Lenotre G.: Napoleon: skica epopeje

G. Lenotre: Napoleon: sketch of the epic

G. Lenotre is an author who has made history interesting to a wide audience

"Finally, about midnight, before going to bed - a solid bed of magnificent walnut which Laval had made for the occasion and which was (or rather it was, for the bed still exists) decorated with garlands of laurel, with the corners decorated with the famous eagles - Napoleon asked for a foot bath. - Quick, warm water! Not too warm!

But In what vessel is it to be brought? A vulgar foot bath for such a great man! They found a large earthenware bowl, full of clear, lukewarm water. At the same moment, Duroc entered the Emperor's room with a letter brought by a courier. The whole house shook. The emperor's voice was heard with one furious kick at the other end of the room, where it fell and the water spilled on the floor. Was the bath too hot?" Lenotre was never satisfied with just official history, that of battles and treaties. In a deft combination of romantic spirit and documentary material, in this book he deals with the topic of his choice: Napoleon's life, from his boarding school in Brienne to the casting of the emperor's head - along with a complicated interpretation of the fake Napoleons. Here we learn that the emperor sang out of tune, that he had only a very limited understanding of spelling, that he always confused Smolensk and Salamanca, but we will also not forget that Pope Pius VII, on 14 Frimair in the year XII, received twelve three-fingered goldsmiths for the papal kitchen, nor, of course, that the faithful Mameluke Rustam always slept at his master's door.

"The French were long deterred from reading history books by the fact that they did not believe to what the chroniclers narrate. They did not recognize themselves in these long descriptions, because the historians - who felt that they had to imitate their older colleagues - wrote in a lofty academic tone, excluding intimate and picturesque details, and if they gave the actors the floor, they attributed to them long speeches in the manner of Titus Livius. This was considered a good style in those days he is not stupid, he understood very well that "it didn't turn out exactly like that". Full of distrust, he would close the book and return to novels in which the heroes were at least as upset as he was, talked like him, took breaks to eat and sleep, and the authors did not always elevate them to heaven."

Louis Léon Théodore Gosselin (1855-1935) was a French historian and playwright who wrote under the pseudonym G. Lenotre. He wrote articles in publications such as Le Figaro, Revue des deux mondes, Le Monde illustré, and Le Temps. He also wrote numerous works dealing with the French Revolution, especially the Reign of Terror, which were based on his research into the primary sources of the period. His work was highly regarded by his contemporaries, and in 1932 he was elected to the Académie française, but he never gave the speech he had written in honor of his predecessor, René Basinu.

His works include: Paris Révolutionnaire - La Guillotine et les exécuteurs des arrêts criminales pendant la Révolution, Un conspirateur royaliste pendant la Terreur, le baron de Bats; Le Vrai Chevalier de Maison-Rouge, La Captivité et la mort de Marie-Antoinette, La Chouannerie normande au temps de l’Empire, Le Drame de Varennes, Les Massacres de Septembre, Les Fils de Philippe-Égalité pendant la Terreur, Bleus, Blancs et Rouges, Le Roi Louis XVII et l'énigme du Temple and La Proscription des Girondins.