The War of the Two Emperors: The Duel between Napoleon and Alexander: Russia, 1812

by Curtis Cate

Stated First Edition. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket. There is a vertical crease along the right edge of the jacket's inside front flap.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, France, War, Russia, Military Fiction, Military History

487 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 1985

About the author

American biographer who chronicled the lives of several well-known European writers, among them Nietzsche, George Sand, and André Malraux. Cate was born in Paris in 1924 to transplanted American parents. He died of melanoma in Paris, France, where he had lived for most of his life, on November 16, 2006.

Curtis Wilson Cate was born in Paris on May 22, 1924, to transplanted American parents. From 1943 to 1946, he served in Europe with the United States Army.

Mr. Cate earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard in 1947. This was followed by a master’s degree in Russian from the École des Langues Orientales in Paris and a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford.

In 1954, Mr. Cate joined the staff of The Atlantic Monthly; he was the magazine’s European editor from 1958 to 1966. His writing also appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review and elsewhere.

Mr. Cate’s wife, the former Helena Bajanova, died in 2002.

Among Mr. Cate’s other books are “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry” (Putnam, 1970); “George Sand” (Houghton Mifflin, 1975); “The Ides of August: The Berlin Wall Crisis, 1961” (M. Evans, 1978); “The War of the Two Emperors: The Duel Between Napoleon and Alexander” (Random House, 1985); and “André Malraux” (Hutchinson, 1995).

He also wrote “My Road to Opera: The Recollections of Boris Goldovsky” (Houghton Mifflin, 1979), an as-told-to autobiography of the opera impresario.

Reviews

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of Napoleon's disastrous decision to invade Russia. As the author points out, Napoleon could have stopped short of Moscow, hunkering down for the winter, but his desire to have a great victorious battle, which would impress his army, and act as a warning to the Tsar kept him moving east. His many misjudgments led him into staying in Moscow too long, resulting in the debacle that was the Retreat from Moscow.

Cate does a fine job in his analysis of the many characters' strengths and foibles, which came into focus as the Grande Armee fell apart. And yet, the war went on until 1814. It went on despite Napoleon's abandonment of the pitiful remnants of the army, who finally made it back to France, even as Napoleon hoped for new triumphs with a cobbled-together force, which would fight in Germany. It is this willingness of the French to continue to fight, which puzzles me. Even after the first abdication, the French were willing to take one more chance. It took the sledgehammer defeat of Waterloo to finish what had begun in Russia.

[Elliot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 is undoubtedly a pivotal moment in history. Compared to many of the other campaigns during Napoleon's reign, the invasion of Russia was much more complex than just a military campaign. Accordingly, Cate spends the first quarter of the book on the build-up of events, which is both vital to the reader's understanding and extremely interesting. The cast of characters ranging from the two titular emperors, to the plethora of ambassadors, to the host of generals, marshals, and commanders add to the drama of the whole ordeal. I particularly appreciated Cates' descriptions of the principal participants along with the inclusion of a vast number of portraits in the illustrations, both of which greatly aided my memory of who was who, and increased my interest in the people and events.

The narrative, which is 402 pages long, is filled with detail. Thanks to a small font I felt that this book holds much more information than its nominal length. The prose isn't captivating but the nature of the material makes the book read well. It is almost impossible to imagine what those involved experienced. The horrors and privations that the French and their allies along with the Russian soldiers went through, the terrors that the Russian peasants dealt with on a daily basis - the whole debacle was a source of suffering from beginning to end. But, as always, there are stories of heroism and courage to temper those of pain and suffering.

In general, I felt that Cate was objective and fair in his assessments and analyses. He was certainly harsh in his treatment of Kutuzov, and rather favorable to Barclay and Calaincourt. Neither did he give a glowing impression of Napoleon, but it is hard to paint that man in a positive light considering the results of his ill-conceived ambition to conquer Russia.

Concerning maps, there are just three all of which are useful and readable, but a larger quantity would have been nice. There is also a long list of notes and a large bibliography at the end.

Overall, this was an excellent overview of this climatic event in human history. There are probably other summaries out there more detailed or more readable, but I don't think you can go wrong with this text.

[Jeff Clay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great and tragic story, well told. The book begins a bit slowly with essentially the first 100 pages setting the stage. It is necessary though in order to understand the players and their motivations. Since this is but one year out of the approximately 16 years of the Napoleonic Era, it also helps to have a basic historical understanding of those turbulent times. Cate's prose is generally elegant, if perhaps a trifle bookish. The cadence and language of the writing does a wonderful job mirroring Napoleon's own pace. At first purposeful, then hesitant, finally doomed in headlong flight. The multitude of interwoven minor and major actors' stories brings the whole grand and pathetic tale to life. In the end, that the fate of so many was determined by the hubris and egos of so few, speaks volumes of the human condition.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book suggests a close intertwining narrative between the two exponents, Napoleon and Alexander, which it does until the real fight begins and it knuckles down to a stoush between the French emperor and the Russian generals as Alexander retreats, rightly in my opinion, to St. Petersburg to leave the fighting to the professionals. The book then pays little heed to Alexander and focusses on Napoleon’s sparring with Barclay, Bennigsen, Kutuzov, Yermolov et al.

Having said this, it is a flowing and easy-to-follow recount of the 1812 campaign which draws the reader into the events of this turning-point of the Napoleonic Wars. It certainly lacks the detail of Mickaberidze’s series of books on the campaign and the brutal retelling of the retreat in Zamoyski’s ‘Fatal March’, but it is a great introduction to this important conflict between France and Russia. It focusses heavily on the 'Polish Question' in the lead-up chapters which is very enlightening as many historical observations do not pay much attention to this important factor in the conflict.

Altogether an excellent book, especially for the first-time reader, of the brutal campaign that is a precursor for Napoleons eventual downfall due, in no small part to the obliteration of the Grande Armee in the steppes of Russia.

[Linus Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read, about a part of history I did not know much about before this. Cate has an engaging writing style, never goes into boring "...and then this happened", and puts the events which led to Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow into perspective. I highly enjoyed this book. When reading, be sure to bookmark the pages with maps on them, as they are immensely helpful to look while reading.

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[Human Being · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really love the concept of this book. I immediatley realized it was not going to be an easy read because it is so poorly written. Mr Cate throws out so much info without giving adequate background for a comprehensable context. So unless you are well steeped in 18th and early 19th European history then you will be lost trying to follow his already cloudy and confussing narrative writing style. The best way that I can describe it is he writes sorta backwards. He backs into what point he's trying to make and sometimes he quits before he has made himself clear and sometimes I think he just confuses his own self into thinking it all makes sense when in fact there are passages that are completly obscure. Didn't the editor care enough to ask for clarification or too affraid of looking stupid? Pluss it annoyed me that he stated Napoleon was only 5 foot tall! When in fact he was 5 foot 7 inches. He would have looked like a child on any full size horse in battle at 5 foot! He got his "short" reputation by contrast to the exceptionally tall men that he recruited for his guard that was frequently around him. So after reading this serious error it leads me to wonder what else is way off the mark??? Granted in 1985 he didn't have Google or Wikipedia, but when someone claims to do historical research, well that's what I expect them to do before they publish a history book.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is beautiful. Endpoint. The dustcover is amazing. The book itself is very well written -- excellent prose. It's essentially the movie version of the events of Napoleon's Russian Campaign. That said, its sources are old; the book came out in the 1980s, and the majority of the sources date from the 1940s and 1950s, when the author was majoring in history at Harvard (I think). This is an excellent book for light reading at 500+ pages....but there are more academic books out there. Make no bones about it, it is very enjoyable, but not the strongest academic source for these events.

[David Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this book after Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace, and it suffered in contrast. This book encapsulates the conventional wisdom that that book argues against. The conventional view is that Napoleon lost far more than that the Russians won.

The second emperor of Cate's title is a very modest presence. This is much more the French story. And it is an interesting story, well told.

[Phil Clymer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good writing style, covers details without getting trivial. I picked this up after reading War and Peace, now I wish I had reversed the order. I heartily recommend this book.