Bonaparte: 1769-1802

by Patrice Gueniffey

Overview

Patrice Gueniffey is the leading French historian of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic age. This book, hailed as a masterwork on its publication in France, takes up the epic narrative at the heart of this turbulent period: the life of Napoleon himself, the man who—in Madame de Staël’s words—made the rest of “the human race anonymous.” Gueniffey follows Bonaparte from his obscure boyhood in Corsica, to his meteoric rise during the Italian and Egyptian campaigns of the Revolutionary wars, to his proclamation as Consul for Life in 1802. Bonaparte is the story of how Napoleon became Napoleon. A future volume will trace his career as emperor.

Most books approach Napoleon from an angle—the Machiavellian politician, the military genius, the life without the times, the times without the life. Gueniffey paints a full, nuanced portrait. We meet both the romantic cadet and the young general burning with ambition—one minute helplessly intoxicated with Josephine, the next minute dominating men twice his age, and always at war with his own family. Gueniffey recreates the violent upheavals and global rivalries that set the stage for Napoleon’s battles and for his crucial role as state builder. His successes ushered in a new age whose legacy is felt around the world today.

Averse as we are now to martial glory, Napoleon might seem to be a hero from a bygone time. But as Gueniffey says, his life still speaks to us, the ultimate incarnation of the distinctively modern dream to will our own destiny.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9786071658647
Publisher:	Fondo de Cultura Económica
Publication date:	01/09/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Language:	Spanish

About the Author

Patrice Gueniffey is Director of the Raymond Aron Center for Political Research at L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. One of France’s leading historians of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic ages, he is the author of Bonaparte, the monumental first volume of the definitive modern French biography of Napoleon.

Table of Contents

List of Maps ix

Introduction 1

Part 1 Napoleon and Corsica: 1769-1793 17

1 An Italian Family in Corsica 19

2 A French Upbringing 40

3 The French Officer and the Corsican Patriot 64

4 The Revolutionary of Ajaccio 81

5 Lost Illusions 110

Part 2 Entry on Stage: 1793-1796 135

6 Toulon 137

7 In Search of a Future 160

8 Happiness 190

Part 3 The Italian Campaign: 1796-1797 213

9 That Beautiful Italy 215

10 An Italian Policy? 231

11 On the Road to Vienna 250

12 Mombello 272

13 Saving the Directory 298

14 Campoformio 323

15 Parisian Interlude 349

Part 4 The Egyptian Expedition: 1798-1799 375

16 The Road to the Indies 377

17 The Conquest of the Nile 404

18 Governing Egypt 437

19 Jaffa 470

20 The Return from the Orient 493

Part 5 Crossing the Rubicon: 1799 519

21 The Conspiracy 521

22 Brumaire 549

Part 6 A King for the Revolution: 1799-1802 575

23 First Consul 577

24 First Steps 601

25 From the Tuileries to Marengo 617

26 Works and Days 658

27 The Turning Point of 1801 692

28 Peace with the Church 727

29 The Top of the Ladder 763

Notes 807

Bibliography 951

Index 981

Editorial Reviews

The epic of the self-made man revealed… Masterful… The great virtue of this biography is that it peels away the myth to reveal the epic underneath… Savor the first volume of this fascinating biography of a character who, as Madame de Stael wrote, made ‘mankind anonymous by monopolizing celebrity alone.’

Telerama

The book is exhaustive, scrupulously accurate, and firmly persuasive, for the most part, on the individual stages of Napoleon’s career. It is likely to stand as the definitive biography for quite some time.

The Nation - David A. Bell

[A] magisterial and often exhilarating biography… [Gueniffey] writes with a powerful grounding in the intellectual history of late 18th-century France. One of the notable features of the book, and one that distinguishes it from the majority of biographies, is Gueniffey’s concern to anchor his subject in the spirit of the times… It is the most detailed and analytical discussion yet published of his career from his first steps in the military to the moment in 1802 when he was proclaimed First Consul for life… Gueniffey’s next book, on Napoleon’s imperial years, can only be eagerly awaited.

Literary Review - Alan Forrest

Outstanding.

Choice - A. M. Mayer

[The book’s] mastery of the sources and authorities is remarkable…[Gueniffey’s] principal interest lies not in his recreation of the battles, but in how they are connected not only to the man’s psychology and character, but to the tumultuous history swirling around this most fabulous life…Bonaparte…is punctuated by Gueniffey’s probing, his skepticism about much in Napoleonic historiography that he finds overwrought or mistaken, and his incessant questioning of just how much can be known for sure about Napoleon, whose motives are so elusive. Gueniffey’s work, once completed, will be the dominant ‘life’ of our generation and a few to come.

History and Theory - David P. Jordan

Bonaparte is that rare sort of book that you start with curiosity and finish with regret that it’s over. We learn much and it never ceases to entertain. Patrice Gueniffey…is a worker doubling as an artist—in short, a great historian.

L’Express

In [Gueniffey’s] account of Napoleon’s youth and young manhood…his interpretation is superb… Work like this quite dazzles the mind… [Gueniffey] has produced a magnificent and scintillating study of political…analysis that will take its place as a classic French account of Napoleon’s life.

New York Review of Books - Steven Englund

No matter how much anyone may have read on the subject, this book will provide some new insights into how Napoleon became convinced of, and clung to, his belief in his exalted and exceptional destiny through many years of obscurity and indifference or even mockery at the hands of his young French peers… Patrice Gueniffey…sees and explains more clearly than foreign biographers usually do the fluctuation of the political constituencies within revolutionary France… This is a very good and thorough book.

The Spectator - Conrad Black

A masterful biography that deconstructs Napoleon to show the myriad aspects of his character… This biography does justice to the scale of its subject, and it is a worthy study of a brilliant but flawed leader. Ultimately, it shows us Napoleon’s life as the vast canvas that it was, full of the drama and violence of history.

David Murphy

Patrice Gueniffey is one of the few historians recognized both in France and in the wider academic world for his work on the Napoleonic era. The author of several books on the period and an editor of Napoleon’s letters, he was persuaded in 2004 to abandon a more limited project to undertake a full biography of his subject. Nine years later the first volume, which ends in 1802, was published in Paris and immediately won all the available plaudits. A second volume will follow in due course. When the work is complete there is little doubt that it will be accepted as the most authoritative biography of Napoleon that we have or are likely to have in the foreseeable future. For now, we have only the first volume but this is enough.

Prospect - Charles Williams

This is clearly a remarkable book… The excitement level never flags in this beautiful retelling of Bonaparte’s lucky period and apogee. The book itself is a triumph in every direction. If you would like to polish up your Napoleon or encounter him in fresh clothes, this is your book.

Sydney Morning Herald - Tom Keneally

Magnificent…Patrice Gueniffey’s Bonaparte is beautifully written, and its portrait of Talleyrand is masterly. If you need more Napoleon, Gueniffey’s next volume is a good bet.

Claremont Review of Books - Denis Boyles

Tens of thousands of books…have been devoted to Napoleon. But some trees, like this one, dominate the forest.

Le Figaro

Bonaparte is that rare sort of book that you start with curiosity and finish with regret that it’s over. We learn much and it never ceases to entertain. Patrice Gueniffey…is a worker doubling as an artist—in short, a great historian.

L’Express

★ 2015-01-05
Wonderfully lyrical, historically nuanced exploration of the irruption of this Romantic hero.In this hefty first volume of a projected two-volume biography of the "magician" who was Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French scholar Gueniffey (Director of Studies/L'École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris) places the patriot and dictator squarely at the center of unprecedented historical events—not for hagiographic purposes but for the sheer fascination of examining this self-willed character. In his first book in English translation, the author carefully delineates Napoleon's humble upbringing in Corsica to the declaration of Consulate for Life in 1802, from canny officer and negotiator for his extended family's benefactors to single-minded workhorse and consolidator of centralized power. Throughout the book, Gueniffey allows the countless authors before him to range about the narrative—Stendhal, Chateaubriand, Taine, Emerson, Jacques Bainville and many more. For Gueniffey, there is an obvious joy to the historiographic journey. Having witnessed the excesses of the Revolution, Napoleon came down on the side of "law, tranquility and all the established authorities"; having pressed for Corsican emancipation, he and his family were banished in 1793. Marrying Joséphine de Beauharnais in 1796 was a way to establish French nationality that education could not afford him. His defeat of the British at Toulon set him on his course; as the author astutely observes, Napoleon was "born in war." In search of a future, he worked tirelessly and imaginatively, often ill, and he was frugal, solitary and bourgeois. Across a consistently illuminating narrative, Gueniffey sifts his subject's defining achievements of this period—e.g., concord with the Catholic Church (after the rupture of the Revolution) and establishment of a civil code, which confirmed his reputation as a legislator. A masterful portrait, staggeringly complete and contradictory and fluently translated—a delight to read.

Kirkus Reviews