The Conscript: A Story of the French War of 1813

Erckmann-ChatrianProject Gutenberg · United StatesMar 2023

Rating 4.0

Word count: 332K words
Chapters: 34

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.The Conscript: A Story of the French war of 1813 by Erckmann-ChatrianAuthor: Erckmann-Chatrian,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Feb 15, 2010

Editor's review

The Conscript: A Story of the French War of 1813 is a work by the French writing duo Erckmann-Chatrian, set against the Napoleonic Wars of 1813 and narrated through the eyes of an ordinary soldier called up for service. The pair are known for writing close to ordinary life, with a plain style and restrained emotion, and this book embodies that approach: it does not focus on the strategies of generals or the panorama of battle, but reduces war to marching, fear, homesickness, and chance survival, letting readers see a grand stretch of history through the eyes of a common soldier. As a public-domain ebook, it is a solid sample of nineteenth-century French popular historical fiction and a good entry point to the "little man's perspective" in war literature. While reading, note how the narrator's attitude toward war is conveyed through detail rather than argument, and what resignation the identity of "the conscript" itself carries. Because the book is early, its narrative pace is slow and its background exposition heavy, so readers need some patience; reading it alongside basic facts about the Napoleonic Wars will deepen the experience.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the history of the Napoleonic Wars and in war literature
Readers who prefer the little man's perspective and commoner narrative to biographies of generals
Literature lovers who want to understand how nineteenth-century French popular historical fiction was written
Students who need a public-domain English text as supplementary material for history or literature courses

Not a good fit for

Readers of modern genre fiction expecting fast-paced plots and strong dramatic conflict
Readers impatient with nineteenth-century narrative pacing and long background setup
Readers hoping for panoramic battle analysis or military strategy research

Reading tips

Spend ten minutes first getting the basic outline of the 1813 military situation, then enter the text; the pressure of the background will be clearer.
As you read, mark the narrator's details about marching and fear, and afterward look back at how these passages accumulate.
Read the book alongside soldiers' memoirs or diaries on the same subject to appreciate the difference between fiction and firsthand record.
If the English original is hard going, read a Chinese chapter or summary first and then return to the original so the narrative thread stays unbroken.

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

Why are there two names as the author?

Erckmann-Chatrian is the pen name shared by two French writers who collaborated over the long term, drawing much of their work from ordinary life and historical subjects. This book appears under that collaborative pen name, so the author field shows a combined name rather than a single author.

Do I need to know about the Napoleonic Wars before reading?

Not systematically, but knowing the background of France's successive conscriptions in 1813 will help. The book's focus is not the course of battles but the conscript's situation and feelings; even without detailed historical knowledge, the main line remains understandable, though the sense of the era's pressure will be shallower.

Is this book suitable for learning English?

It can serve as extensive reading material, but it is an English translation of a nineteenth-century work, with long sentences and period vocabulary, so it is not suitable as intensive reading for beginning English learners. It is better suited to extensive reading by those with some English foundation and an interest in historical subjects.

Is the electronic edition the complete work? Where can I find it?

The book is released by Project Gutenberg as a free public-domain ebook and can be found on its website by title. Texts provided by Project Gutenberg are usually complete public-domain works with basic information such as the release date, which can be used to check the edition.

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

Erckmann-Chatrian Author

Erckmann-Chatrian is the shared pen name of the French writers Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian, who collaborated over many years and published under this joint name. Public information about their nationality, birth and death dates, and personal lives is limited, so no speculation is offered here. Judging from the seventeen works held in the collection, their writing draws largely on modern French warfare and rural life. Representative works include The Conscript: A Story of the French War of 1813, Waterloo: A Sequel to The Conscript of 1813, and The Invasion of France in 1814, which centre on conscription, the Battle of Waterloo, the blockade of Phalsburg, and the plebiscite, alongside regional and legendary tales such as L'Ami Fritz and Contes de la Montagne. Their works often present wartime experience from ordinary people's perspective, in a realistic style with a folk-narrative flavour, and are commonly classified under inspirational growth in Chinese book catalogues.