Napoleon's Letters to Josephine

by Henry Foljambe Hall

I have no apology to offer for the subject of this book, in view of Lord Rosebery's testimony that, until recently, we knew nothing about Napoleon, and even now "prefer to drink at any other source than the original." "Study of Napoleon's utterances, apart from any attempt to discover the secret of his prodigious exploits, cannot be considered as lost time." It is then absolutely necessary that we should, in the words of an eminent but unsympathetic divine, know something of the "domestic side of the monster," first hand from his own correspondence, confirmed or corrected by contemporaries. There is no master mind that we can less afford to be ignorant of. To know more of the doings of Pericles and Aspasia, of the two Cæsars and the Serpent of old Nile, of Mary Stuart and Rizzio, of the Green Faction and the Blue, of Orsini and Colonna, than of the Bonapartes and Beauharnais, is worthy of a student of folklore rather than of history. Napoleon was not only a King of Kings, he was a King of Words and of Facts, which "are the sons of heaven, while words are the daughters of earth," and whose progeny, the Genii of the Code, still dominates Christendom.[1] In the hurly-burly of the French War, on the chilling morrow of its balance-sheet, in the Janus alliance of the Second Empire, we could not get rid of the nightmare of the Great Shadow. Most modern works on the Napoleonic period (Lord Rosebery's "Last Phase" being a brilliant exception) seem to be (1) too long, (2) too little confined to contemporary sources. The first fault, especially if merely discursive enthusiasm, is excusable, the latter pernicious, for, as Dr. Johnson says of Robertson, "You are sure he does not know the people whom he paints, so you cannot suppose a likeness. Characters should never be given by a historian unless he knew the people whom he describes, or copies from those who knew him." Now, if ever, we must fix and crystallise the life-work of Napoleon for posterity, for "when an opinion has once become popular, very few are willing to oppose it. Idleness is more willing to credit than inquire ... and he that writes merely for sale is tempted to court purchasers by flattering the prejudices of the public."[2] We have accumulated practically all the evidence, and are not yet so remote from the aspirations and springs of action of a century ago as to be out of touch with them. The Vaccination and Education questions are still before us; so is the cure of croup and the composition of electricity. We have special reasons for sympathy with the first failures of Fulton, and can appreciate Napoleon's primitive but effective expedients for modern telegraphy and transport, which were as far in advance of his era as his nephew's ignorance of railway warfare in 1870 was behind it. We must admire The Man[3] who found within the fields of France the command of the Tropics, and who needed nothing but time to prosper Corsican cotton and Solingen steel. The man's words and deeds are still vigorous and alive; in another generation many of them will be dead as Marley—"dead as a door-nail." Let us then each to his task, and each try, as best he may, to weigh in honest scales the modern Hannibal—"our last great man,"[4] "the mightiest genius of two thousand years."[5

Genres: Nonfiction, History, France

324 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Nita Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Collection reveals some very private parts of their lives. which sometimes gave me the unpleasant feeling I was spying on them.
After all, it is a very Special book about a Special love. I believe Napoleon never really go over her. If there ever was a pure and eternal love, it was Napoleons to Jospehine...

[Laura Wilhelmi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this insight into the lives of Napoleon and his one true love, Josephine.

“Ceaselessly I recall your kisses, your tears, your enchanting jealousy; and the charms of the incomparable Josephine keep constantly alight a bright and burning flame in my heart and senses”

Damn Napoleon, you charmer

[THANA]

DNF
أسلوبه حلو نوعا ما، عواطفه جيّاشة ويحبّها حدّ الوله، لم أستطع إنهاءه لأني بعد الثلث صرت أشعر بالملل، يتكرر نفس الكلام في الرسائل غالبا لكن بتعبيرات مختلفة.
و.. كلّ هذا الحبّ في قلبه لامرأة واحدة لم يفِد شيئاً لرحمة نساء المسلمين في حملته على مصر.

[Amy Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Napoleon was the only part of social studies class I remember being interested in and that interest has stayed with me ever since, especially when I stumbled on some of his dreamy letters years ago. I've wanted to read this book for a long time and I really enjoyed it, though it definitely doesn't include every letter he wrote to Josephine, most noticeably the 'naughty' letters are excluded. Napoleon well deserves the romantic hype, his letters are known for being some of the most swoonworthy in history and they definitely are, he writes to her in a completely vulnerable, open and emotional way, there's no embarrassment or trying to come off as 'manly' and he often begs her to write him more. His letters read almost like a romance novel, which isn't surprising since he wrote one of those too. 💖

Their relationship always makes me sad, I mean every girl in the world would do anything to have a guy write her letters like this and be worshipped like that and yet Josephine seemed immune, rarely bothering to reply, she didn't love him the same way back, I think if he'd been around more like a regular guy she would have perhaps. Then of course he divorces her and has other mistresses prior to that, which ruins the passion of his early letters, but maybe if she'd written back and tried more he wouldn't have? It's interesting to read his letters over time as they go from deeply romantic to sweet to more casual but always with care and fondness evident somewhere, the letters after the divorce are very sad but it's nice to see how hard he still tries to show his affection and love, which makes me more sure he deeply regretted that choice.

The book has bullet point lists between letters giving a brief timeline of events between. Except for after the divorce, none of Josephine's replies are included. Only half of the book is letters, the rest is a huge section of notes about what was going on during the time of each one, delving deeper into people, places and events mentioned. I read some pertaining to letters I found most interesting.

While I'd like to see an updated version including all the letters to her (he wrote over 30,000 letters in his life altogether!) I did really enjoy this very personal look into their relationship.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t really read this one from cover to cover, but flipped through and read whatever passages or pages sparked my interest.

Dang it, Napoleon was a charmer…!

It’s hard to write a “review” for this one because it’s not a piece of fiction that I can pick apart. It’s exerts from someone’s life—their private emotions and thoughts that, for all intents and purposes, was written for a specific person/audience rather than the world to read… in this way, I found it an oddly intimate read because, though many years have passed since these letters were written and the communicants long since gone, I sometimes felt like like I was reading something I shouldn’t have been… as though I was invading someone’s privacy.

Overall, though, it was an interesting read. I wouldn’t mind buying the actual physical copy rather than just reading a pirated ebook version out of boredom aha.

[Oscar Lilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much of this was mundane which actually served to humanize Napoleon. My respect for this polarizing figure increased with the reading of his personal thoughts to a woman he genuinely cared for. He came off as wise, patient, and slow to anger. I was quite surprised by the material. His ephemeral empire seemed more a burden than a great prize.

[tuhseen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is mostly one sided, with only Napoleon's letters, but it's exactly what was promised and even if it had included Josephine's letters, they would've been very short. It was interesting to see their marriage evolve, and the letters cool after Josephine's affairs were discovered.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book, interesting how they interlaced the letters amongst biographical facts. I would have liked to see more letters from Josephine but eh, what can you do.

[Tomie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insane read

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘i used to say that men have no power over him who dies without regrets.’

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting this big romance, but I found the book a bit cold. I've read the letters of Winston Churchill and his wife (which is wonderful by the way) and was expecting something along those lines. Maybe it was the lack of letters from Josephine to Napoleon that gave it the one sided (male) view. It was interesting, but I wanted more.

[Slade Rheaume]

I actually found this very interesting and engaging, and am not particularly sure why.