An acclaimed classic of the many memoirs to have survived from the epic, tragic and disastrous Russian Campaign of 1812. This translation is taken from chapters of Fézensac’s larger memoir - Souvenirs Militaires de 1804 a 1815 par le duc de Fezensac, Paris, 1863. The author starts the campaign as an aide-de-camp attached to the General Staff, and is slightly more insulated to the horrors of the march to Moscow, although glimpses of the hardships reach even the higher reaches of command. Later, after the fire and sack of Moscow, he takes command of regiment of infantry and it is then that the truly epic struggles the men undertook against their principal nature on the retreat from Moscow. His regiment forms part of Maréchal Ney’s dwindling, over-worked, staving rearguard, and is witness to its trials and Homeric travails including the crossings of the Dneiper and Berezina. This edition is introduced by a withy summation of the campaign by General Knollys, who without impinging on the narrative, gives a good overall account of the campaign leaving the details of Fézensac’s experiences to be brought out in his own words. Raymond-Aymerie-Philippe-Joseph de Montesquiou-Fézensac, born in Paris in 1784 into an ancient noble family, a cadet branch of the House of Gascony, he volunteered as a private soldier in 1803. He achieved rapid promotion in the campaigns of 1805 and 1806, and later serving as Maréchal Ney’s aide-de-camp. His promotion would not have been hampered by his marriage to Mademoiselle Clarke, daughter of the Minister of War, General Clarke who held this post the majority of the Empire, also played a pivotal role in the fall of Paris and Napoleon’s abdication in 1814. Created a baron of the empire by Napoleon, he had been promoted to the rank of chef d’escadron by the time of the 1812 Russian campaign. He was promoted to général de brigade in 1813 during the German campaign of 1813 but did not rally to Napoleon during the Hundred Days. He was elevated to the title of comte in 1817 and duc in 1821. Author: Raymond-Aymerie-Philippe-Joseph de Montesquiou-Fézensac 1784-1867 Translator and Introduction: General Sir William Thomas Knollys 1797-1883

From the author of The Battle: A novel that brings French history to life as Napoleon moves in on Russia—where the ultimate test awaits. The French army stands at the gates of Moscow. Exhausted and demoralized, Napoleon’s men are a mere fraction of the four-hundred-thousand-strong force that crossed the river Niemen in the summer, just three months earlier. Still, the sight of this famous city feels like a triumph and a chance, at last, to enjoy a conqueror’s spoils. The emperor expects to be met by city elders bearing tokens of surrender, but no one appears—Moscow has been evacuated. Napoleon, oblivious to the predicament before him, sends to Paris for comic novels and imagines that it is only a matter of time before Tsar Alexander sues for peace . . . In a novel that “brings a keen immediacy to the harrowing events” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), what follows is a waiting game—and, ultimately, a decision—that will brutally test the survival of twenty thousand soldiers and the resolve of a man hell-bent on power.

Although Napoleon Bonaparte has been a favorite subject of biographers for nearly two centuries, to date no full-scale psychobiography of arguably the most compelling, fascinating, and complex leader in world history has ever been published. With Napoleon Against Himself, internationally recognized scholar Avner Falk fills this void. He not only considers Napoleon's intellect but also what use he made of it, how it affected his emotional life, and whether he used intellectualization as one of his unconscious defensive processes. Additionally, he examines Napoleon's ambivalent relationship with his mother, his identification with the &“Motherland,&” and his fits of narcissistic rage, violence, and aggression. Specifically, Falk focuses on his numerous irrational, self-defeating, and self-destructive actions. In weaving in the psychological interpretations that have previously been proposed for Napoleon's actions with his own new insights, Falk has created a most stimulating and original work that sheds much needed light on Napoleon's troubled inner world.