Biography, Napoleon Bonaparte 拿破仑传记

yearshappy

• Napoleon Bonaparte: The Glory of France

  . Prod. Greg Goldman. A&E Television Networks, 1997
    
• Napoleon; prod. David Grubin, 2000
  
  
  

3. Napoleon: a concise biography by David Bell,2015, Oxford University Press (coupled with Napoleon: a biography by Frank McLynn, 1997)

yearshappy

1,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKme9ezLZLQ

yearshappy

1,

notes
• Napoleon = all things to all people = the greatest military commander ever + a preeminent head of state (glorified France): brilliant mind; amasing leadship // his genius & ego spiraled out of control
• birth: an island located off the coast of France. father - a prominent attorney; mother - also noble birth, into labor when attending church services in a cathedral then quickly walking away gave birth on a sofa home
• his mother instilled in him a feeling of being special believing in her child  could do anything ---> Napoleon, self-importance, a sense of honor, pride,
• his military talent: Corsicans fought with France for independence - the little boy was always in fights, manhood encouraged. 9yo received a scholarship to study at a Military Academy in France. also showed leadership; as a Corsican, he was looked down on as a second class by the boys from finest families in France --> fuel to achieve
• his brain capacity - study military, politics, philosophy, his brain like a sponge sucked all this up. 15yo continued study in  a prestigious militery academy. studied what made Alexander the Great great. 16yo became an officer; 24yo a general; then sent in prison contemplated suicide.
• a lifelong student of warfare; saved revolution; fought Austria in Italy; conquered Eygpt took scientists with him to understand Egyptian science & Egpt history
• he had it all so fast. Power does corrupt. An absolute power corrupts absolutely
  

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yearshappy

2,

notes

• In 3 years ruled Europe.
• He loved power. Loved his mother (tough & determined). Father dreamed his children one day becoming noble men. ‘if only father can see it’
• 15 yo encountered French civilisation, quiet & solitary, always alone, dreamed becoming great (wrote the history of his island.; wrote novels), didn’t know much French, 'proud, ambitious, He’ll go far in favourable circumstances. '
• His mother was a realist but had a faith for her son. Napoleon condemned his father giving in France too quick; then at 24yo he chose France side rather than his island after French revolution ‘it’s better to eat than to be eaten.’
• ‘Great man becomes great because they have been able to master luck. ‘ (use paintings/newspapers to build his reputation)
• (general)He took scientists with him à (emperor)listened to no one believed him infallible.
• He requested to reside in London and was rejected by the British. 46yo, lots of memoirs produced, died 51yo = extraordinary that one man could have achieved so much in such a short period of time.
  

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yearshappy

3,

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MICHELLE07

yearshappy 发表于 20-11-2018 22:28
1,

birth place

his mother instilled in him a feeling of being special believing in her child could do anything ---> Napoleon, self-importance, a sense of honor, pride

I was very impressed by Napoleon's mother when read the "Novel". A great mum. She was concerned about his ambition but still supported him unconditionally. She coordinated excellently with many of her "selfish" children.

yearshappy

MICHELLE07 发表于 22-11-2018 16:52
I was very impressed by Napoleon's mother when read the "Novel". A great mum. She was concerne ...

Shall we have an essay on 'the role of the mother in Napoleon's biography'? I, too, have lots of thoughts on her and will come back to this topic when i finish off the books.

yearshappy

3,

reading two books at once

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yearshappy

• Napoleon's life (1769-1821) --> endlessly fascinating (European warfare, French Revolution, civic equality, peraonal charisma, military glory/massive wars of conquest/dramastic victories, as his own rise and fall as spectacular and swifty)
• connected to some of the most controversial and constantly reinterpreted evevnts in world history - first and the foremost, the French Revolution
• also extraordinarily well-documented a life (predecessors & successors // highlights, significance, observation, remarks, neglectance)
  

• 20s, acquisition of the greatest military commander, (27yo married,1810/41yo divoice)
• 30, ruler of France
• 40, dominated Europe
• 45, in exile on the island of Elba (Italy) with the title of emperor- Bourbon dynasty (Louis XVIII) in place
• 46-51 exile as a prisoner, died at 51
  

The Corsican, 1769-1796 (1-27yo)

• father, realist; mother, srong-willed
• at age of 9, attended an austere military bording school; 5 ys without returning home
• scholars have speculated endlessly about the effects of the boarding school experince on his character: resilience, self-sufficiency, a habit of intensive reading 'books, ... my only friend!' At age of 17 (1786) went back to Corsica to take care of his family (his father died)
• 24yo, the currents of revolutioay politics temained difficult to navigate, Robespierre, reign of terror
  

The General, 1796 - 1799 (27-30yo)

• inspired by Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar. However, dictatorship was not welcomed particularly by right-wings (Caesar became dictator) against military republic. On returning to France, he ostentatiously adopted civilian clothing and became a member of the elite National Institute, the successor to the learned sicentific and literary academies of the Old Regime.
• marching to Eygpt, harch conditions, he shared discomforts with his soldiers sometimes had no food for a whole day
• the traditional hierarchies were badly damaged by the Revolution - opened the door to new forms of social mobility and political power// the man met his hour!!!
  

The First Consul, 1799-1804 (30-35yo)

• he established the Consulate, authoritarian rule but also of energetic state-building (institutions n priciples applying till today), brought up political stability which exactly met the need of then France (previously a solid decade of rebolutionary turmoil).
• He valued the Revolution's commitment to the rule of reason and to forms of civic equality that would allow men of talent to raise themslves in society.
• he, with his instinct and genius for propaganda, exploited these achievements for everything they were worth (sculptors, paintings, songs, poems)
  

yearshappy

The Emperor, 1804-1812 (35-43yo)

• after 1805, Napoleon came to believe that he could make all of Europe into a Consular France writ large, with the sort of unity unseen since the days of Rome. He remarked 'we need a European law code, a European supreme court, a single currency, the same weights and measures, the same laws; I must make all the peoples of Europe into a single people, and Paris, the capital of the world.
• ... so, ... are now just family estates of the Buonapartes; imperial expansion
• the empire's growth far outpaced its capacity to extend its administration, integrate new territories, and absorb new subjects, 'brutal coloniers'
  

Downfall, 1812-1815 (43-46yo)

• when he .. into Russian territory in 1812, he brought along some potentially disturbing reading: Voltaire's History of Charles XII.
• he put a brave face, saying 'Gentlemen, remember the words of a Roman emperor ..' ; Genghis Khan
• in 1813, 'A man like me, does not give a shit about the lives of a million men'
• In France , the tightly controlled press; few knew about the losses in Russia
• the reasons for his failure: chance, personality, the nature of the war; the monarchs of Britian, Russia, and Prussia didn't recognize his legitimate sovereign
• he tried to kill himself by taking poison
• Bourbon Restoration lack of understanding of changes: far too much had changed since 1789, the introduction of civic equality, the large-scale transfer of land from the Church and noble emigres, in large part, to the peasantry; Louis XVIII believed, he was the chosen of God, and rather than accepting the constitution FROM the people, he GRANTed to them
  

Epilogue: 1815-the Present

• since 1815, last 6 yrs of his life on St Helena until 1821, probably with the stomach cancer (suspected poison), died at the age of 51.
• his passion and glory as an inspiration for soldiers, generals, Americas/Latin American countries; influnece on Germany n Italy; in France, the laws and institutions he created still largely stand
• Marxist school put more emphasis on the 'bourgeois revolution' of 1789
• What a novel his life was!
  

Futher Reading

• in the academic world, he is not even a cottage industry - he is heavy industry
• biographies: two of the best Alan Forrest's Napoleon (London: Quercus, 2011); Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny by Michael Broer (London, 2014)
• focus on political aspect
• the most comprehensive scholarly biography of his ...
• Primary Sources
• Introduction: best of all: Colin Jones, The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon (London: Allen Lane, 2002)