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1812: Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
This unique paperback brings together in one volume Paul Britten Austin's acclaimed and atmospheric trilogy on Napoleon's Russian campaign, allowing the reader to trace the course of Napoleon's doomed soldiers from the crossing of the Niemen in June 1812 to the catastrophic finale in the depths of a Russian winter.
Drawing on hundreds of eyewitness accounts by French and allied soldiers of Napoleon's army, this brilliant study recreates a landmark military campaign in all its death and glory.
Drawing on hundreds of eyewitness accounts by French and allied soldiers of Napoleon's army, this brilliant study recreates a landmark military campaign in all its death and glory.
- GenresHistory
464 pages, Paperback
First published September 30, 2000
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52 people want to read
About the author
Paul Britten Austin
54 books3 followersPaul Britten Austin was an English author, translator, broadcaster, administrator, and scholar of Swedish literature. He is known for his translations of and books on the Swedish musician, singer and poet Carl Michael Bellman.
Britten Austin was born in Dawlish, South Devon, England. His parents were the writers Frederick B.A. King and Mildred King. He was educated at Winchester College. In 1951, he married novelist Margareta Bergman, sister of film director Ingmar Bergman; they lived in Stockholm, where he worked for Radio Sweden as head of English-language broadcasting. He directed the Swedish Tourist Office in London between 1957 and 1968, at the same time working on his book on Carl Michael Bellman.
Britten Austin was employed by Swedish Radio's international investment program from 1948 to 1957 and at the Swedish Tourist Association's office in London from 1957 to 1968.
Alongside his career and his other writings, Britten Austin spent 25 years working on his detailed three-volume eyewitness-only account of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. He explains he is "profoundly skeptical of historians." He felt "the more readable they are, the less historically reliable", so instead he chose "to invent nothing, hardly even a phrase" but instead to "resurrect them - in their own words". Britten Austin takes "160 people of the many thousands who made up the Grande Armée". "I thought, and without any impertinent comments of my own (after all I wasn't there), I might be able to reconstitute, as authentically as ever can be done, six months of vanished time." To achieve this "Naturally I have had to take my thousands of vivid fragments, longer or shorter, snip them and put them together in what I came to think of as a 'marching order', and generally help the reader not to go astray." The result is a uniquely detailed report from the front.
Britten Austin was born in Dawlish, South Devon, England. His parents were the writers Frederick B.A. King and Mildred King. He was educated at Winchester College. In 1951, he married novelist Margareta Bergman, sister of film director Ingmar Bergman; they lived in Stockholm, where he worked for Radio Sweden as head of English-language broadcasting. He directed the Swedish Tourist Office in London between 1957 and 1968, at the same time working on his book on Carl Michael Bellman.
Britten Austin was employed by Swedish Radio's international investment program from 1948 to 1957 and at the Swedish Tourist Association's office in London from 1957 to 1968.
Alongside his career and his other writings, Britten Austin spent 25 years working on his detailed three-volume eyewitness-only account of Napoleon's disastrous invasion of Russia in 1812. He explains he is "profoundly skeptical of historians." He felt "the more readable they are, the less historically reliable", so instead he chose "to invent nothing, hardly even a phrase" but instead to "resurrect them - in their own words". Britten Austin takes "160 people of the many thousands who made up the Grande Armée". "I thought, and without any impertinent comments of my own (after all I wasn't there), I might be able to reconstitute, as authentically as ever can be done, six months of vanished time." To achieve this "Naturally I have had to take my thousands of vivid fragments, longer or shorter, snip them and put them together in what I came to think of as a 'marching order', and generally help the reader not to go astray." The result is a uniquely detailed report from the front.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 8, 2022
This is a wonderful complement to a description of the military campaign. Austin focuses entirely on the eyewitness testimony of French participants, telling the human story entirely through their eyes with extensive quotation. To understand the flow of the narrative you need to have a reasonable grasp of the strategic basics - the relevant chapters of David Chandler's Campaigns of Napoleon cover the ground at a reasonable summary level. Austin book then uses the records left by participants themselves to humanise the story. The narrative can feel a little fragmented sometimes built as it is almost entirely from the words of multiple different writers, but it is a hugely interesting and insightful way to bring the experience of the campaign home to a modern reader.
August 7, 2022
This single volume publication, on Bible-thin paper, is actually a three volume work. The product of 25 years of study, it collects and weaves together myriad short extracts from around 160 firsthand accounts, written by participants in these momentous events. The result is something really quite unique and very special.
Even in this single volume format it’s a weighty tome! The one-thousand or so pages adding up to, as the author himself points out, something 'fairly vast.' He describes his book as a ‘word film’, and it really does have something of that quality. Certainly the drama of the events is heightened, coming as it were from the horses' mouths.
