| |
|
|
|
|
| |
THIS MONTH'S BOOK
Napoleon: A Political Life, by Stephen Englund
Distinguished by its use of French rather than English-language sources, this work is an academically wolfish book arrayed in sheep's clothing for the general public, and as such it will take debate on Napoleon's political impact on the 19th and 20th centuries into the drawing rooms of the Anglophone world.
SHORT OF IDEAS FOR CHRISTMAS PRESENTS?
Why not choose from our list of potential presents.
CHRISTMAS CLOSURE OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE M. LAPEYRE-FONDATION NAPOLEON
Change of opening times: Tuesday 23 December, the library will be open from 1-6pm (instead of 4-9pm). Thereafter the library will be closed for the Christmas holidays, reopening on Monday 5 January, 2004.
Naturally, the catalogue will be accessible for the whole of this period on the site.
200 YEARS AGO
Born on 11 December, 1803, Louis-Hector Berlioz was baptised on 14 December in a chapel in the church of Saint-André in La Côte-Saint-André (Isère). He was the first of six children to be born to Docteur Louis-Joseph Berlioz and Madame née Marie-Antoinette-Joséphine Marmion.
All about Berlioz - a bi-lingual site run by two enthusiasts.
150 YEARS AGO
During the night of the 17-18 December, 1853, at Croisset, Flaubert wrote a letter to his mistress, Louise Colet, regarding her work La Servante, which she recently sent to him for his opinion.
" [...]
In no way do I think little of La Servante. Who put that idea into you head? It's completely the opposite! completely the opposite! If had considered it bad, I would have told you so, as I did for your La Princesse, and for your comedy, L'Institutrice. No! You never understand half shades. Like you, I think that you have probably never written verses which are are more beautiful nor so many in the same work. But, and here begin my hesitations, you'll get no praise from me for writing beautiful verses: you lay them like a chicken lays eggs, without noticing (it's part of your nature, God made you like that). Let me tell you one more time that it is not the pearls that make the necklace, it's the string. And it's because I so admired the transcendent 'string' in La Paysanne that I was surprised that I could no longer see one so clearly in La Servante.
[...]
As for publishing, I don't agree with you. It is useful. For all we know, there might be at this very moment, in a corner of of the Pyrenees or Basse-Bretagne, some poor human being who understands us? You publish for the friends you don't know. It's the only thing printing is good for. It's a broader conduit, an instrument of sympathy, which will strike at a distance. As for publishing now, I don't know. Putting out La Servante and La Religieuse both at the same time would perhaps be more imposing, both in sheer mass and contrast. No! I do not have a sepulchral detachment for everything; simply the news of your small successes at the bookshop bring me pleasure. I'm not at all detached from you, see! poor Muse! I just want to see you rich, happy, renowned, celebrated, envied! But what I want for you most of all is to see you become great. The thing that you are misinterpreting is the fact that I hate the following: this aspiring to happiness through deeds, through action. I hate this seeking for earthly beatitude. It seems to me a mediocre and dangerous mania. Long live love, money, wine, family, joy and emotions! We should take the most we can from all this, but we mustn't believe in it. We must understand that happiness is a myth invented by the devil in order to bring us to despair. It's the people who are convinced that paradise exists who have paltry imaginations. In antiquity, when people only hoped (and even then it was only a hope!) in some rather dull Elysian Fields, life was delightful. The only thing I would criticise you for, my poor dear muse, is that you demand oranges from apple trees. Whether orange or apple tree, I stretch out my branches to you and I lay myself down upon your entire being.
Yours, a thousand kisses all over.
Your G. "
For more letters by Flaubert (in French), visit the Centre Flaubert de l'Université de Rouen
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
|
|
|
|
|
|
THIS WEEK:
Snippets
Bush and Chirac not to meet at the Louisiana Purchase celebrations
What's on
- Radio: Trafalgar
- Exhibition: Elisa's Days: the public and private life of a princess, Lucca (Italy)
- Exhibition:Art booty in the Napoleonic period. The "French gift" to Mainz, 1803
Web sites
'Elisa' the perfume
Go to the Napoleonic Directory, then select 'For sale' in the web site scrollbar menu
Recently published books
A selection of titles for Christmas
The monthly titles
- This month's book: Napoleon: A Political Life, by Stephen Englund
- This month's painting: Costume Ball at the Tuileries Palace, by Carpeaux
- This month's article: The History of Lord Seaton's Regiment, (The 52nd Light Infantry) at the Battle of Waterloo, Chapter Four, by William Leake
- In the Collectors Corner, a leaf from Napoleon's coronation crown<<
|
|
