Fortunately for all of us lovers of the First Empire, Tango01 brought to our attention the recent biography of the Napoleonic light cavalry general Lasalle by John H. Lewis. Here is the link to Tango's post:
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I was really excited as Lasalle is one of my very favorite historical figures. Unfortunately my French reading is horribly slow and very little is available on Lasalle in English. However, I was concerned that it may be nothing more than a "life and times of" book, particularly if the author did not consult French sources.
I gambled my money and bought the book from Amazon. I have not yet read it other than the Introduction. The introduction describes how the book was done. A direct translation of a French biography was considered and rejected for a number of reasons. This book is derived from a "long article" by the Frenchman Charles-Antoine Thoumas (1820-1893) which appeared in an unidentified book on Napoleonic cavalry officers.
It has been filled out with additional material to fill gaps in information that the author thought were present in Thoumas' work.
The author has also tried to retain the French tone of the narrative while not necessarily retaining so much of the French bias.
There is a brief chapter on Lasalle's peers' opinions of him and another devoted entirely to Marbot's thoughts.
The book has a number of maps an illustrations. There are no index,footnotes or bibliography, which is disappointing.
I paid $29.39 USD for it from Amazon.
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I am pleased that I bought it. It is probably the best that is available on Lasalle in the English language. Hopefully it will not be the final word.
I had always hoped that the great Napoleonic cavalry historian, David Johnson, would have done a biography of Lasalle. Mr. Johnson gave Lasalle good coverage in both of his nonfiction books, The French Cavalry 1792-1815 and Napoleon's Cavalry and Its Leaders. He also covered the general nicely in his series "Sabres in Hand" published in the original Tradition magazine published by Belmont-Maitland in the 1960's.
I am not one for fiction, but David Johnson did a fantastic novel based on Lasalle told through the eyes of a fictional staff officer. The book has been published in Britain and the U.S. with different titles, Sabre General and The Proud Canaries. That story deals with the time of the Empire. Johnson did another novel involving Lasalle in the pre-Empire period in Egypt called Napoleon's Sabres.
If you love the romance of Lasalle and the French cavalry, David Johnson cannot be beat.
But I think the new book by John H. Lewis is worth acquiring.
Thanks Armand.
Tom
