the slightest attempt to do. The Empire's own succession laws had been totally ignored by everyone. Napoleon's reprisals were in vain, against the knowledge that all his efforts to solidify his regime, even divorcing Josephine in order to get an heir, had been energy wasted. Even should he escape military defeat, the moment he died, even of natural causes, all his work was doomed to vanish in a puff of smoke. The Emperor, in fact, had no clothes.
One final irony. On October 25, just two days after Malet's attempted coup, Napoleon rode out to reconnoitre enemy positions on the battlefield of Maloyaroslavetz, and escaped only by the skin of his teeth from the mass of Cossacks that swept down on him. One can't help trying to picture the reactions of those who, just a week or two after executing the conspirators, received the news that Napoleon really was dead in Russia - or at least a prisoner there. That would have been the biggest laugh of all, except of course for the families of the condemned.
A fascinating book, about an historical event which would be utterly incredible as fiction, yet which really happened. If you are remotely interested in the period, grab it.
February 18, 2019
In the small hours of Friday October 23, 1812, a man arrived, with just two companions and a wad of official-looking papers, at the Barracks of the Paris National Guard. His name was Claude-Francois Malet, and he was engaged on a project anticipating Eric Frank Russell's "Wasp" (read my review of that if you don't know what I mean) - to bring down an Empire single-handed.
Malet was an old Jacobin, disgusted by Napoleon's neo-Monarchical regime. Though for a time he grudgingly accepted service under the Empire, its officials knew his attitude, and promotion was not forthcoming. Malet, increasingly discontented, found himself drifting perforce into the company of his old enemies, the French Royalists, who of course also objected to Napoleon and had already made several plots against his life - all unsuccessful as the Emperor was too well guarded and his intelligence service too efficient. By 1812 the survivors were mostly behind bars at La Force Prison.
Assuming leadership, Malet made one of those discoveries which is obvious to all - after someone else has thought of it. It was not necessary for Napoleon to have been really killed - just as long as people believed he was. For Napoleon was far away in Russia, a two week journey by courier. If authentic looking documents announced the Emperor's death, it would take nearly a month for their falsity to be established. By then, so many important men would have compromised themselves by accepting the new government that there could be no going back.
Malet proceeded to draft such papers, announcing Napoleon's death, abolition of the Empire, and appointment by the Senate of a new government comprising both Royalists and old Republicans, plus anyone else who didn't like Napoleon.
For an incredible moment, it seemed to go like clockwork. Malet provided himself with a set of confederates simply by arriving at La Force Prison, with impressive looking documents ordering the release of the men he wanted. His dispute with the Prison Governor because one of his documents was "signed" by the wrong man recalls the similar break-out in "Wasp". With two of the released men, he proceeded to the National Guard Barracks, to present more papers putting himself in command and ordering the arrest and imprisonment of various important officials.
Perhaps I display the prejudice of a lifelong civilian, but I find something irresistibly comic in the spectacle of all these armed men, presented with bits of paper by someone with the right badges of rank, being told to "go and arrest the government" and just trotting off and doing it, as unquestioning as a bunch of robots. It recalls Gogol's fictional "Government Inspector", or Prussia's real "Captain of Kopenick". Gilbert and Sullivan could have made a wonderful comic opera out of it.
But it was not to be. One of Malet's henchmen got drunk and failed to carry out his assignment, while one officer (smelling a rat because he happened to know the Senate hadn't met) saw through the deception and managed to capture Malet rather than vice versa. From here on, it was all downhill, essentially over by midday with order restored and Empress Marie-Louise, legally Regent in Napoleon's absence, or for his son if he had really died, finally told what was afoot. Till now, she and her child had been totally ignored by all concerned.
At this point, the Malet Conspiracy closely parallels the 1944 Stauffenberg Plot - also essentially the work of one man. That too, despite the failure of the bomb, seemed to be going smoothly, until Dr Goebbels, knowing that Hitler was alive, talked the officer sent to arrest him into allowing a telephone call to the Fuhrer. Both plots are classic cases of "The Power of One"
Even now there were hiccups, In a scene worthy of Dad's Army, the Prefect of the Seine, released from prison, sought to repossess his office, but the soldiers on guard, not abreast of the latest news, assumed that the "former Prefect" had escaped from jail, and sent him into undignified flight as they attempted to rearrest him. Another officer refused to accept the revocation of his orders from Malet, as these were given him by a general and "of course" could not be countermanded by a mere major. But the joke quickly turned sour as the last remnants were mopped up, and the whole thing ended with fourteen executions. Even innocent officers who had acted in good faith were shot, on the grounds that even had Malet been telling the truth, it was all still treasonable as Napoleon's son was his lawful successor. Their duty had been to cry "Vive Napoleon II".
This, of course, was precisely what nobody, of whatever sympathies, had made the slightest attempt to do. The Empire's own succession laws had been totally ignored by everyone. Napoleon's reprisals were in vain, against the knowledge that all his efforts to solidify his regime, even divorcing Josephine in order to get an heir, had been energy wasted. Even should he escape military defeat, the moment he died, even of natural causes, all his work was doomed to vanish in a puff of smoke. The Emperor, in fact, had no clothes.
One final irony. On October 25, just two days after Malet's attempted coup, Napoleon rode out to reconnoitre enemy positions on the battlefield of Maloyaroslavetz, and escaped only by the skin of his teeth from the mass of Cossacks that swept down on him. One can't help trying to picture the reactions of those who, just a week or two after executing the conspirators, received the news that Napoleon really was dead in Russia - or at least a prisoner there. That would have been the biggest laugh of all, except of course for the families of the condemned.
A fascinating book, about an historical event which would be utterly incredible as fiction, yet which really happened. If you are remotely interested in the period, grab it.
Malet was an old Jacobin, disgusted by Napoleon's neo-Monarchical regime. Though for a time he grudgingly accepted service under the Empire, its officials knew his attitude, and promotion was not forthcoming. Malet, increasingly discontented, found himself drifting perforce into the company of his old enemies, the French Royalists, who of course also objected to Napoleon and had already made several plots against his life - all unsuccessful as the Emperor was too well guarded and his intelligence service too efficient. By 1812 the survivors were mostly behind bars at La Force Prison.
Assuming leadership, Malet made one of those discoveries which is obvious to all - after someone else has thought of it. It was not necessary for Napoleon to have been really killed - just as long as people believed he was. For Napoleon was far away in Russia, a two week journey by courier. If authentic looking documents announced the Emperor's death, it would take nearly a month for their falsity to be established. By then, so many important men would have compromised themselves by accepting the new government that there could be no going back.
Malet proceeded to draft such papers, announcing Napoleon's death, abolition of the Empire, and appointment by the Senate of a new government comprising both Royalists and old Republicans, plus anyone else who didn't like Napoleon.
For an incredible moment, it seemed to go like clockwork. Malet provided himself with a set of confederates simply by arriving at La Force Prison, with impressive looking documents ordering the release of the men he wanted. His dispute with the Prison Governor because one of his documents was "signed" by the wrong man recalls the similar break-out in "Wasp". With two of the released men, he proceeded to the National Guard Barracks, to present more papers putting himself in command and ordering the arrest and imprisonment of various important officials.
Perhaps I display the prejudice of a lifelong civilian, but I find something irresistibly comic in the spectacle of all these armed men, presented with bits of paper by someone with the right badges of rank, being told to "go and arrest the government" and just trotting off and doing it, as unquestioning as a bunch of robots. It recalls Gogol's fictional "Government Inspector", or Prussia's real "Captain of Kopenick". Gilbert and Sullivan could have made a wonderful comic opera out of it.
But it was not to be. One of Malet's henchmen got drunk and failed to carry out his assignment, while one officer (smelling a rat because he happened to know the Senate hadn't met) saw through the deception and managed to capture Malet rather than vice versa. From here on, it was all downhill, essentially over by midday with order restored and Empress Marie-Louise, legally Regent in Napoleon's absence, or for his son if he had really died, finally told what was afoot. Till now, she and her child had been totally ignored by all concerned.
At this point, the Malet Conspiracy closely parallels the 1944 Stauffenberg Plot - also essentially the work of one man. That too, despite the failure of the bomb, seemed to be going smoothly, until Dr Goebbels, knowing that Hitler was alive, talked the officer sent to arrest him into allowing a telephone call to the Fuhrer. Both plots are classic cases of "The Power of One"
Even now there were hiccups, In a scene worthy of Dad's Army, the Prefect of the Seine, released from prison, sought to repossess his office, but the soldiers on guard, not abreast of the latest news, assumed that the "former Prefect" had escaped from jail, and sent him into undignified flight as they attempted to rearrest him. Another officer refused to accept the revocation of his orders from Malet, as these were given him by a general and "of course" could not be countermanded by a mere major. But the joke quickly turned sour as the last remnants were mopped up, and the whole thing ended with fourteen executions. Even innocent officers who had acted in good faith were shot, on the grounds that even had Malet been telling the truth, it was all still treasonable as Napoleon's son was his lawful successor. Their duty had been to cry "Vive Napoleon II".
This, of course, was precisely what nobody, of whatever sympathies, had made the slightest attempt to do. The Empire's own succession laws had been totally ignored by everyone. Napoleon's reprisals were in vain, against the knowledge that all his efforts to solidify his regime, even divorcing Josephine in order to get an heir, had been energy wasted. Even should he escape military defeat, the moment he died, even of natural causes, all his work was doomed to vanish in a puff of smoke. The Emperor, in fact, had no clothes.
One final irony. On October 25, just two days after Malet's attempted coup, Napoleon rode out to reconnoitre enemy positions on the battlefield of Maloyaroslavetz, and escaped only by the skin of his teeth from the mass of Cossacks that swept down on him. One can't help trying to picture the reactions of those who, just a week or two after executing the conspirators, received the news that Napoleon really was dead in Russia - or at least a prisoner there. That would have been the biggest laugh of all, except of course for the families of the condemned.
A fascinating book, about an historical event which would be utterly incredible as fiction, yet which really happened. If you are remotely interested in the period, grab it.
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