Napoléon et les siens | Vincent Haegele

EAN : 9782262076795

Shaping : EPUB3

DRM : Watermark (Tatouage numérique)

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Napoleon and his relatives

Vincent Haegele

Release date : 16/08/2018

Going far beyond the clichés on the Bonaparte clan, an innovative and masterful reading of the imperial family system.

What has not been written about the family of Napoleon, the man
whose destiny astounded the world? Everything and its opposite
has been said, but with one image prevailing over all the rest, that
of a clan greedy for money, unmerited honors and spoils stripped
from the corpses of ancient monarchies. Joseph, Louis, Jerome,
Elisa,... What has not been written about the family of Napoleon, the man
whose destiny astounded the world? Everything and its opposite
has been said, but with one image prevailing over all the rest, that
of a clan greedy for money, unmerited honors and spoils stripped
from the corpses of ancient monarchies. Joseph, Louis, Jerome,
Elisa, Caroline and Murat, Pauline and Lucien: all of them corrupt
brothers, ambitious and depraved sisters, unworthy brides,
unscrupulous cousins, and so on.
Yet no one can build a dynasty without counting on his own kin,
and this is the Gordian knot of Napoleon Bonaparte's complex
enterprise: his brothers and sisters accompanied, supported and
sometimes determined this process of conquests and civil and
military constructions, sharing from the beginning the pain of exile,
the systematic questioning of their social status and the wounds
to their self-esteem. A lone man, moreover, would probably not
have been able to succeed, whereas a multi-headed “system” (the
word is Napoleon’s own) made this success possible, albeit shortlived.
This was the keystone. The contours of this system were
deliberately unspecified, in order to leave room for maneuvering
to the one who had the heavy burden of embodying imperial
grandeur through new institutions. This represented a magnificent
political coup, which allowed, through the various “franchises”
granted by the emperor to his relatives, to expand France’s scope
of action into a Grand Empire while the country remained within
the very respectable limits of its natural borders.

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Voir la fiche produit

EAN : 9782262076795

Shaping : EPUB3

DRM : Watermark (Tatouage numérique)

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