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

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.

[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