Napoleon, the Man and the Myths: Part 1


As I was reading the book, The Awesome Egyptians, to my 8 yo daughter, I ran into this incident where Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly entered The Great Pyramid, stayed there alone for quite a while and came out “pale and shaking”.
This sounded fake. Or was it? No biography of Napoleon would ever answer such questions categorically, so I turned to the all-knowing Google. Voila! It pointed me to this podcast named, I kid you not, Our Fake History! My hopes up, I was thrilled to see it had a 2-part series on Napoleon.

The podcast started by pointing out that Napoleon was a larger than life figure. There were innumerable myths around him, some that served him and others that served his enemies, some true and others false. The series promised to explore all of them: Was he a short-statured egomaniac? Or a wise-cracking bon vivant? A jealous lover? A great general? A destroyer of ancient monuments? And did he create that clever palindrome on Elba?

Napoleon was a nobody by birth. Hell, he wasn’t even French. Born a Corsican (Italian), he spoke French with an accent.  But then came the French Revolution, and most of the top army brass was wiped out. Ambitious men like Napoleon jostled to fill the vacuum. The new government believed in the “Keep your friends close, your enemies closer” maxim: they posted Napoleon to Paris, to keep a closer eye on him. When a pro-monarchy mob threatened Paris, he was told to deal with it. He did, and promptly asked for a promotion. A wary government obliged knowing that they could either “promote this man or he will promote himself”: they made him the Commander of the army in Italy. Good riddance, they thought: what better place to bury him? France was under constant attack from Italy and Austria as the European powers took advantage of the chaos following the French Revolution. Little did they know…

Comments

  1. Ramiah KumarDecember 13, 2019 at 10:08 AM

    Interesting viewpoint on Napoleon. The finish line "Little did they know…" assumes what happened to Napoleon and France subsequently! Yes, of course. Many of us actually know.

    Surprisingly, it was Napoleon who famously said (or at least it is attributed to him!), "What is history but agreed upon fable!". And he is a well-known as a 'great contributor to European history'!

    Recalling history, the blog states: "...But then came the French Revolution, and most of the top army brass was wiped out. Ambitious men like Napoleon jostled to fill the vacuum..." I am inclined to believe that India's Modi-ji getting catapulted to the 'larger than life' image has some similarities. Political vacuum was behind, for sure. Like in France, many Indians wanted desperately an all-powerful, decisive and someone with extreme-right-leaning (in so far as religion is concerned). Modi answered their mind-constructed idol snugly.

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