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Наполеон
Russian Book. Publisher: Zakharov. Pages: 352. Year: 2018. Cover: Hardcover.
- GenresBiography
436 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1928
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37 people want to read
About the author
Dmitry Merezhkovsky
445 books56 followersDmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky, (Russian: Дмитрий Сергеевич Мережковский) was a Russian novelist, poet, religious thinker, and literary critic. A seminal figure of the Silver Age of Russian Poetry, regarded as a co-founder of the Symbolist movement, Merezhkovsky – with his poet wife Zinaida Gippius – was twice forced into political exile. During his second exile (1918–1941) he continued publishing successful novels and gained recognition as a critic of Soviet Russia. Known both as a self-styled religious prophet with his own slant on apocalyptic Christianity, and as the author of philosophical historical novels which combined fervent idealism with literary innovation, Merezhkovsky was a nine times nominee for the Nobel Prize in literature, which he came closest to winning in 1933.
The words he put in Leonardo da Vinci's mouth in his biographical novel Romance of Leonardo da Vinci -- "I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men" -- are echoed by animal rights activists all over the world and have come to often be misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci himself.
The words he put in Leonardo da Vinci's mouth in his biographical novel Romance of Leonardo da Vinci -- "I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men" -- are echoed by animal rights activists all over the world and have come to often be misattributed to Leonardo da Vinci himself.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 4, 2021
Ein Stern als Warnung, für meine Lehrer war das Buch ein Fünf-Sterne-Menü
Annäherungen an einen Halbgott, bzw. Versuch einem Phänomen aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln auf theosophischer Grundlage gerecht zu werden. Unsere Waldorflehrer zitierten häufig daraus, auch allerlei schwer verdauliche bis kryptische Feststellungen aus dem Biologie-Unterricht kann ich jetzt immerhin namhaft machen. Einige Geistesblitze, die den üblichen Fachgelehrten nie unterlaufen würden, vermitteln durchaus bedenkenswerte Einsichten in dieses aus der Zeit gefallene Wesen und sein ungewöhnliches Wahrnehmungsvermögen, für Mentalitätsforscher in Sachen Zwischenkriegszeit dürften Mereschkowskijs Reflexionen zur Tagespolitik durchaus von Interesse sein. Aber ohne entsprechenden Bildungshintergrund oder spezifische Erkenntnisinteressen ist dieser Napoleon für sehr weit Fortgeschrittene glatte Zeitverschwendung.
Von daher ein Stern aus Sicht der Fachhistoriker und von Lesern, die einfach etwas über Napoleon erfahren wollen, der Objektivitätsgrad ist gleich null, zumal DMs Stärke als Romancier, sich hier als zentrale Schwäche erweist. Dieser Autor kann sehr gut die Widersprüche eines Zeitalters, gerade beim Wechsel von Heidentum zu Christentum, Mitteltalter zu Renaissance oder die Reaktionen von staatlichen Eingriffen in Religion und Tradition in Personenkonstellationen verwandeln, ohne eine Seite komplett ins Unrecht zu setzen. Aber der Versuch allen Seiten des Mannes von Atlantis, sprich Übermenschen alter Schule gerecht zu werden, produziert Widersprüche noch und nöcher, auch wenn jede Einsicht für sich durchaus relevant erscheinen mag.
Annäherungen an einen Halbgott, bzw. Versuch einem Phänomen aus unterschiedlichen Blickwinkeln auf theosophischer Grundlage gerecht zu werden. Unsere Waldorflehrer zitierten häufig daraus, auch allerlei schwer verdauliche bis kryptische Feststellungen aus dem Biologie-Unterricht kann ich jetzt immerhin namhaft machen. Einige Geistesblitze, die den üblichen Fachgelehrten nie unterlaufen würden, vermitteln durchaus bedenkenswerte Einsichten in dieses aus der Zeit gefallene Wesen und sein ungewöhnliches Wahrnehmungsvermögen, für Mentalitätsforscher in Sachen Zwischenkriegszeit dürften Mereschkowskijs Reflexionen zur Tagespolitik durchaus von Interesse sein. Aber ohne entsprechenden Bildungshintergrund oder spezifische Erkenntnisinteressen ist dieser Napoleon für sehr weit Fortgeschrittene glatte Zeitverschwendung.
