Some new light on Napoleon

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32880, 1 April 1972, Page 10

Some new light on Napoleon

Napoleon. By Vincent Cronin. Collins. 440 pp. Napoleon is so famous and familiar a character and so much has been written about him, both in biographies and in works of fiction that it comes as something of a surprise to realise that this new work by Vincent Cronin is the first major biography of the most famous of all Corsicans for nearly 20 years. This is, moreover, a very different biography from most of the earlier ones. Partly this is because since 1951 a great deal of new material has come to light, “the Notebooks of Alexandre des Mazis, Napoleon's closest friend in his youth, Napoleon’s letters to Desiree Clary, the first woman in his life, the Memoirs of Louis Marchand, Napoleon’s valet, and General Bertrand’s Boswellian St Helena diary." Many of the previous memoirs published about Napoleon and used by earlier biographers were published under the Bourbons and are consequently rather suspect This new material therefore throws new light on his character. The other major reason for the difference in this biography is the very evident shift in emphasis, for the author is far more interested in Napoleon the statesman and legislator than in Napoleon the general. There is a vivid and lengthy account of the Italian campaign which established Napoleon’s reputation and a fair amount of space is also devoted to the march on Moscow and'the subsequent retreat Apart from these passages little attention • is paid to Napoleon’s wars and battles. Mr Cronin is at pains to emphasise that Napoleon thought of himself as a civilian forced to wage war and not primarily as a soldier. The book begins with a short but very important chapter on Napoleon’s Corsican boyhood emphasising the impact which the traditional island virtues of justice and courage had upon his character and showing too the influence of his brave and devout mother, Letizia. Together with the third chapter "The Young Reformer” this sets the tone of the whole book. The love of justice and bravery and the ardent enthusiasm of a young idealist with a hatred of tyranny and a sympathy for the oppressed are, according to Mr Cronin the hallmarks of Napoleon’s entire career. Throughout his subsequent recording of Napoleon’s rapid rise to fame his legislation as First Consul and his conduct as Emperor, the author builds up an impressive picture of a man striving at all times to serve Ms fellow Frenchmen to preserve the ideals of the Revolution and to establish liberty and peace. One cannot in all honesty say that Mr Cronin completely ignores the warts on his subject but those he does see are sketched in very brtafly and lightly and then quickly glossed over with explanation and excuse. The

result is a portrait of the man which while striking and noble is so idealised as to appear rather unreal. Ulis criticism, however, does not deny the merit of the book as a whole. The general reader with an interest in history will learn much from this work for although it is, in a sense, popular history, it is based firmly on extensive research and reveals a wide and sound knowledge of the man and his times. Mr Cronm has an elegantly clear and simple style, the book is beautifully produced, amply illustrated and fully annotated.