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OBITUARY
David G. Chandler, military historian, 15th January 1934 - 10th October 2004
THIS MONTH'S ARTICLE
Beethoven, Byron, and Bonaparte - part 1, by John Clubbe
With the Eroica Beethoven inaugurates what has come to be known as his Heroic style. Most commentators have this style beginning with this symphony and lasting a decade. The spirit of the age was revolution, and the music of Beethoven's Heroic period embodied it. Read all about it...
200 YEARS AGO
The journal Citoyen français dated 25 Vendémiaire, An XIII (17 October, 1804), noted that "the capital is noticeably beginning to be filled with foreigners and visitors from other départements come for the coronation. Already significant numbers of them can be seen at the theatres and in other public places." Good news for the tradespeople of the metropole.
The Gazette de France of 26 Vendémiaire, An XIII (18 October, 1804), on the other hand, delighted in the ever stricter fashion dictates, which no woman or man of distinction should dare to disobey: "It is forbidden for women going to court to wear anything other than French material. Velvets and satins appear to be generally favoured; for the most part, ladies wear court trains. This sort of train is a heavy mantle adapted to the dress; usually such trains are elegantly embroidered."
150 YEARS AGO
The author Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, 16 October, 1854. Whilst he wrote many plays, (The importance of being Earnest, Salome,...), essays and short stories, he produced only one novel: The portrait of Dorian Gray. Although married with two children, he was infamous for his provocative flamboyant homosexuality, and most notably a relationship with an aspiring man letters fifteen years his younger, Lord Alfred Douglas or ‘Bosie'. Bosie's father, the Marquess of Queensbury, famously took Wilde to court, accusing him of perverting his son. At the end of the trial, Oscar Wilde was condemned to two years hard labour for homosexuality on 27 May, 1895. After serving his sentence, Wilde moved to Brittany and later Paris, dying of cerebral meningitis in the Hôtel d'Alsace, 30 November, 1900. His mortal remains were laid to rest in the Père-Lachaise in Paris.
Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud was born on 20 October, 1854, in Charleville, in the Ardennes. His father, infantry captain, abandoned his family when Rimbaud was only six years old. After a school career marked by frequent running away, he went up to Paris and subscribed to the anarchist ideas of the Commune. His meeting in 1871 and tortured relationship with the poet Verlaine drove him towards an severe poetic style. In his work, he ceaselessly expressed his disgust for, and doubts concerning, society, whilst to assuage his tensions he would travel in Africa and Europe. He died in Marseilles on 10 November, 1891, of bone cancer. the complete works of Rimbaud are available online.
20 October saw yet another birth, that of Alphonse Allais (1854-1905), writer and humourist renowned for his bon mots. He is supposed to have remarked: "I don't understand the English! In France we call our streets after victories: Wagram, Austerlitz... but over there they give them the names of defeats: Trafalgar square, Waterloo Place..."
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Websites
- The Armoury of St James
Go to the Napoleonic Directory, select 'Militaria' in the web site scroll bar menu.
- Napoleonic Total War war game
Go to the Napoleonic Directory, select 'Wargaming' in the web site scroll bar menu.
What's on
- Conference: L'Agora: Joachin Murat: king of legend and of history, Reggio Calabria, Italy
- Re-enactment: The Battle of the Three Emperors 2004 - Battle of Austerlitz, Austerlitz, Czech Republic
- Exhibition: The Treasures of the Fondation Napoléon, Paris, France
- Conference: International Conference: Visions of Napoleon's European politique, Paris, France
- Study Day: Napoleon and Rome, Rome, Italy
- Exhibition: Images of the coronation of the Emperor Napoleon, Paris, France
- Exhibition: Was für ein Theater, Krönungen & Spektakel in napoleonischer Zeit
(What a show! Coronations and pomp in the Napoleonic period), Château d'Arenenberg, Switzerland
- Exhibition: Giovanni Spadolini's passion for Napoleon: a tale of history, politics and culture, Elba, Italy
- Exhibition: Napoleon. The Sacre, at the Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica
The monthly titles
- This month's book: Napoleon and the British, by Stuart Semmel
- This month's painting: Portrait of Madame Fouler, Comtesse de Relingue, by Louis Leopold Boilly
- This month's article: Beethoven, Byron, and Bonaparte - part 1, by John Clubbe
- In the Collectors Corner, Dessert plate from the «Service particulier de l'Empereur» : "Le prytanée de Saint-Cyr" by N.-A. Lebel
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