And what horses! His sources range from the highest echelons (Caulaincourt, at Napoleon’s side), to the rank and file (the author’s own choice of lowlier men including lesser known characters such as the ‘obscure little Swiss voltigeur Jean-Marc Bussy’). My only quibble on this score is that it's not always completely clear who's being quoted.
Despite being ‘fairly vast’, the narrative sticks pretty resolutely to the central column of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Amazingly, there's not sufficient space for much, if anything, about the flanking Corps. I happened to have superb visual accounts of the 1812 campaign to hand, by Faber du Faur and Albrecht Adam, when I read this, which helped me visualise things.
I just wish I had also had a really good book of maps; so much of the narrative info concerns movements, and particular locations, all of which would have been more easily followed if only one could glance back and forth between the text and some decent maps!
Pretty much all the books that I've been reading on this subject, at least amongst the more contemporary ones, make some use of firsthand accounts. But this particular telling of the story takes that modus operandi to new heights. In describing how he wrote the book Britten Austen said, I ‘invent nothing, hardly even a phrase, and certainly neither events nor persons. But resurrect them - in their own words.’ The book is remarkably vivid as a result, which is fantastic.
For example, the adventures and sufferings of a certain Heinemann, survivor of a virtual massacre, as he escorts a wounded sergeant to the rear, before becoming a prisoner himself, are just one among many of the episodes that vividly convey the exciting, moving and gripping dramas this book is packed with. In this instance there's actually a happy end to the story - in fact two happy endings (but I'll let you read the book and find out what they are!) - a rare and pleasant thing, given the huge loss of life in this campaign.
Allowing his sources to speak for themselves is certainly not the author simply being lazy. Again in his own words: ‘Naturally … [I] had to take my thousands of vivid fragments, longer or shorter, snip them and put them together in what I came to think of as a 'marching order', and generally help the reader not to go astray.’
But, rather endearingly, where his own voice is audible, I love it: I Iike a writer who says 'i'sooth'! Indeed, his writing style is quite different in tone to all the other authors I've read so far on this subject, which is refreshing. He's also the only author, besides Burns, that I've encountered using the term 'agley', as in 'aft gang agley' (as in when things go 'wrong')!
In conclusion, this is a pretty unique account of the Russia 1812 campaign. Vivid, gripping, and, for my money, totally essential reading. Can't recommend it highly enough!
Even in this single volume format it’s a weighty tome! The one-thousand or so pages adding up to, as the author himself points out, something 'fairly vast.' He describes his book as a ‘word film’, and it really does have something of that quality. Certainly the drama of the events is heightened, coming as it were from the horses' mouths.
And what horses! His sources range from the highest echelons (Caulaincourt, at Napoleon’s side), to the rank and file (the author’s own choice of lowlier men including lesser known characters such as the ‘obscure little Swiss voltigeur Jean-Marc Bussy’). My only quibble on this score is that it's not always completely clear who's being quoted.
Despite being ‘fairly vast’, the narrative sticks pretty resolutely to the central column of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Amazingly, there's not sufficient space for much, if anything, about the flanking Corps. I happened to have superb visual accounts of the 1812 campaign to hand, by Faber du Faur and Albrecht Adam, when I read this, which helped me visualise things.
I just wish I had also had a really good book of maps; so much of the narrative info concerns movements, and particular locations, all of which would have been more easily followed if only one could glance back and forth between the text and some decent maps!
Pretty much all the books that I've been reading on this subject, at least amongst the more contemporary ones, make some use of firsthand accounts. But this particular telling of the story takes that modus operandi to new heights. In describing how he wrote the book Britten Austen said, I ‘invent nothing, hardly even a phrase, and certainly neither events nor persons. But resurrect them - in their own words.’ The book is remarkably vivid as a result, which is fantastic.
For example, the adventures and sufferings of a certain Heinemann, survivor of a virtual massacre, as he escorts a wounded sergeant to the rear, before becoming a prisoner himself, are just one among many of the episodes that vividly convey the exciting, moving and gripping dramas this book is packed with. In this instance there's actually a happy end to the story - in fact two happy endings (but I'll let you read the book and find out what they are!) - a rare and pleasant thing, given the huge loss of life in this campaign.
Allowing his sources to speak for themselves is certainly not the author simply being lazy. Again in his own words: ‘Naturally … [I] had to take my thousands of vivid fragments, longer or shorter, snip them and put them together in what I came to think of as a 'marching order', and generally help the reader not to go astray.’
But, rather endearingly, where his own voice is audible, I love it: I Iike a writer who says 'i'sooth'! Indeed, his writing style is quite different in tone to all the other authors I've read so far on this subject, which is refreshing. He's also the only author, besides Burns, that I've encountered using the term 'agley', as in 'aft gang agley' (as in when things go 'wrong')!
In conclusion, this is a pretty unique account of the Russia 1812 campaign. Vivid, gripping, and, for my money, totally essential reading. Can't recommend it highly enough!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews