Memoirs of Napoleon - Complete

by Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Memoir, Classics, France, War

1990 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1832

About the author

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne was a French diplomat. He is famous for his Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, a work based on years of intimate friendship and professional association. They met at the Military Academy at Brienne in Champagne when eight years old.

Reviews

[Antigone · Rating 4 out of 5]

One cannot escape Bourrienne.

Any solid study of Napoleon requires attention be paid to the man he strapped like a fifth appendage to his torso and carried forth to glory. We may wish to skirt his account, filled as it is with envy and pretention. He was an egotistical aristocrat with the gall to imagine he stood as the Emperor's conscience (he did not), possessed a better measure of the political landscape than did his master (he did not), and could well nigh have predicted the day and the hour and the act upon which hinged the Corsican's ruin. That's a lot to swallow. So yes, it may be what we wish, to skirt the fool entirely, but Bonaparte will not permit it. Bonaparte insists, between the lines of the memoirs and reports, each instruction and dispatch: This is the man I brought to my side. This is the man I was with. Hence we must consider it, and read accordingly.

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne was born in the same year as Napoleon and met this smart and somewhat sullen foreign boy when they were eight on the schoolyard grounds of Brienne. One imagines the jealousy began then, for the young Bonaparte evinced enough promise to be swept into the ranks of the Ecole Militaire and while everyone will tell us his brilliance had him skipping levels of military training right and left, Bourrienne will not. Bourrienne claims instead that the professors were eager to be rid of him due to his forthright nature and plainspoken opinions...which one wonders how Monsieur might know as he did not follow his friend into the Ecole Militaire.

The young men launched in different directions, and it wasn't until Napoleon was treating with the Austrians in 1797 that he summoned his old school chum to his side to help hammer out the particulars of the Treaty of Campo Formio. Their skills dovetailed nicely and it was soon decided that Bourrienne would come onboard as Bonaparte's private secretary - a position he retained through 1802, when he was released due to suspicion of financial profiteering. (There were certain crimes Napoleon had no forgiveness for; making money on the side was one of them.)

Still, four volumes of Bourrienne. In very small writing. You could lose your eyesight to this. It was only five years. Surely we can skip it?

No, my friend, we cannot. Because no matter what the British boys tell you, these are the years that matter. These are the years that count. Understand that in order to take control of France a man would have to put an end to the French Revolution - which had not ended but just slipped into the shadow of a corrupt constellation of political factions. Timing would be everything, and subtlety, and strategy, and a tremendously uncomfortable humility, and pressure from friends in high places against friends in low places, and all of this takes a velvet glove. Understand that Egypt, for all it cost, stood as a diversion; a respite from which a return could be made. And boom, it's done, sort of. Because no one wants a king, and so there will be jiggering. A shared leadership that is not shared but maneuvered swiftly to a single pair of hands as doors close to every alternative, every rival to the vision of the singular military hero France has come to love. And Bourrienne was there for all of this. Wanker that he was, he was there.

The editors of these memoirs (Scribner's 1891) are well aware of their author's propensity to play fast and loose with his implications. They prove remarkably diligent in disputing questionable assertions and holding the truth to its track. This makes it much easier to concentrate on the flow of events and the many crucial characters striding through these fresh corridors of power. And it helps, in a way, that Bourrienne thought so very much of himself, because his perspective of those surrounding Bonaparte is conveyed through his sense that he is their equal. Every interaction he has is lifted into life by that.

It should be mentioned, too, that those five years spent as Napoleon's private secretary end in Volume II. We proceed from there to his posting in Hamburg, where he professes to have spent the lion's share of his time running spies for the Empire and censoring the news. It was through his close personal sources in France (among them Duroc, Rapp, Josephine, Lauriston, and the successive private secretaries) that he was able to continue with his history. He returned to Paris just in time to switch sides and held loyalty to the Bourbons for the remainder of his life. Bourrienne published this work in 1830 and passed away four years later after having spent a length of time in an asylum. (Very few of this era emerged unscathed.)

There are some remarkable stories here, and insights worthy of the effort. The account of Napoleon's interview with the son of Madame de Stael was absolutely outstanding for its glimpse of the razor's edge of the Emperor's mind. Also, the many factors that played into Bonaparte's return from Elba and the swiftness with which the army re-embraced him are very well relayed. Apart from the size of the print (and the footnotes scaling down to an impossible miniature), I found the memoirs a valuable read. Should you have the inclination, I would recommend them.

[Ben Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I didn't like Napoleon. I was right.

[Pieter Baert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a man fired by Napoleon for stealing from the state coffers. Interesting but to be read by care because not at all impartial. De Bourrienne was Napoleon's personal secretary during his period as a general and consul.

[Alistair Bascom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete – By Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
Portuguese (Brazil) Translation
Esta é uma biografia de Napoleão Bonaparte escrita por um de seus amigos íntimos. Bourrienne conheceu Bonaparte na Academia Militar quando tinha apenas 8 anos. Seu livro relata a família de Napoleão e sua primeira esposa, Josephine de Beauharais. Bourrienne não permite que sua amizade com Napoleão interfira em sua obra literária e tenta ser equilibrado. Ele elogia Napoleão pelo seu brilhantismo nas manobras políticas, mas também comenta a sua conquista do poder, colocando a sua família nos tronos da Europa.
Li este livro pela primeira vez imediatamente depois de ler ‘Mein Kampf’. Bem, eu era ultranacionalista na época. Tornei-me fascista não por qualquer interesse por Mussolini ou Hitler. Tornei-me fascista por causa do Japão. Havia um jogo de guerra que eu costumava jogar quando criança, chamado Win War II. Uma falha no jogo fazia com que eu só pudesse jogar como uma potência do Eixo. Lembro-me de jogar algumas vezes como uma potência aliada, mas na maioria das vezes era como uma potência do Eixo. Então, comecei a jogar como o Japão e às vezes consegui conquistar o mundo com eles e sempre fui a última potência do Eixo a cair quando perdi. Enfim, quando eu era estudante de Engenharia todo mundo falava sobre anime e Naruto então resolvi ir direto ao assunto do anime e desenterrei um monte de coisa sobre o Samurai.
Além disso, sendo descendente de colonos europeus da Guiana Inglesa, é claro, sou negro ou pelo menos um mulato moreno. Enfim, cresci com meu pai contando muita coisa sobre a história europeia, tudo que ele sabia. Então, sim, posso entender porque algumas pessoas pensam que sou eurocêntrico demais, mas isso não me incomoda, cresci assim. Agora, perguntei-me, como é que os europeus conseguiram os seus impérios em todo o mundo? Pensei que se não consigo perceber e cresci a ler a história europeia, então tenho de a compreender através de outro imperialista, o Japão. Gosto do Japão quando leio W. E. B. Du Bois disse para ler a história de outro país para entender a sua, eu leio a história do Japão. Agora, como me tornei fascista foi interessante.
Embora os antepassados da minha mãe tenham sido escravos nas Caraíbas, não tenho o mesmo sentimento de raiva, porque os meus antepassados eram escravos. Isso pode ser complicado, mas pensei que poderia ser porque os ancestrais do meu pai eram senhores de escravos. Então, eu descendo das mesmas pessoas que escravizaram, então quando leio a história do Caribe, tenho na cabeça o mesmo sentimento poderoso que talvez os brancos tenham, o que os torna racistas. Para mim é porque meus ancestrais conquistaram o Caribe, lutaram entre si e governaram aqui. Então, cresci lendo a história do Caribe e sentindo que os brancos que fizeram todas as coisas ruins dos livros de história eram meus ancestrais. É como se uma dinâmica de poder diferente estivesse passando na minha cabeça, de alguém que tem ambos os pais negros ou talvez seja mulato, com ambos os pais sendo mulatos. É isso que quero dizer com complicado. De volta aos japoneses, perguntei-me como é que os europeus conseguiram. Como a Europa dividiu o mundo?
Para resolver esta questão que se tornou quase existencial para mim. Concluí que tinha de compreender o imperialismo em 2008. Depois, em 2012, quando conheci esse Irmão, resolvi imaginar o imperialismo através do Japão. Pelo que li, é o mesmo tipo de mentalidade que existia no Japão e na Europa. Lendo sobre o sucesso japonês, nas guerras contra os europeus comecei a gostar do fascismo, o que atribuí ao seu sucesso. Eu também lia sobre o fascismo europeu, mas apesar de tudo, mesmo no ‘Mein Kampf’, não parei verdadeiramente a minha ideação fascista. Durante o ‘Mein Kampf’ que li duas vezes, li a solução final e não gostei. Nunca me ocorreu realmente associar o fascismo ao anti-semitismo, então abandonei-o. Li sobre Napoleão logo depois porque ainda era fascista, mas queria descobrir como fazer as pessoas lutarem e morrerem sem recorrer ao ódio como Hitler fez.
Vi o sucesso de Napoleão na guerra sem ódio neste livro quando o li pela primeira vez em 2016. É claro que Napoleão restabeleceu a escravidão nas ilhas francesas. É claro que Josephine tinha uma plantação de escravos na Martinica, mas não posso julgar isso porque os meus antepassados também tinham plantações de escravos. Gosto da história do Caribe, quando criança queria ser historiador, se não gostasse tanto de física, provavelmente teria. Como disse, é complicado porque não tenho a mesma percepção da história europeia como um todo e da escravatura em particular que outras pessoas negras nas Caraíbas. Irmão de uma daquelas senhoras ricas, às vezes achei ele bastante racista, nunca contei a ele porque não vou dar a ele uma posição superior a mim. Os racistas geralmente tentam usar a agressão contra uma “raça mais fraca” para obter uma posição superior. Não abrirei mão da posição superior a esse Irmão, nem mesmo que ele seja rico.
Burnham nacionalizou os europeus na Guiana e o meu pai perdeu tudo o que tinha por causa das suas políticas, mas graças àquelas senhoras ricas, recuperei algum dinheiro e as minhas decisões foram tomadas mais ao longo dos anos. Minha mãe disse que eu não deveria mencionar os nomes das empresas porque ela não está convencida de que sejam minhas. No entanto, o Parlamento da Guiana discutiu sobre mim e essas empresas e vi isso na televisão. Um dos meus alunos disse então que era filho de um ministro. The View falava de mim e eu via isso também na TV. Agora vejo o GB News e alguns outros programas da internet dizendo coisas que escrevi, embora não usem meu nome, posso jurar que estão falando de mim. Mencionei essas empresas em muitos vídeos ao longo dos anos. Fui a algumas delas e disse aos trabalhadores que era dono das empresas. Eu havia dito a uma empresa para processar Jagdeo em 2021, mas desisti do processo, com a condição de que ele desse uma entrevista ao VICE News. Eu me lembro de todas essas coisas. Esse irmão deveria ter parado de xingar e fazer seus elfos me ameaçarem. Eu e aquelas senhoras poderíamos estar juntos. Ok, talvez a poligamia não seja uma coisa boa, então ainda poderíamos ser amigos se não fosse por aquele irmão. De qualquer forma, eu tinha dito àquelas senhoras que os meus antepassados tinham plantações de escravos e elas não se importavam, mas eram portuguesas. Eu disse o mesmo a uma senhora ganense-francesa e ela disse “Eu não me importo”. mas não sei onde ela está, tentei contatá-la e concluí que acabei de ser um fantasma. As pessoas não podem dizer que não dei uma chance a diferentes negras, agora estou levando quem eu quiser. De qualquer forma, fui fascista, mas tornei-me liberal em parte por causa deste livro, pois Napoleão fez de toda a Europa um campo de batalha sem o uso do ódio.
English Translation
This is a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte by one of his intimate friends. Bourrienne met Bonaparte at the Military Academy when just 8 years old. His book gives an account of Napoleon’s family and his first wife Josephine de Beauharais. Bourrienne does not let his friendship with Napoleon interfere with his literary work and attempt to be balanced. He praises Napolean for his brilliance in political manoeuvring but also comments on his grab for power placing his family on the thrones of Europe.
I first read this book immediately after I read ‘Mein Kampf’. Well, I was ultra-nationalist at the time. I turned fascist not because of any fancy for Mussolini or Hitler. I turned fascist because of Japan. There was a war game I used to play as a child called Win War II a glitch in the game made it so I could only play as an Axis power. I remember playing as an Allied power a few times but a majority of the time was as an Axis power. So, I started playing as Japan and was able to conquer the world with them sometimes and was always the last Axis power to fall when I lost. Anyway, when I was a student in Engineering everybody used to talk about anime and Naruto so I decided to get to the bottom of the anime thing and dug up a lot of stuff on the Samurai.
Next, being descended from European colonists to British Guiana, of course, I’m black or at least a dark mulatto. Anyway, I grew up with my father telling a lot of stuff about European history, all that he knew. So, yes I can understand why some people think I’m too Eurocentric, but it doesn’t bother me, I grew up like this. Now, I asked myself, how did the Europeans got their empires around the world? I figured if I can’t figure it out and I grew up reading European history then I have to understand it through another imperialist, Japan. I like Japan when I read W. E. B. Du Bois said to read the history of another country to understand your own, I read Japan’s history. Now how I became a fascist was interesting.
Even though my mom's ancestors would have been slaves in the Caribbean, I don’t have that same feeling of anger, because my ancestors were slaves. This might be complicated, but I thought that it might be because my father's ancestors were slave masters. So, I descend from the same people who did the enslaving, so when I read Caribbean history, I get the same powerful feeling in my head that maybe white people get which makes them racist. For me it's because my ancestors conquered the Caribbean fought each other and ruled here. So, I grew up reading Caribbean history and feeling the white people who did all the bad things in the history book were my ancestors. It's like a different power dynamic playing in my head from someone who has both black parents or maybe is a mulatto with both their parents being mulatto. That’s what I mean by it's complicated. Back to the Japanese, I wondered how the Europeans did it. How did Europe divide the world?
To resolve this question which became almost existential for me. I reasoned that I had to understand imperialism in 2008. Then in 2012 when I first met that Brother, I resolved to figure imperialism through Japan. From what I have read, it’s the same sort of mentality that was in Japan as in Europe. Reading about Japanese success, in wars against Europeans I started to like fascism which I attributed to their success. I would read about European fascism as well but through it all, even the ‘Mein Kampf’ I didn’t truly stop my fascist ideation. During the ‘Mein Kampf’ which I read twice I read the final solution and disliked it. It never really occurred to me to associate fascism with antisemitism so I abandoned it. I read about Napoleon right after because I was still fascist but I wanted to figure out how to get people to fight and die without resorting to hate like Hitler did.
I saw Napoleon's success at war without hate in this book when I first read it back in 2016. Of course, Napoleon reinstated slavery in the French islands. Of course, Josephine had a slave plantation in Martinique but I can’t judge that because my ancestors had slave plantations too. I like Caribbean history, as a child, I wanted to be a historian if I hadn’t liked physics so much, I probably would have. As I said it’s complicated because I don’t have the same perception of European history as a whole and of slavery in particular as other black people in the Caribbean. The Brother of one of those rich ladies, I thought he was quite racist at times, I never told him as I’m not going to give him a higher position over me. The racists generally try to use aggression against a ‘weaker race’ to obtain a superior position. I won't relinquish the superior position to that Brother, not even if he is rich.
Burnham nationalized the Europeans in Guyana and my father lost all he had because of his policies but thanks to those rich ladies, I got some back and my decisions made more over the years. My mother said I shouldn’t mention the names of the companies as she is not convinced that they’re mine. However, the Parliament in Guyana had argued about me and those companies and I saw that on TV. One of my students then said he was a Minister’s son. The View used to talk about me and I saw that too on TV. Now I see GB News and some other internet shows saying things that I wrote even though they are not using my name I can swear they're talking about me. I mentioned those companies in many videos over the years I went to some of them and told the workers I owned the companies. I had told one company to sue Jagdeo back in 2021, then dropped the lawsuit, on condition he did a VICE News interview. I remember all of these things. That Brother should have stopped cursing and getting his elves to threaten me. Me and those ladies could have been together. Okay, maybe polygamy is not a good thing, so could still be friends if it wasn’t for that Brother. Anyway, I had told those ladies that my ancestors had slave plantations and they didn’t mind, but they were Portuguese. I told a Ghanaian-French lady the same and she said “I don’t care.” but I don’t know where she is, I tried to contact her, and I reasoned that I just got ghosted. People can’t say I didn’t give different black ladies a chance, now I'm taking whoever I want. Anyway, I was fascist but turned liberal partially because of this book as Napoleon made all of Europe a battlefield without the use of hate.

[Ian Willey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a book that builds on the campaigns and detail of the military you need to look elsewhere. This book deals far more with the day to day of Napoleon and whilst a great book it really does no favours on the character of napoleon. Indeed he is shown to be very petty and often somewhat self obsessive.

One has to keep in mind that Bourrienne fell out of favour and even went over to the Royalists from 1814 but even so it seems mostly a fair account of Napoleon. Well worth reading if you want to go deeper into how Napoleon worked and the general feel of the times.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

The version I read was not the complete version; only included verifiable historical information and perhaps because of that it seemed to jump around a lot without giving much background. Hard to follow.

[Harriet Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoirs of Napoleon - Complete by DeBourrienne

Memoirs of Napoleon - Complete.by Louis Antoine Fauvelet deBourrienne is an informative book, which is sometimes confusing. I didn't really understand how he was conquered. But, recommend this book.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good and informative

[? · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dieu me l'a donne; gare a qui la touche."

vive l'empereur

[Vladimir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting read, though I hear it's not trustworthy