The Corsican Monster

While on vacation last week, I was reading War and Peace by Tolstoy. When I was traveling a couple of months ago, I re-read Vanity Fair by Thackeray. And last year I read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Three stories from three different European countries. All set in the same time period but written a generation later. Very different story lines, but they have one historical figure in common - Napoleon. He is the War in War and Peace. His role is much more circumspect in the other two novels; he does not appear directly but his actions form the backdrop of their drama. 

I had studied about Napoleon in history class and knew of his exploits, of course, but they didn't form much of an impression on me. When I think of world conquerors, Alexander is the one that comes to mind. And Hitler is the evil conqueror de jour. Napoleon, on the other hand, is the punchline about height and  over-compensation.

How eye opening then to come across these near contemporary accounts and feel the earth shattering effect he had on the Europe of his time; the admiration and hatred he simultaneously inspired. These are not dry historical facts or laundry lists of battles and armies. They are accounts of the fictional emotions of fictional characters. Somehow that makes them more compelling: they are incidental to the main story, mentioned in passing, each author taking for granted that his reader needs no convincing of Napoleon's impact.

In Tolstoy's Russia there are many who worship Napoleon and relish his martial glory as he conquers country after country. Then struggle to make excuses for why their hero after all turns his army on their own nation. But he is driven out of their country, his myth of invincibility shattered, and soon after his enemies finally defeat and exile him. Then in Vanity Fair and Monte Cristo you get a glimpse of the terror he still commands; first the fear that he will escape from exile, then the panic when he actually does. As soon as he lands in France, the French people rise to his support, Louis XVIII flees his capital and the nations of Europe march on him together, all their differences forgotten in their common fear of the Corsican Monster.

All this fuss about one man. A very different era when one man could be such a hero and such a villain all by himself....

Sidebar : Tolstoy has a refreshingly modern attitude to both war and patriotism. War and Peace should be about a thousand pages shorter than it is, but there are some real gems in there.