Christiane Bénardeau: Napoléon dans la littérature (Napoleon in literature)

From his own day, Napoleon has been studied, celebrated and vilified by many writers, from the famous to the more minor. No historical figure has been more influential in literature. This work contains extracts collected under several key themes: Napoleon; Napoleon and the people; the army; great figures of the period; major events of Napoleonic history. A variety of literary epochs is represented, from Chateaubriand to Patrick Rambaud, with Balzac, Hugo and Malraux along the way. Nor is non-francophone literature is neglected; the author also looks at Napoleon in Russian (Dostoevsky, Pushkin), English (Thomas Hardy, Anthony Burgess), Polish and German literature. The collection is neither a course of literary history nor an encyclopedia, but rather a promenade through writing about and around Napoleon, in novels, theatre, poetry and even crime thrillers.

Paris: Fondation Napoléon – Nouveau Monde Editions, 2004, Series Etudes, 420 p. To order, click here: Nouveau Monde Editions.