Von daher ein Stern aus Sicht der Fachhistoriker und von Lesern, die einfach etwas über Napoleon erfahren wollen, der Objektivitätsgrad ist gleich null, zumal DMs Stärke als Romancier, sich hier als zentrale Schwäche erweist. Dieser Autor kann sehr gut die Widersprüche eines Zeitalters, gerade beim Wechsel von Heidentum zu Christentum, Mitteltalter zu Renaissance oder die Reaktionen von staatlichen Eingriffen in Religion und Tradition in Personenkonstellationen verwandeln, ohne eine Seite komplett ins Unrecht zu setzen. Aber der Versuch allen Seiten des Mannes von Atlantis, sprich Übermenschen alter Schule gerecht zu werden, produziert Widersprüche noch und nöcher, auch wenn jede Einsicht für sich durchaus relevant erscheinen mag.
February 1, 2019
In a personal residence in Cairo, in the library of one Sheik ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Yaḥyá, a perceptive eye may spot among the yellowing and faded titles a French translation of this book. One of its chapter titles, "The Lord of the World," has an interesting coincidence with that sheikh's book The King of the World, which was published in the previous year.
Recently Merezhkovsky has been gaining renewed interest in certain circles in Russia, and this book is being read again. It is a book hard to obtain in English. I have found that copies of it seem to vanish. If you find an English copy be careful with it, as it was printed on acidic paper that seems to be flaking away.
Napoleon loved directness to the point of crudity, and treated life like a battle. "As any rigid rule becomes an annoyance to him," wrote Talleyrand, "and every liberty which he takes pleases him as though it were a victory, he would never yield even to grammar."
He desired the elimination of all borders in the name of Equality. His method of obtaining this was conquest, and as soon as he seized power on the 18th Brumaire he offered the Emperor of Russia a joint campaign against India. He proposed a fleet in Ireland and a second coronation in Delhi, by which he might control the planet.
He once stood over the grave of Rousseau and said: "He was a bad man, an evil man! Without him there would have been no French Revolution. It is true that I, too, would not have existed... Perhaps that would have been better for the happiness of France." As Merezhkovsky pains to emphasize, Napoleon was a master of understatement. It was not only France that would have been better off without him, but all of Europe. And yet their destinies became intertwined and all that happened thereafter in Europe was a result.
"Cosmos is nurtured by Chaos," remarks Merezhkovsky, and quotes Napoleon to that effect: "In spite of all its atrocities, the Revolution was the true cause of our moral regeneration: thus the most foul-smelling manure produces the most noble vegetation."
"Perhaps, nowadays, Russians who have tasted of the communist inferno know of Napoleon that which Europeans do not, and which cannot be learnt from forty thousand books." Merezhkovsky is a partisan of Europe and of Napoleon, who would have freed the serfs had he met with success in Russia. He wonders whether Lenin was a result of Napoleon's failure.
Napoleon's fate was determined by the equinox. His major losses occurred as the sun went into recess; his solar power would decline. He wrote in his diary that the mass of humanity were as different from him "as moonlight differs from sunshine". Later, possibly during a fever dream, he writes a very strange, disjointed story in his diary, which Merezhkovsky reconstructs. In feverish and poor French he recalls ancient myths about Corsica being the home of the Gorgons, and connects that with the blinding luminosity of the Sun, which made prehistoric men worship it with sacrifices of blood.
If you want to depart from the dreary business of Europe as a series of economic and demographic calculations, and consider the question of Europe as an idea, this is a good book to start with. Merezhkovsky describes Napoleon as the "last man of the West": the last man, that is, in which the two souls of the West were both fully incarnated and realized. One wonders.
Recently Merezhkovsky has been gaining renewed interest in certain circles in Russia, and this book is being read again. It is a book hard to obtain in English. I have found that copies of it seem to vanish. If you find an English copy be careful with it, as it was printed on acidic paper that seems to be flaking away.
