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1812 #1
1812: The March on Moscow
Half a million men crossed the Niemen in Napoleon's ill-fated invasion of Russia. The trials and tribulations of the invading force are captured in eye-witness accounts from over 100 of the participants and make this an unforgettable saga of men moving towards disaster.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1993
3 people are currently reading
77 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 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 9, 2013
I’ve been meaning to read Paul Britten Austin’s majestical trilogy on Napoleon’s 1812 campaign since it was first published in the 1990’s. It’s only taken me twenty years to get started on the first volume; 1812: The March on Moscow. After reading this book and enjoying it a great deal I am committed to finishing the next two volumes over the coming few months.
This story of Napoleon’s fateful invasion of Russia has been told many times before, and why not – a drama on a massive scale - over 450,000 men of the Grande Armée, the largest army assembled up to that point in European history marching into the wilds of unknown Russia.
The first volume of the trilogy takes us from the fateful crossing of the Niemen River, through the many battles and skirmishes, to the battle at Smolensk and finally the bloodbath at Borodino before Napoleon finally enters Moscow with what remains of his once mighty Grande Armée.
So what has this book got to offer that hasn’t already been told? With twenty years of research the author has managed to skilfully weave the first-hand accounts of over 100 particpants into a narrative of events as seen and experienced by the French and Allied soldiers of the Grande Armée.
Many of the accounts taken are from officers and soldiers known to most readers of Napoleonic history, such as de Segur, Bourgogne, Caulaincourt, Rapp, and Marbot. But there are a host of others, less well-known, but still offering great accounts and different perspectives of this calamitous event.
I was a bit hesitant in starting the book as I was unsure how well the narrative would flow with multiple first-hand accounts however I was pleasantly surprised and then hooked. The author has managed to use these accounts and fit them into the narrative of the story quite unobtrusively.
This is a well-told story and many of the events described come alive with the accounts as experienced and recorded by the men who fought under Napoleon. The only issues I had with the book were a small number of spelling errors or typos that should have been identified by the editor and corrected and the number of maps supplied; two general maps and two battle maps, all at the very end of the book.
For anyone who really wants to understand the horrors that the soldiers of Napoleon's army underwent during this invasion, then this is the book for you - highly recommended.
This story of Napoleon’s fateful invasion of Russia has been told many times before, and why not – a drama on a massive scale - over 450,000 men of the Grande Armée, the largest army assembled up to that point in European history marching into the wilds of unknown Russia.
The first volume of the trilogy takes us from the fateful crossing of the Niemen River, through the many battles and skirmishes, to the battle at Smolensk and finally the bloodbath at Borodino before Napoleon finally enters Moscow with what remains of his once mighty Grande Armée.
So what has this book got to offer that hasn’t already been told? With twenty years of research the author has managed to skilfully weave the first-hand accounts of over 100 particpants into a narrative of events as seen and experienced by the French and Allied soldiers of the Grande Armée.
Many of the accounts taken are from officers and soldiers known to most readers of Napoleonic history, such as de Segur, Bourgogne, Caulaincourt, Rapp, and Marbot. But there are a host of others, less well-known, but still offering great accounts and different perspectives of this calamitous event.
I was a bit hesitant in starting the book as I was unsure how well the narrative would flow with multiple first-hand accounts however I was pleasantly surprised and then hooked. The author has managed to use these accounts and fit them into the narrative of the story quite unobtrusively.
This is a well-told story and many of the events described come alive with the accounts as experienced and recorded by the men who fought under Napoleon. The only issues I had with the book were a small number of spelling errors or typos that should have been identified by the editor and corrected and the number of maps supplied; two general maps and two battle maps, all at the very end of the book.
For anyone who really wants to understand the horrors that the soldiers of Napoleon's army underwent during this invasion, then this is the book for you - highly recommended.
May 28, 2013
This is a superb collection of eyewitness accounts of Napoleon's infamous campaign of 1812. All life - and death - is here. It is a testament to the hardships that human beings can endure and to the courage and tenacity of the human spirit. And is an excellent piece of scholarship by the author - it must have taken ages to piece this impressive mosaic of views and opinions together.
I have read the trilogy twice and have started for the third time - there is always something new to discover with every reading. This book is so compelling it reads like a novel. You can feel those bleak, scouring winds and hear the crisp frozen snow crack beneath your feet.
You will discover old favourites like Coignet and Bourgogne as well as a host of characters larger than life who did, nonetheless live and experience the traumas described in this book. As Napoleon waited fatally in Moscow, hoping that the Tsar would sue for peace, the Russian Army surrounding him grew ever stronger. The English General Wilson (who would later be sent to jail in France by Louis XVIII for defending ex-soldiers of the Emperor) describes how the Guard ploughed through the massive Russian Army like a battleship through a fishing fleet at Krasny. Buy this trilogy, you will not be disappointed!
I have read the trilogy twice and have started for the third time - there is always something new to discover with every reading. This book is so compelling it reads like a novel. You can feel those bleak, scouring winds and hear the crisp frozen snow crack beneath your feet.
You will discover old favourites like Coignet and Bourgogne as well as a host of characters larger than life who did, nonetheless live and experience the traumas described in this book. As Napoleon waited fatally in Moscow, hoping that the Tsar would sue for peace, the Russian Army surrounding him grew ever stronger. The English General Wilson (who would later be sent to jail in France by Louis XVIII for defending ex-soldiers of the Emperor) describes how the Guard ploughed through the massive Russian Army like a battleship through a fishing fleet at Krasny. Buy this trilogy, you will not be disappointed!
July 2, 2011
First of a triology and very enjoyable. Covers the whole gamut of the invasion.
July 21, 2015
Very good book... volume one in a three volume set... the history of Napoleon's epic march on Moscow...
March 7, 2020
My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.
December 27, 2017
I have great respect for the author's command of primary resources and his ability to tell the story through the eyes of the participants. I felt I was in step with the soldiers as they embarked on one of the greatest tragedies of human history.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews