Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon — Volume 08

Louis Constant WairyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9

Word count: 163K words
Chapters: 17

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.Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon — Volume 08 by Louis Constant WairyAuthor: Wairy, Louis Constant, 1778-1845,Language: English, Class: DC: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: France, Andorra, Monaco, Release Date: Dec 1, 2002

Editor's review

This is Volume 08 of Wairy's recollections of Napoleon's private life, also from the Project Gutenberg free eBook series. As the memoir of a personal valet, this volume continues to record Napoleon's daily habits, court relationships, and words and actions in private settings from a close-up perspective, providing vivid corroborating material for understanding Napoleon as a person and the court life of the First Empire. Unlike biographies focused on politics and military affairs, the value of such memoirs lies in details and atmosphere, making them suitable supplementary texts for studying or reading about the Napoleonic era. Note that this is an English public-domain eBook; the memoir's structure is loose and its information density uneven, so readers should extract useful passages with specific questions in mind rather than expect a coherent narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

English-speaking readers interested in details of Napoleon's court life
Scholars of the Napoleonic era needing memoir corroboration
Deep nonfiction readers who enjoy historical eyewitness notes

Not a good fit for

Beginners wanting a quick grasp of the main events of Napoleon's life
Readers unaccustomed to the formatting and style of English public-domain books
Users of academic reference works expecting rigorous chronology and annotations

Reading tips

Check the series table of contents first to identify the period covered by Volume 08 before reading.
Take notes on people and events as you read to facilitate cross-checking with other sources.
Use it as supplementary material alongside authoritative Napoleon biographies or historical studies.

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.

FAQ

How does this book differ from Volume 06?

Both books are different volumes of the same Wairy memoir, covering different periods and specific events. Volume 06 and Volume 08 each have their own focus; read them in volume order or check the table of contents first to confirm each volume's scope.

What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?

Project Gutenberg provides free public-domain eBooks; this volume is an English-language original electronic edition that is easy to search and copy, but it generally lacks modern scholarly annotations and has plain formatting, so readers need to supplement background information themselves.

Is this book suitable as a primary source for Napoleon research?

It is not suitable as the sole or primary source. Memoirs are primary material from a personal perspective, subject to memory bias and standpoint influence; they should serve as supporting evidence alongside formal historical works and research literature.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Louis Constant Wairy Author · French · 1778–1845

Wairy, Louis Constant (1778–1845), commonly known as "Constant," was a Frenchman and Napoleon's personal valet. He served as valet to the First Consul from 1800, was promoted to chief valet to the Emperor in 1806, accompanied Napoleon on his campaigns, and witnessed his abdication in 1814. In 1830 he published a six-volume memoir, Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon, which records the daily life and words of Napoleon's court from an eyewitness perspective and remains an important primary source for the study of Napoleon's court life. The library holds 14 of his works, mostly complete or partial editions of this memoir; public information on his early life and education is limited.