Lafayette

by Gonzague Saint Bris

The rousing story of Lafayette―aide-de-camp and “adopted son” of George Washington―exploring his vital role in the American Revolution. In this long-overdue history of Marquis Gilbert de Lafayette, acclaimed French author Gonzague Saint Bris recounts Lafayette's invaluable contributions to the American War of Independence and, later, the French Revolution of 1789. The first study of Lafayette to appear in almost ten years, Saint Bris’ new volume recounts the young Lafayette's personal friendship with George Washington, who went so far as to refer to Lafayette as his “adopted son,” and his pivotal role as Washington’s aide-de-camp in helping establish the fledgling American nation.

Lafayette’s presence at the British surrender at Yorktown is a stark reminder of just how closely our forefather's victory hinged on the help of our French allies, who were roused into action by Lafayette himself. equally absorbing and less well known is Lafayette's idealistic but naive efforts to plant the fruits of the American-style democracy he so admired in the unreceptive soil of his homeland. 12 black-and-white illustrations

Genres: Biography, History, American History, Nonfiction, Historical, France, American Revolution

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Écrivain et journaliste, il fut successivement journaliste à la Vigie marocaine (1967) puis à la Nouvelle République à Tours (1968), critique littéraire, animateur sur la radio Europe 1, chroniqueur au Figaro (1980), fondateur et animateur de la radio libre Méga l'O (1981), vidéaste culturel, directeur de la stratégie et du développement du groupe Hachette Filipacchi Médias (1987-2001), chargé de mission au ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (1986-1988), directeur-propriétaire du magazine Femme6. Il est chroniqueur pour Paris Match, notamment lors d'événements concernant les familles princières ou royales. Il a été à trois reprises candidat à l'Académie française, sans succès.

Reviews

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting biography about the figure of La Fayette who was kind of stuck in the middle of being seen in France as perhaps too pro-American and in America and still a French guy. He had of course a major impact on history and the United States owes him quite a lot for the success of George Washington's army against the British. This book is not particularly exciting but nonetheless interesting about this figure of the late 18th century probably more known in America than in his native France.

[Marc Allen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Easily the worst biography I have ever read. Not a biography of Lafayette, but a vague history of France during Lafayette's lifetime. I got the feeling that the few detailed passages dealing with Lafayette were added after the completion of the book in order to drum up interest in a subject not worth recounting.

I learned more about Lafayette in Ron Chernow's, "Washington: A Life."

[Vickie (I love books) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I wish there was more about Lafayette personal childhood and life. I know his life was interwoven with the revolutionary war and the French Revolution. He admired and loved George Washington throughout his life after the revolutionary war. He greatly loved his wife yet was unfaithful. He had a great love for America. People greatly loved him or hated him. During France’s revolution and the using of sir guillotine. Thankfully he escaped. I am glad I read it although this author writing was not for me or maybe it was the translator. I am looking forward to reading more about the fabulous Lafayette

[CakesandCat · Rating 1 out of 5]

J'ai trouvé ce livre dans un vide grenier et j'avais hâte d'en apprendre plus sur Lafayette. Pour 2 euros, je m'étais dit que ce n'était pas un grand risque. J'ai été terriblement déçue. Ce livre a un peu les qualités de ses défauts et les défauts de ses qualités:
il s'agit davantage de survoler une grande période historique de l'histoire française que de parler de Lafayette lui-même. Je trouve primordial d'ancrer un personnage historique dans son contexte, bien évidemment, mais ici, trop c'est trop...Avoir des anecdotes sur le coiffeur de Marie-Antoinette, se lire tout un chapitre sur la puanteur du corps du Roi Louis XV ou sur Choderlos de Laclos...L'idée de contextualiser était bonne, mais il y a eu bien trop de digressions à mon goût.

Au moins, ce livre m'aura permis de revoir une période de l'histoire française que je ne connaissais pas spécialement bien (1757-1834) mais il y a tellement de noms et d'anecdotes que je me demande ce que je vais retenir...

Je reste perplexe: ai-je envie de lire une autre biographie de Lafayette pour en apprendre réellement sur lui? Ou est-ce que je suis juste un peu dégoûtée par le livre et ne veut plus en entendre parler pour le moment?

Il m'a juste laissé l'idée (peut-être fausse) d'être un homme vaniteux qui cherchait à être aimer et à plaire...

[Andrea Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and I like the authors easy to read style, history sometimes feels heavy but Bris is light. It's interesting. However, it was recommended for use with home schooled teens covering French and American Revolutions. I think it was long for this and also Lafayette was not monogamous, along with many others at this time in France. So for teens the book is clean but it does say who he slept with.
The feeling and zeal Lafayette had for the freedom obtained in America is beautifully described in the book. It's a great overview of French revolutionary time period, talks about the electoral college, liberty and governments. And I loved the view from a French historian on Americas revolution. It was great.

[Carolyn Heinze]

Chiant à mourir, son style. He writes like an overly admirative groupie, which gets in the way of the story of an interesting historical figure and all the characters of this period. And one gets the impression that he's a wee bit more than nostalgic for the French monarchy. Couldn't get through it, try as I might. Won't give up on the subject matter, but won't be picking up any of this author's books any time soon.

[Ronie Ranjan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Le livre contient des énormes erreurs historiques, et c'est dommage parce que l'écriture est fluide et le livre se lit facilement. Malheureusement, dès que j'ai vu la première grosse erreur, (que j'ai reconnu par le hasard d'un autre livre lu sur le sujet une semaine avant de lire celui-là) j'ai eu un gros doute sur la pertinence du livre, et à chaque anecdote que je ne connaissais pas, je ne savais plus si c'était vrai, ou totalement faux. La confiance était brisée, et ça m'a gâché la lecture:

Je vais détailler cette première grosse erreur qui m'a bloqué: On est au début du livre, lors du fameux repas de Metz qui motive La Fayette à aller aux Amériques. Gonzagues Saint Bris confond 2 personnes: Victor-François de Broglie, et son frère Charles-François de Broglie. L'erreur pourrait s'arrêter au nom, mais non. L'un est maréchal et gouverneur de Metz, l'autre est espion et chef du "Secret du Roy". Pour Gonzagues Saint Bris, ces 2 personnes sont une seule et même personne, à la fois maréchal et espion, qui prend goût à l'intrigue internationale. Il va développer plusieurs pages entières pour faire comprendre que ce personnage (totalement mixé) a créé une intrigue contre Louis XVI pour envoyer La Fayette en Amérique...

Je ne vais pas détailler les autres absurdités, il y en a trop... J'en ai compté 26.

Du point de vue du style d'écriture, pas de jugement, je m'attendais bien à lire une histoire écrit sous le prisme d'un homme aristocrate, royaliste. Les qualificatifs pour parler des Rois de Bourbons sont toujours élogieux, mais quand il parle des Républicains ou de Bonaparte, c'est plutôt réprobateur.
Donc une neutralité politique absente, mais ça, je le savais avant d'acheter le livre, ce n'est pas absolument pas pour ca que je donne une mauvaise note.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Long story short, this was one of the least interesting books I have read about Lafayette, who is one of my heroes. It lacked the academic depth with which I am accustom and didn't offer anything new (in fact, it seemed to be missing factors that I have seen in prior books). Definitely would not recommend.

[Juliebd · Rating 2 out of 5]

At times I would wonder who he was talking about as Lafayette was often a secondary character in the story. Do I feel like I have a better understanding of Lafayette after having read the story? No, I feel like I want to read another biography.

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great historical book. I learned a lot, especially about Lafayette's role in the Revolutionary war.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 4 out of 5]

One has to wonder, the more one knows about the life of Lafayette, if he was well-served by his times and by his associates.  A wealthy orphan with a taste for glory, Lafayette found the adoration and respect of those Americans whose interests in freedom he served but was completely unable to assist in providing the French with good government over the next few decades.  Indeed, if Lafayette was a hero of two continents, the difference in treatment between the respect and approval he received from Americans and the varied and hostile response he received from radical and reactionary Europeans demonstrates the gulf between the political cultures of the two areas, and why it is that the United States should be unwilling to blindly follow European political trends.  Lafayette makes for a good test case in the question of how much wisdom one needs to be a hero.  He was certainly brave, but not as moral as one would hope and certainly not wise and discerning enough to be able to navigate between the classic false dilemma between radical leftist and reactionary divine right monarchism.  Lafayette, on the other hand, was quite able to get along in the United States, and get along with Americans, which says a lot about the ability of even unwise liberals to prefer America to Europe.

This book is about 350 pages and it begins with the death of King Louis XV and the missed opportunity that France had to regain solvency that was wrecked by their involvement in the American Revolution.  After that the author explores Lafayette's life in a chronological fashion, beginning with his youth and the early death of his parents and his inheritance of a great deal of money from his uncle and then grandfather.  An early marriage then led to a career as an officer and a choice to come to the United States for glory.  Lafayette's generosity and desire for glory and general friendliness towards the Americans wins him a lot of friends and he ends up returning to France after the alliance is made between the two nations to help out with the relationship between the two nations.  It is after the American Revolution when Lafayette's reputation becomes more troubled as money problems in his personal life as well as among France, and Lafayette's desire to encourage reforms in the French monarchy helped push France towards revolution, in which Lafayette was nearly killed by the Revolutionaries and was then imprisoned for years in Austria and Prussia before being freed to live in exile.  For all of Lafayette's bravery, he was simply unable to help his nation achieve glory and stability.

This book gives a lot of detailed information about Lafayette's life and helps us to understand some of the interesting aspects of his career.  Given its size and its seriousness, this book can help serve as a test as to whether a given other book about Lafayette is discussing enough of his life in enough context.  You can look at the highlights--does it mention the beast of his home region, does it talk about the influence of French spies on Lafayette's political development, does it talk about Lafayette as an important diplomat with the Oneidas as well as between the Americans and French, does it talk about Lafayette's trip to Prussia or his experiences in prison or his relationship with Bonaparte and other French leaders after the Revolution?  If Lafayette comes off as not being entirely wise and sensible, his type as a well-meaning if somewhat bungling reforming liberal is a political type that we can recognize easily.  Just because someone is a hero like Lafayette was does not mean that they were wise or necessarily even good people, and this book gives us a lot of evidence as to the foibles that Lafayette had throughout his life and career.

[Johan van Haersolte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe more of a hagiography than a biography and not consistently interesting. But I finished the book with a feeling of satisfaction. Lafayette led a fascinating life and according to the author almost allways made the right political choices. Of course that is a matter of opinion. 'Le heros des deux mondes' he is called but maybe more a clearcut hero of the USA than of France where the situation was far more complicated for someone with his background in the years 1789-1837. A great hagiography in short. I read it in French btw but my guess is that it does not matter to appreciate it.

[Julier]

After listening to the first few chapters I looked to fellow goodreaders for their opinions. After reading several thoughtful reviews, including 2 in French (thanks, Google Translate), I decided to stop reading it. Some said there were historical errors. I didn't want to wade through places and names and events from the get-go without any introductory text giving me context I could relate to. I think Lafayette was a remarkable man and important to USA history, as well as France, but I'll look elsewhere to flesh out his person and life.

[Lillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not sure I've ever given a book one star on goodreads before, and I was hesitate to now. However, in light of this book's many flaws, I feel like it's the only way to accurately express how I felt about this travesty of a biography. When I read it, I should have known by the completely uncritical adulation of Lafayette in the intro - of whom I hold a deep admiration for, trust me- that this book would be a bad and terribly biased read. First and foremost, it's missing anything in the way of citations. There's no sources page, no way to tell where the author got their information unless he decides to tell you in-text, which rarely happens.

Second, the author is just plain wrong about several things in the book. For example, I looked up Monsieur Autie, Marie Antionette's hairdresser, only to discover that he lived out his last twenty years in a manner completely contrary to what this book claimed! I also was able to spot a multitude of inaccuracies because I've read other, and better, biographies of Lafayette, and so whenever I discovered a fact I didn't know I'd immediately question it; if the author is wrong about so much, after all, how can I trust anything he says?

Third, he's dismissive and straight up sexist to the women throughout the novel, twice referring to two separate women as the "warrior's reward" for returning soldiers, and seeking to demonize them if it will make the author's precious Lafayette look better, which leads me to my fourth point. Lafayette is a man of many flaws, and the author spends the entire book trying to pretend that isn't true, going so far as to spending whole pages telling us, the reader, why all other historians are wrong about such and such flaw, or detailing in large paragraphs why what happened wasn't actually that bad. My eyes rolled back into my skull when, early on, the author decided to blame Lafayette's early infidelities on the "influences" of his friends. No, sorry, he was an adult responsible for his own actions. This seems completely missed, here and throughout the rest of the book, by the author. He spent about three sentences on the time Lafayette brought a Native American boy to France with him, saying in those sentences that the boy was a "gift" to him, and that he looked at him like a father.

For a more nuanced and true-to-life view, as well as a far better biography all around, try The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered by Laura Auricchio. I will say that the author did, when talking about Lafayette's attempts at gradual emancipation, talk about how the plantation in French Guiana were far less hospitable than Lafayette imagined. However, the author did this by breaking the biographical writing style, inserting himself in with an "I went" that was very jarring. And that is my last point; this translation was also poor, not so much so that if the book was good by itself I would notice unduly, but combined with the bad writing, it made it almost unbearable. I distinctly remember a section on Ben Franklin being translated with sentences so choppy that none of them were more than ten words, and a part where a fragment of a sentence was just left in the middle of a paragraph.

The only time I really enjoyed myself was in the appendixes, where the author gave fragments of three letters, one from George Washington to Lafayette, one from Lafayette in reply, and a third from Lafayette about his wife after her death. It was in this letter that depth showed through, despite the author's constant and futile attempts to inject emotion and sympathy in his portrayals of historical figures, many of whom had so little to do with Lafayette they needed no mention. How much it says that it took the words of Lafayette himself, unadorned by a bad biographer, to shine through. If I'd wanted that, I would have read Lafayette's own memoirs.

[Valentin NERIN]

As a French it's good to learn a bit more about the history of my country.
I personally liked the style, even though it became predictable and repetitive after some chapters, it's the warm style of a passionate history teacher.
But I think the Revolution deserved more chapters, I found it hard to understand.
Finally, I maybe would have preferred a more neutral biography, some chapters being some kind of a cult of personality.

[Glenn Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

We all know of General Lafayette from childhood, but other than his role in the American Revolution, I knew just a little. This book helped a great deal in filling out the rest of his life. Very profound individual. He worked to help bring democracy to France in 1789 (unsuccessful), survived the Reign of Terror, worked with Napoleon, was jailed by Napoleon, freed by Napoleon and then negotiated with Napoleon to abdicate on his 2nd visit to power. Lafayette never gave up on his quest to bring freedom and democracy to France and other countries: Poland, Ireland, Belgium and Greece. Worshipped by America, liked in France. Fascinating individual.

[Rei ⭐ [TrulyBooked] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whatever I felt was lacking in the other books I read about Lafayette, this one made up for them all. In many cases it feels like I'm reading a novel rather than a history book which I appreciated. Lafayette's life was wide and varied. The sheer number of huge political events that he participated in feels legendary during such turbulent times. At the same time, I sometimes feel like there was a distance between me and the Marquis which is the only reason this book lost its stars.

I learned a lot about the politics surrounding him, but still felt like I was kept distant from Lafayette. Almost as if I was being lead on a whirlwind museum tour.

[Kevin Kizer · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having read over a dozen books on the revolutionary period, I've been meaning to read a bio on Lafayette. He was kicking ass in the Revolutionary War then helped kick start the French Revolution, except the latter didn't go as well as the former for him (or France). But he was respected the world over - even kings that loathed him for his anti-monarchy streak, begrudgingly respected him. Considering his exploits and bravery, it's sad he isn't widely remembered in the states. If he were American, he would be right up there with Washington, et al.

[Jenine]

I didn't realize this was written in French until I got home from the library. I will look again for a book in English. This is not what I would consider a masterful translation. The result is very stilted. It clearly shows the underpinnings of the French it was translated from. In a way I suppose that makes it a faithful translation. But it also fails to render the narrative into fluid, readable English.

I had intended to include some damning examples but I am away from the book so you'll just have to take my word for it.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Guess the author thought Lafayette couldn't fill a book because this one includes France, Napoleon, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Madame du Barry, Paul I (tsarevich of Russia) and any other contemporaneous thing--within 50 years--of Lafayette.

Readable but not enough about Lafayette to retain my attention.

[JEAN-PHILIPPE PEROL]

Sans vraie révélation et avec un survol parfois approximatif des faits, ce livre retrace cependant avec talent le destin exceptionnel de LaFayette, ses échecs répétés et ses hésitations qui n'empechent pas la force de ses convictions et l'amènent à devenir le premier héros des deux mondes....

[Mousie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent Biography that explored the people around Lafayette and the American and French Revolutions as well as the man himself. The author's style is descriptive and engaging and his subject is fascinating. Overall an enjoyable read.

[Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bavard, plein de digressions totalement inutiles...
Au moins j'aurais appris des choses sur La Fayette, mais je ne pense vraiment pas relire quoique ce soit de Gonzague Saint Bris...

[Gabriel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Impertinent, peu érudit, trop plein de digression inutile et sans importance... très peu éducatif... parfois trop soumis à la grandeur du personnage. À ne pas lire.

[Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

peaked at the prologue. awful. did nothing well.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good.