{"product_id":"2940012757920","title":"Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte Volume I","description":"MEMOIRS\u003cbr\u003e                                   of\u003cbr\u003e                          NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1769-1783.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     Authentic date of Bonaparte's birth--His family ruined by the\u003cbr\u003e     Jesuits--His taste for military amusements--Sham siege at the\u003cbr\u003e     College of Brienne--The porter's wife and Napoleon--My intimacy with\u003cbr\u003e     Bonaparte at college--His love for the mathematics, and his dislike\u003cbr\u003e     of Latin--He defends Paoli and blames his father--He is ridiculed by\u003cbr\u003e     his comrades--Ignorance of the monks--Distribution of prizes at\u003cbr\u003e     Brienne--Madame de Montesson and the Duke of Orleans--Report of M.\u003cbr\u003e     Keralio on Bonaparte--He leaves Brienne.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNAPOLEON BONAPARTE was born at Ajaccio, in Corsica, on the 15th of August\u003cbr\u003e1769; the original orthography of his name was Buonaparte, but he\u003cbr\u003esuppressed the u during his first campaign in Italy.  His motives for so\u003cbr\u003edoing were merely to render the spelling conformable with the\u003cbr\u003epronunciation, and to abridge his signature.  He signed Buonaparte even\u003cbr\u003eafter the famous 13th Vendemiaire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt has been affirmed that he was born in 1768, and that he represented\u003cbr\u003ehimself to be a year younger than he really was.  This is untrue.  He\u003cbr\u003ealways told me the 9th of August was his birthday, and, as I was born on\u003cbr\u003ethe 9th of July 1769, our proximity of age served to strengthen our union\u003cbr\u003eand friendship when we were both at the Military College of Brienne.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe false and absurd charge of Bonaparte having misrepresented his age,\u003cbr\u003eis decidedly refuted by a note in the register of M. Berton, sub-\u003cbr\u003eprincipal of the College of Brienne, in which it is stated that\u003cbr\u003eM. Napoleon de Buonaparte, écuyer, born in the city of Ajaccio, in\u003cbr\u003eCorsica, on the 15th of August 1769, left the Royal Military College of\u003cbr\u003eBrienne on the 17th October 1784.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe stories about his low extraction are alike devoid of foundation.  His\u003cbr\u003efamily was poor, and he was educated at the public expense, an advantage\u003cbr\u003eof which many honourable families availed themselves.  A memorial\u003cbr\u003eaddressed by his father, Charles Buonaparte, to the Minister of War\u003cbr\u003estates that his fortune had been reduced by the failure of some\u003cbr\u003eenterprise in which he had engaged, and by the injustice of the Jesuits,\u003cbr\u003eby whom he had been deprived of an inheritance.  The object of this\u003cbr\u003ememorial was to solicit a sub-lieutenant's commission for Napoleon, who\u003cbr\u003ewas then fourteen years of age, and to get Lucien entered a pupil of the\u003cbr\u003eMilitary College.  The Minister wrote on the back of the memorial, \"Give\u003cbr\u003ethe usual answer, if there be a vacancy;\" and on the margin are these\u003cbr\u003ewords--\"This gentleman has been informed that his request is inadmissible\u003cbr\u003eas long as his second son remains at the school of Brienne.  Two brothers\u003cbr\u003ecannot be placed at the same time in the military schools.\"  When\u003cbr\u003eNapoleon was fifteen he was sent to Paris until he should attain the\u003cbr\u003erequisite age for entering the army.  Lucien was not received into the\u003cbr\u003eCollege of Brienne, at least not until his brother had quitted the\u003cbr\u003eMilitary School of Paris.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBonaparte was undoubtedly a man of good family.  I have seen an authentic\u003cbr\u003eaccount of his genealogy, which he obtained from Tuscany.  A great deal\u003cbr\u003ehas been said about the civil dissensions which forced his family to quit\u003cbr\u003eItaly and take refuge in Corsica.  On this subject I shall say nothing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany and various accounts have been given of Bonaparte's youth.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47081663922416,"sku":"2940012757920","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012757920_p0.jpg?v=1763572244","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012757920","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}