{"product_id":"2940012773432","title":"MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, Complete","description":"PREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBY THE EDITOR OF THE 1885 EDITION.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Memoirs of the time of Napoleon may be divided into two\u003cbr\u003eclasses--those by marshals and officers, of which Suchet's is a good\u003cbr\u003eexample, chiefly devoted to military movements, and those by persons\u003cbr\u003eemployed in the administration and in the Court, giving us not only\u003cbr\u003ematerials for history, but also valuable details of the personal and\u003cbr\u003einner life of the great Emperor and of his immediate surroundings. Of\u003cbr\u003ethis latter class the Memoirs of Bourrienne are among the most\u003cbr\u003eimportant.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong the intimate and personal friend of Napoleon both at school and from\u003cbr\u003ethe end of the Italian campaigns in 1797 till 1802--working in the same\u003cbr\u003eroom with him, using the same purse, the confidant of most of his\u003cbr\u003eschemes, and, as his secretary, having the largest part of all the\u003cbr\u003eofficial and private correspondence of the time passed through his hands,\u003cbr\u003eBourrienne occupied an invaluable position for storing and recording\u003cbr\u003ematerials for history. The Memoirs of his successor, Meneval, are more\u003cbr\u003ethose of an esteemed private secretary; yet, valuable and interesting as\u003cbr\u003ethey are, they want the peculiarity of position which marks those of\u003cbr\u003eBourrienne, who was a compound of secretary, minister, and friend. The\u003cbr\u003eaccounts of such men as Miot de Melito, Raederer, etc., are most\u003cbr\u003evaluable, but these writers were not in that close contact with Napoleon\u003cbr\u003eenjoyed by Bourrienne. Bourrienne's position was simply unique, and we\u003cbr\u003ecan only regret that he did not occupy it till the end of the Empire.\u003cbr\u003eThus it is natural that his Memoirs should have been largely used by\u003cbr\u003ehistorians, and to properly understand the history of the time, they must\u003cbr\u003ebe read by all students. They are indeed full of interest for every one.\u003cbr\u003eBut they also require to be read with great caution. When we meet with\u003cbr\u003epraise of Napoleon, we may generally believe it, for, as Thiers\u003cbr\u003e(Consulat., ii. 279) says, Bourrienne need be little suspected on this\u003cbr\u003eside, for although be owed everything to Napoleon, he has not seemed to\u003cbr\u003eremember it. But very often in passages in which blame is thrown on\u003cbr\u003eNapoleon, Bourrienne speaks, partly with much of the natural bitterness\u003cbr\u003eof a former and discarded friend, and partly with the curious mixed\u003cbr\u003efeeling which even the brothers of Napoleon display in their Memoirs,\u003cbr\u003epride in the wonderful abilities evinced by the man with whom he was\u003cbr\u003eallied, and jealousy at the way in which he was outshone by the man he\u003cbr\u003ehad in youth regarded as inferior to himself. Sometimes also we may even\u003cbr\u003esuspect the praise. Thus when Bourrienne defends Napoleon for giving, as\u003cbr\u003ehe alleges, poison to the sick at Jaffa, a doubt arises whether his\u003cbr\u003eobject was to really defend what to most Englishmen of this day, with\u003cbr\u003eremembrances of the deeds and resolutions of the Indian Mutiny, will seem\u003cbr\u003ean act to be pardoned, if not approved; or whether he was more anxious to\u003cbr\u003efix the committal of the act on Napoleon at a time when public opinion\u003cbr\u003eloudly blamed it. The same may be said of his defence of the massacre of\u003cbr\u003ethe prisoners of Jaffa.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLouis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne was born in 1769, that is, in the\u003cbr\u003esame year as Napoleon Bonaparte, and he was the friend and companion of\u003cbr\u003ethe future Emperor at the military school of Brienne-le-Chateau till\u003cbr\u003e1784, when Napoleon, one of the sixty pupils maintained at the expense of\u003cbr\u003ethe State, was passed on to the Military School of Paris. The friends\u003cbr\u003eagain met in 1792 and in 1795, when Napoleon was hanging about Paris, and\u003cbr\u003ewhen Bourrienne looked on the vague dreams of his old schoolmate as only\u003cbr\u003eso much folly. In 1796, as soon as Napoleon had assured his position at\u003cbr\u003ethe head of the army of Italy, anxious as ever to surround himself with\u003cbr\u003eknown faces, he sent for Bourrienne to be his secretary. Bourrienne had\u003cbr\u003ebeen appointed in 1792 as secretary of the Legation at Stuttgart, and\u003cbr\u003ehad, probably wisely, disobeyed the orders given him to return, thus\u003cbr\u003eescaping the dangers of the Revolution. He only came back to Paris in\u003cbr\u003e1795, having thus become an emigre. He joined Napoleon in 1797, after the\u003cbr\u003eAustrians had been beaten out of Italy, and at once assumed the office of\u003cbr\u003esecretary which he held for so long. He had sufficient tact to forbear\u003cbr\u003etreating the haughty young General with any assumption of familiarity in\u003cbr\u003epublic, and he was indefatigable enough to please even the never-resting\u003cbr\u003eNapoleon. Talent Bourrienne had in abundance; indeed he is careful to\u003cbr\u003ehint that at school if any one had been asked to predict greatness for\u003cbr\u003eany pupil, it was Bourrienne, not Napoleon, who would have been fixed on\u003cbr\u003eas the future star. He went with his General to Egypt, and returned with\u003cbr\u003ehim to France.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47163491287280,"sku":"2940012773432","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012773432_p0.jpg?v=1763572053","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012773432","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}