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THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN n° 691, 22-28 NOVEMBER, 2013
EDITORIAL > Always something new
There's always something new in Napoleonic history, and sometimes even on subjects you would have thought thoroughly dealt with. This is what the Fondation Napoléon history prize jury chose to highlight this year, by awarding prizes to two truly excellent books on the First Empire.
Honour where honour is due: Patrice Gueniffey was awarded the Grand Prix 2013 for his extraordinary Bonaparte (Gallimard), a book we spoke a lot about on publication a month ago. We all know the story, but the author manages to uncover new material on the first phase of our man's career. What is more, the style is sure and lively. A great read AND great history.
The First Empire Prize winner, Bruno Colson, gives us with his book on Leipzig (Perrin) a model of a “battle-history” – a genre which he here restores to its former glory. Nothing from the Battle of Nations escapes him.
And since our jury has an ear for music, they closed their list of prize-winners with a “Musical and Historical” Prize awarded to a book about, and recording of, La Mort d'Abel by Kreutzer, edited by Alexandre Dratwicki and produced by the Centre for French Romantic Music.
Our only regret (though this is not our prestigious jury's fault) is that, for the second year running, no book on the Second Empire was nominated. Work is certainly needed here.
Maybe one of the recipients of the Fondation's Second-Empire PhD grants may soon apply? Or perhaps there are other historians out there about to write new and enlightening books on the reign of Napoleon III? We watch this space…
But this (small) regret will not stop me from being quite frankly delighted with the class of 2013 Fondation Napoléon prize-winners. A very fine vintage!
Wishing you an excellent “Napoleonic” week,
Thierry Lentz, Director of the Fondation Napoléon
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2013 FONDATION NAPOLEON PRIZES
GRAND PRIX 2013
> Patrice GUENIFFEY, BONAPARTE (1769-1802), Gallimard
Of all the works published or about to be published on Napoleon Bonaparte, there are some which, right from the start, are obligatory reading. Such is the case with Patrice Gueniffey's Bonaparte, part one of a two-volume biography on the man published by Gallimard, which recounts the young Corsican's intellectual and military training and runs up to the first years of the Consulate.
Read here some extracts (in French).
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FIRST EMPIRE PRIZE 2013
> Bruno COLSON, LEIPZIG, LA BATAILLE DES NATIONS, 16-19 OCTOBRE 1813, Perrin
Bruno Colson's book, Leipzig, La bataille des Nations, 16-19 Octobre, 1813, is a kaleidoscopic, erudite, precise, and broad-ranging view of a battle which changed the face of warfare for ever. It sets the four days of fighting within the greater picture of the Napoleonic Wars, and puts particular emphasis on the impact on the civilian population. The author of the Napoléon: De la guerre here offers a new and rich work, and it is one that is not to be missed.
Read here Bruno Colson's interview for the Fondation Napoléon (in French): “Quatre questions à… Bruno Colson”.
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PRIZE FOR A HISTORICAL AND MUSICAL WORK 2013
Alexandre DRATWICKI (ed.): Rodolphe KREUTZER, LA MORT D'ABEL, Choeur de chambre de Namur / Les Agrémens, Guy Van Waas, Ediciones Singulares, 2012.
This is a book/cd of Rodolphe Kreutzer's famous opera The Death of Abel. The opera itself was based on an curious libretto, set halfway between opera and oratorio, and it was first performed at the Napoleonic Académie Impériale de Musique on 23 March, 1810, portraying, in spectacular manner, the biblical story of Cain's murder of his brother, Abel, in a deadly fit of jealousy.
Beautifully produced by the Palazetto Bru Zane, the book includes four articles (in both French and English) and the opera libretto (in both French and English). And inserted in the book's covers are two cds of a performance of Kreutzer's opera by the Belgian group Les Agrémens and the Choeur de chambre de Namur directed by Guy Van Waas. Soloists include tenor Sébastien Droy and baritones Jean-Sébastien Bou and Alain Buet.
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2013 FONDATION NAPOLEON RESEARCH GRANTS
> FIRST EMPIRE
- Raphaël CAHEN, La pensée politique de Friedrich von Gentz (1764-1832)
History PhD supervised by Michel GANZIN, Eric GASPARINI and Henning OTTMAN (University of Aix-Marseille and LMU Munich, Germany)
- Gonzague ESPINOSA-DASSONNEVILLE, Maximien Lamarque (1770-1832), Général d'Empire, député des Landes, essai biographique
History PhD supervised by Nathalie PETITEAU (University of Avignon and des Pays du Vaucluse)
- Elodie GOËSSANT, George Watson-Taylor, collectionneur de peintures (1771-1841)
Art PhD supervised by Barthélémy JOBERT, University of Paris IV-Sorbonne
- Camille ROUGIER, La surveillance politique les départements côtiers du Consulat et de l'Empire (1800-1814), Etude comparée de quatre départements de l'ouest et du Nord de la France (Gironde, Loire-Inférieure, Finistère et Nord)
History PhD supervised by Jacques-Olivier BOUDON, (University Paris IV-Sorbonne)
> SECOND EMPIRE
The “Minou Amir-Aslani” Grant
This research grant was created in memory of Mme Minou Amir-Aslani, woman of letters and lover of history. The grant is supported and financed by her children.
