Talleyrand: ou Le Sphinx incompris

by Jean Orieux

Qui était Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1734-1838), celui qui fut évêque d'Autun à trente-quatre ans, qui devint chef du clergé constitutionnel sous la Révolution, que l'on retrouve en 1793 sur la liste des émigrés ? Qui était cet homme qui fut ensuite ministre des Relations extérieures sous le Directoire, le Consulat et l'Empire, qui devint Président du Gouvernement provisoire puis ministre des Affaires étrangères sous la Restauration, pour finir ambassadeur à Londres sous le règne de Louis-Philippe ? Talleyrand est à coup sûr le fils de plusieurs époques et même de plusieurs mondes. A travers les cataclysmes de l'histoire, il a été l'irremplaçable véhicule des grandeurs, des vies, des élégances et du charme du passé. Il a été infidèle à ce qui paraissait éphémère dans le monde issu de la Révolution, les hommes politiques, les régimes bâclés, leur éloquence et leurs sentiments. En revanche, il a été fidèle à ce qui transcende les individus : la Civilisation et la France en étaient pour lui l'incarnation. On lui a reproché sa démarche, celle de son pied bot et celle de sa conduite, on a dénoncé son cynisme, son opportunisme... Mais peu importe les qualificatifs et les jugements, la curiosité passionnée dont s'inspire cet homme est inextinguible : il appartient à une race dont la carrière n'a pas de fin et dont la sagesse, fardée de vices, vieille comme le monde, durera autant que lui.

Genres: Biography, History, Politics, France, European History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Jean Orieux était un romancier et biographe français.

Jean Orieux was a French novelist and biographer.

Reviews

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was entrancing! It reads like a novel, while explaining in great detail, and across all its dimensions, the life of one of the most complex political thinkers that Europe has ever known.
This is not the work of a neutral historian: it is clear from the onset that Jean Orieux greatly admires his subject, and barring a few critiques across his long life, the author defends Talleyrand’s choices and rejects the mostly negative spin that history has made of them: especially about his corruption (widely practiced by politicians of that age) and his turncoat behavior with multiple regimes he served (which can be interpreted in a positive way as flexibility, and faithfulness to the one immutable entity: France).
Most of all, Orieux paints the portrait of one of the most sophisticated remnants of the court of Versailles, an urbane and cultivated courtier, whose table was one of the most famous in Europe, and whose wit was priced exceptionally high. It is tempting to want to model one’s behavior after Talleyrand, yet he was a man in a unique position as the head of one of the oldest families in Europe (older than the Bourbon kings’) - most of us are not born in that situation!

Two favorite quotes (but there are so many delectable ones!):

To Louis XVIII who asked him how he handled betraying multiple regimes: « I did not do any of that. There is something inexplicable in me that is of bad omen to any government that neglects me. »

To someone who asked him why he didn’t fall out more with his critics: « I am too lazy, or perhaps too cany: one shouldn’t give people the pleasure of putting them at ease by falling out with them and, does not fall out with me who wants. »

[Sherwood Smith]

This biography annoyed the heck out of me--the writer keeps telling us what's in Talleyrand's mind without supplying any quotes to prove it. I loathe that. I want the subject to speak for himself as much as possible.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Orieux's work is...sometimes lost in minutiae, often has incredibly bold and apparently baseless claims, and full of assertions that graft, bribes, and corruption are morally neutral. Perhaps weirdest of all for me, he absolves Talleyrand of nearly all his crimes except for dispossessing the Catholic Church of its extravagant wealth and tolerating the assassination of a single Bourbon noble. Would I recommend this book? Probably not. Was it really interesting to read such an alien take on such a complicated person? Absolutely.

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My most beloved book. Read it first in the middle school. Have been going back to it many times since. Just in case I own two copies of it at home.