Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo, to Serve for the History of the Emperor Napoleon

Anne-Jean-Marie-René Savary, duc de RovigoProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.5
Word count
593K words
Chapters
60

Tags

Foreign Language Books Oral History Historical ReappraisalFate and FortuneCourt IntriguePower GameMemoirNapoleonic Era

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Mémoires du duc de Rovigo, pour servir à l'histoire de l'empereur NapoléonAuthor: Savary, Anne-Jean-Marie-René, duc de Rovigo, 1774-1833,Language: French, Class: DC: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: France, Andorra, Monaco, Release Date: Dec 14, 2006

Editor's review

This is the original French text of the memoirs of Savary, Duke of Rovigo, an important eyewitness of the Napoleonic era; it is a primary source rather than a modern work of history. Having long served at Napoleon's side, the author writes from a distinctly partisan standpoint: he supplies abundant detail on court, police, and military administration, yet inevitably defends his own conduct and passes judgment on political rivals. Its value therefore lies in seeing how an era was recounted by one who lived it, not in treating it as a neutral narrative. For readers studying the political machinery, police system, and memoir genre of the Napoleonic Empire, it is irreplaceable material; for general readers, the French original and nineteenth-century prose pose a barrier, and it is advisable to grasp the basic historical outline first. It should be read alongside other sources, with care to distinguish factual statement from self-justification.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. First read a brief history of the Napoleonic Empire before entering the memoirs, so as not to be led by the author's perspective.
  2. Mark passages where the author defends himself or judges others, and compare them with other sources.
  3. Read chapters by topic as needed; there is no need to proceed strictly in volume order.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
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FAQ

Are the memoirs' accounts reliable? They are a primary source, but the author was a deeply involved participant, and his narrative carries self-justification and partisan bias. The detail is rich, but his judgments are not necessarily neutral; read alongside other archives and later scholarship, and do not rely on them alone as factual evidence.
Can I read this book without knowing French? The original text is in French and written in nineteenth-century prose, so direct reading without French is difficult. It is advisable to use a Chinese or English translation as an aid, or to consult the original only to verify specific passages.
Is it suitable as an introductory book on Napoleon? Not really. Memoirs unfold from a participant's perspective and lack systematic background, with dense events and names. Beginners should first read a general history to build a framework, then use this book as supplementary material.

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About the author

Anne-Jean-Marie-René Savary, duc de Rovigo Author · French · 1774–1833

Anne-Jean-Marie-René Savary, duc de Rovigo (1774–1833), was a French general and administrator. Born in Marc and died in Paris, he was a confidant of Napoleon I, served as commander of the Imperial Guard and as Minister of Police, and was created duc de Rovigo in 1808. His eight-volume Mémoires du duc de Rovigo (1828) recounts the Napoleonic era and is an important source for its study. The library holds seven of his works, most related to these memoirs; written from a participant's perspective, they present details of Napoleon's court and imperial administration in a concrete narrative that combines documentary value with readability.