- Benoît HABERT, La protection des libertés publiques sous le Second Empire
History of Law PhD supervised by François SAINT-BONNET and Brigitte BASDEVANT-GAUDEMET (Universities of Paris II Assas and Paris XI Sceaux)
> 19th CENTURY
- Florence GRIMALDI, Les représentations de Napoléon dans la littérature britannique de la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle : les oeuvres de Walter Scott et de William Hazlitt
History PhD supervised by Francis BERETTI (University of Pascal Paoli, Corsica)
- Maria MNATSAKANOVA, Napoléon dans la pensée des historiens et écrivains russes à la fin du XIXe siècle – au début du XXe siècle
History PhD supervised by Jacques-Olivier BOUDON (University Paris IV-Sorbonne)
Read the PhD projects of our research grant winners.
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PAINTING OF THE MONTH > Édouard RIOU, CEREMONY OF INAUGURATION OF THE SUEZ CANAL AT PORT-SAID
Édouard Riou painted this Ceremony of Inauguration of the Suez Canal at Port-Said in 1896, taking his inspiration from the album he had made twenty-six years earlier for Ferdinand de Lesseps, which the Empress Eugénie had commissioned as a souvenir of her presence at the inauguration ceremonies on 16 and 17 November, 1869. This monumental canvas (2.5 metres by 3) matches grandeur of the innovative and geopolitically revolutionary event of the linking the Red and Mediterranean Seas.
144 YEARS AGO > INAUGURATION OF THE SUEZ CANAL
Two great milestones in the digging of the Suez Canal were reached in 1862 and in 1863: first, when the lakes that the canal had to cross were finally linked together; and second, when work did not stop but indeed carried on despite the death of the Egyptian viceroy (see Bulletins n° 646 and 654). Five more years were needed for the completion of the enterprise, so ambitious and costly both in financial and human terms.
Read our special dossier on the History of the Suez Canal, Napoleon III's great project, shares in which were eventually bought by the British Government in November 1875.
NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE > Biography by Peter Hicks: "Who was Barry Edward O'Meara?"
Irishman Barry Edward O'Meara, Napoleon's doctor on St Helena from August 1815 to July 1818, played an important role in Napoleon's later life and in the propagation of the latter's writings composed on St Helena. This article is an attempt at a “fair” and accurate biographical sketch of the Irish doctor.
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Lucie Louvrier
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 691, 22-28 NOVEMBER, 2013
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© This Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon.
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The Fondation Napoléon History Prizes, the fruit of the generosity of the industrialist, Martial Lapeyre, are awarded by a jury composed of the following specialists:
• V.-A. Masséna, Prince d'Essling (President)
• Jean-Claude Lachnitt (Secretary general)
• Professor Jacques-Olivier Boudon
• Prince Gabriel de Broglie, Chancelier of the Institut, member of the Académie française
• Jean Favier, of the Institut
• Professor Bruno Foucart
• Jacques Jourquin
• Dr Jean-François Lemaire
• Anne Muratori-Philip
• Jean-Marie Rouart, of the Académie française
• Laurent Theis, historian and publisher
• Professor Jean Tulard, of the Institut
See the previous winners.
Furthermore, the same jury awards at least six research grants worth 7,500 Euros to French or non-French students in the first year of their PhD (or MPhil intending to go on to PhD) on First or Second Empire subjects.
See the previous research grant winners.
Where are they now? An update on the careers of some of our research grant winners (in French).
For further information regarding the Fondation Napoléon History Prizes and Research Grants, please contact us.
OPERATION ST HELENA
The Fondation Napoléon and the Souvenir Napoléonien, in association with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have announced the prolongation of its international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena. All the details regarding the campaign as well as donation forms and advice for donating from outside France, can be found on napoleon. org.
You can still donate online to the project via the Friends of the Fondation de France in the US here.
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MAGAZINE
WHAT'S ON
On now and coming up
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
- Talk by Barbie Thompson on the War of 1812, organised by the Plympton and District Civic Society in Plymouth (UK) on 22 November.
- French Embassy to mark 201st anniversary of Napoleon's crossing of the Berezina on 23 November.
- "1812: One War, Four Perspectives" Exhibition at the Peterborough Museum and Archives (Canada), until 8 December, 2013.
PRESS REVIEW
- Bassenge commemorative events, weekend of 16-17 November 2013
- Death masks tell the truth – warts and all
- Patrick T. Conley: Capt. William Henry Allen, a Rhode Island War of 1812 naval hero
SEEN ON THE WEB
- Training re-enactors of the War of 1812 in Wareham (USA)
- Restoration work on the USS Constitution ship
- New Japanese Musical on Napoleon and Joséphine, with music by French composer Gérard Presgurvic
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