Not only did this book have the writings of Napoleon, it also contained excellent introductions to each chapter that set the tone & explained the circumstances that influenced Napoleon to write what he did during the specified periods. Several times I have read the musings of Napoleon on the subject of suicide, which were written after his having read Goethes The Sorrows of Young Werther. Several times I have read of Napoleons encounter with the prostitute, but I had never been aware that he had written the actual dialogue [for a Meeting at the Palais Royal.]
The Mask of the Prophet was a most interesting tale.
Clisson & Eugenie was a sublime piece, although I preferred the original draft (again written a la Goethe & Rousseau), which Napoleon spurned himself in his later years. It also had the distinction of not falling apart at the end; a flaw noted by Frayling himself at the very beginning of the text. It is a problem I have myself when writing. Perhaps because one can easily write of events past because we know from experience what to expect, but to write of what is going to happen but our own fate we have little control over, thus how can we guess the fate of others?
Napoleon must have been very self-obsessed to write this story as there is no question at all that he was writing about himself [as Clisson], though I have my doubts of whom he was thinking of when he created Eugenie. If it had been Desiree Clary, why did he make Eugenie come to love another, when in reality it was he who had broken off with her? Per Frayling, it is possible that he had based the character on her sister Julie, instead.
The Mask of the Prophet was a most interesting tale.
Clisson & Eugenie was a sublime piece, although I preferred the original draft (again written a la Goethe & Rousseau), which Napoleon spurned himself in his later years. It also had the distinction of not falling apart at the end; a flaw noted by Frayling himself at the very beginning of the text. It is a problem I have myself when writing. Perhaps because one can easily write of events past because we know from experience what to expect, but to write of what is going to happen but our own fate we have little control over, thus how can we guess the fate of others?
Napoleon must have been very self-obsessed to write this story as there is no question at all that he was writing about himself [as Clisson], though I have my doubts of whom he was thinking of when he created Eugenie. If it had been Desiree Clary, why did he make Eugenie come to love another, when in reality it was he who had broken off with her? Per Frayling, it is possible that he had based the character on her sister Julie, instead.