Napoleon loved directness to the point of crudity, and treated life like a battle. "As any rigid rule becomes an annoyance to him," wrote Talleyrand, "and every liberty which he takes pleases him as though it were a victory, he would never yield even to grammar."
He desired the elimination of all borders in the name of Equality. His method of obtaining this was conquest, and as soon as he seized power on the 18th Brumaire he offered the Emperor of Russia a joint campaign against India. He proposed a fleet in Ireland and a second coronation in Delhi, by which he might control the planet.
He once stood over the grave of Rousseau and said: "He was a bad man, an evil man! Without him there would have been no French Revolution. It is true that I, too, would not have existed... Perhaps that would have been better for the happiness of France." As Merezhkovsky pains to emphasize, Napoleon was a master of understatement. It was not only France that would have been better off without him, but all of Europe. And yet their destinies became intertwined and all that happened thereafter in Europe was a result.
"Cosmos is nurtured by Chaos," remarks Merezhkovsky, and quotes Napoleon to that effect: "In spite of all its atrocities, the Revolution was the true cause of our moral regeneration: thus the most foul-smelling manure produces the most noble vegetation."
"Perhaps, nowadays, Russians who have tasted of the communist inferno know of Napoleon that which Europeans do not, and which cannot be learnt from forty thousand books." Merezhkovsky is a partisan of Europe and of Napoleon, who would have freed the serfs had he met with success in Russia. He wonders whether Lenin was a result of Napoleon's failure.
Napoleon's fate was determined by the equinox. His major losses occurred as the sun went into recess; his solar power would decline. He wrote in his diary that the mass of humanity were as different from him "as moonlight differs from sunshine". Later, possibly during a fever dream, he writes a very strange, disjointed story in his diary, which Merezhkovsky reconstructs. In feverish and poor French he recalls ancient myths about Corsica being the home of the Gorgons, and connects that with the blinding luminosity of the Sun, which made prehistoric men worship it with sacrifices of blood.
If you want to depart from the dreary business of Europe as a series of economic and demographic calculations, and consider the question of Europe as an idea, this is a good book to start with. Merezhkovsky describes Napoleon as the "last man of the West": the last man, that is, in which the two souls of the West were both fully incarnated and realized. One wonders.
June 14, 2017
Иногда победы воспринимаются поражениями. Поражением России считает Мережковский её победу над Наполеоном. Дмитрий смотрит обыденно, не вдаваясь в подробности. Для него реальное положение дел кажется простым. Он даже не задумывается, каким мог оказаться мир после смерти Наполеона. Достаточно вспомнить о революционных взглядах французов, шедших от республики к республике, чтобы снова допустить воцарение очередного монарха. Мережковский о том совсем не думает. Он понимает два миллиона погибших вследствие политических амбиций Наполеона, сравнивая их с тридцатью миллионами жертв красного террора в стране Советов. Того террора могло не быть, думает Дмитрий. А не могло ли быть террора пострашнее?
(c) Trounin
(c) Trounin
May 12, 2018
Quasi finito... una bella biografia di Napoleone, vista dall'autore, come fa spesso, in una visione titanica. Salta episodi della vita ( per dire le donne, Désirée, Maria Walewska) per concentrarsi sul generale, le sue battaglie- che forse per la prima volta quasi riesco a seguire- e ovviamente in forma di destino, ripete più volte il "Sant'Elena, piccola isola". Con spiegazioni non so se sempre esatte dei motivi che lo hanno portato alle scelte. vede traditori dappertutto, non so se lo erano sempre. Ricorre moltissimo a citazioni di memoriali contemporanei , che da una parte danno veridicità al racconto, ma non possiamo sicuri che siano sempre tutti esatti. merita comunque una lettura per una visione del personaggio.
September 21, 2025
DM ’s way of writing provokes easily vivid images in the reader’s mind. Like hosting the great storyteller telling you about a historical figure who’s heart stayed pure to the bitter end and the three generations of men dead under his command are dead by their own choice to die for this guy. I can’t hide that I was moved too and have now feelings for Napoleon.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews