François Houdecek, a life dedicated to Napoleon

Author(s) : MBOG Raoul
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Nothing predestined this strategy-game enthusiast to become one of the best specialists of social military history of the First Empire. François Houdecek has found his place in the academic community above all by being the pivot of Napoleon’s Correspondance Générale, published by the Fondation Napoléon. A project that is reaching its conclusion with the publication of its fifteenth volume, and to whose success François Houdecek has contributed with enthusiasm and rigour.

François Houdecek, a life dedicated to Napoleon
François Houdecek © Rebecca Young/Fondation Napoléon

“I like Napoleon because I like Napoleon.” François Houdecek has a way with words and enjoys a punchy expression, especially when it comes to talking about his passion for the Napoleonic era and for the social military history of the First Empire. This period of major transformation in France and in Europe seems to inhabit François Houdecek, indeed, he devotes most of his time to making both its relevance as well as its complexities accessible to all. I live with Napoleon all week,” the forty-year-old declares passionately, smiling from behind a pair of thin rectangular spectacles. François Houdecek has been coordinating the edition of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Correspondance Générale for thirteen years, initiated and published since 2004 by the Fondation Napoléon, in collaboration with the publishers Fayard.

The aim of this major scholarly project was to create a reference work for Napoleonic studies by publishing texts as close as possible to the originals. Nearly 41,000 letters and documents written by Napoleon and dispersed in France and abroad have been collected, processed, and organised into fifteen volumes. This corpus is accompanied by a body of exegetical material written by historians each with a reputation in their field of specialisation, with the help of a team of volunteers, who are also in their turn, enthusiasts of the History of the Empire.

It’s the end of December 2017. In his office surrounded by piles of books, François Houdecek is examining a text that has just been sent to him by one of the “corresponding members”, that is, the volunteers who take turns working on Napoleon’s correspondence at the Fondation Napoléon in Paris. He is interrupted by a phone call. He turns back to the document. Then quick as a flash, he disappears into the adjacent library to check a reference. All this happens at a frenetic pace. Much the same as that which usually accompanies the preparation of each volume of Napoleon’s Correspondance. But this time, the upcoming print-deadline is generating an intensity of emotion that François Houdecek struggles to hide, that of seeing the conclusion of an adventure to which more than 450 people have contributed. Volume fifteen, which appears this May, is also the last one; the Correspondance having followed the chronological thread of Napoleon’s thought, his work and his life (from 1769-1821).

“It has been a great honour and a huge responsibility to have had to take care of such a mass of information concerning a pivotal period in the history of France, from the tender age of 30 years old. It’s a humbling experience, and character building,” confides François who is also a keen hiker, an activity he regularly enjoys in the Essonne marshes or in the Cotentin.

Although he had been fascinated by the figure of Napoleon since his childhood, this native of the Paris region had not necessarily thought of making a career of it. After graduating from the Sorbonne, he began his professional life as a guide at the Château de Versailles, between 1999 and 2002, before joining the Fondation Napoléon, in July 2003, as a result of a fortunate combination of circumstances.” I still remember the thrill I felt the first time I held some of Napoleon’s original letters in my hands. In those moments, you first feel dizzy, later you learn to distance yourself,” he says with his calm voice, remembering, for example, letters from the Russian Campaign led by Emperor Napoleon I in 1812.

The more he dedicated himself to reviewing Napoleon’s correspondence, the more François Houdecek developed a fine knowledge of his subject, with the ambition of contributing to the deconstruction of the myths surround the figure of Napoleon. To this end, among his activities at the Fondation, he has pursued research into the anthropology of war and post-traumatic stress syndrome among Napoleon’s conscripts. Several publications followed, including De l’empereur au roi (“From Emperor to King”, edited by Nouveau Monde and the Fondation Napoléon, 2012), co-written with Chantal de Loth, or Du Niémen à la Bérézina (“From the Niemen to the Berezina” edited by the French Service Historique de la Défense, 2012), co-written with his friend and colleague, Michel Roucaud.

François Houdecek has always been strongly encouraged and supported in his research activities by the historian and essayist Thierry Lentz, the well-known specialist of the Consulate and the First Empire, and also director of the Fondation Napoléon. “We are very proud of François. His never-give-up style is perfectly balanced by his open-mindedness and creativity. The seriousness and rigour with which he conducted his mission will undoubtedly make him, in a few years, the best specialist of the social military history of the First Empire”, Thierry Lentz has predicted for the future of his protégé.

So Napoleon’s Correspondance is coming to an end. From the outset, the success of the project has ensured the institution (presided over by Victor-André Masséna) a place in the scholarly community. Few today can be unaware of the importance of the Fondation Napoléon (created in 1987) for research and publications on the two Empires. And François Houdecek, a “superb comrade”, much appreciated by his colleagues at the Fondation,  has contributed in his own way.

Whilst the project which he has piloted is now coming to an end, another big challenge now awaits this former “Warcraft” addict [strategy video game]. He has been given the task of reorganising the Fondation’s Napoleonica.org website as well as preparing the online publication of Napoleon’s Correspondance. Yes, that means that all of this historical mass will one day be available on the Internet! And François Houdecek intends to devote himself to it with the same enthusiasm. His computer know-how will undoubtedly prove very useful.

Raoul Mbog, freelance journalist (March 2018)

(English translation R.Y.)

 

 

 

 

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