"Napoleon’s Surprising Popularity in ..." Topic
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Tango01 | 19 Aug 2024 5:02 p.m. PST |
…Nineteenth-Century England "Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, who spent the majority of his life at war against the United Kingdom, became one of the most admired military heroes in British popular culture. For example, in Master Timothy's Bookcase, G. W. M. Reynolds described him as "the hero of a thousand battles—that meteor which blazed so brightly, and which so long terrified all the nations of the universe with its supernal lustre" (205–06) For a quarter of a century, between 1793 and 1815, Britain had been at war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, until he was finally defeated at Waterloo. Yet from the moment of his defeat, this great man captivated the British public…" Main page
link
Armand |
Frederick | 19 Aug 2024 6:54 p.m. PST |
Interesting – I was reading about this last week – the British were very fond of Napoleon (well, given the Bourbons no wonder) and in term Napoleon was very fond of his British captors, especially the 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment, who he called "my redcoats" |
Gazzola | 20 Aug 2024 8:12 a.m. PST |
Great post Armand. But I'm not sure it will go down well with some people! LOL |
Gazzola | 20 Aug 2024 8:36 a.m. PST |
Just searched out the Walter Scott books and it appears there were nine volumes. Phew! Did a brief search and I only found the odd volume for sale. They were quite pricy too, so I imagine a full set, if available, would be sky high and well out of my reach. I'll just have to keep on doing the lottery. LOL |
Allan F Mountford | 20 Aug 2024 9:13 a.m. PST |
@Gazzola Online version of sorts: link Kind regards Allan |
piper909 | 20 Aug 2024 10:46 a.m. PST |
The British have customarily been admiring of many foes (after the fact). It's rather a nice quality, I feel. |
Tango01 | 20 Aug 2024 3:51 p.m. PST |
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dibble | 20 Aug 2024 7:02 p.m. PST |
We have been through this before. Curiosity and other reasons brought up to 50,000 British people to public executions. The same can be said about old Nappy. He was someone that many people would like to behold. That didn't mean he was admired or even liked. Some people may have 'liked' or 'admired' him. But most didn't. He was the ultimate of notoriety and people are drawn to notoriety, curiosity and spectacle. Had Adolf been put on display, on a boat moored near Tower Bridge, thousands would have turned out to gawp. There would have been admirers writing fawning pros about him in their diaries too. "It is taken for granted that the spectators of public executions the artisans and country people who take up their stations over-night as close to the barriers as possible, and the wealthier classes who occupy hired windows and employ opera-glasses are merely drawn together by a morbid relish for horrible sights. He is a bold man who will stand forward as the advocate of such persons so completely is the popular mind made up as to their tastes and motives. It is not disputed that the large body of the mob, and of the occupants of windows, have been drawn together by an appetite for excitement ; but it is quite possible that many come there from an impulse altogether different. Just consider the nature of the expected sight a man in tolerable health probably, in possession of all his faculties, perfectly able to realise his position, conscious that for him this world and the next are so near that only a few seconds divide them such a man stands in the seeing of several thousand eyes. He is so peculiarly circumstanced, so utterly lonely hearing the tolling of his own death-bell, yet living, wearing the mourning clothes for his own funeral that he holds the multitude together by a shuddering fascination. The sight is a peculiar one, you must admit, and every peculiarity has its attractions. Your volcano is more attractive than your ordinary mountain. Then consider the unappeasable curiosity as to death which haunts every human being, and how 86 pathetic that curiosity is, in so far as it suggests our own ignorance and helplessness, and we see at once that people may flock to public executions for other purposes than the gratification of morbid tastes : that they would pluck if they could some little knowledge of what death is ; that imaginatively they attempt to reach to it, to touch and handle it through an experience which is not their own. It is some obscure desire of this kind, a movement of curiosity not altogether ignoble, but in some degree pathetic ; some rude attempt of the imagination to wrest from the death of the criminal information as to the great secret in which each is profoundly interested, which draws around the scaffold people from the country harvest-fields, and from the streets and alleys of the town. Nothing interests men so much as death. Age cannot wither it, nor custom stale it. A Lark's Flights" by Alexander Smith., Dreamthorp: A Book of Essays Written in the Country, London: Strachan & Co., 1863 pp.93-112 Taken from Witnesses to the Scaffold: English Literary Figures as Observers of Public Executions" |
Gazzola | 21 Aug 2024 3:06 p.m. PST |
Bit of a pathetic attempt to connect the popularity of people attending executions with those who admired and wanted to see one of the greatest historical characters in history, don't you think? Some people just have to get over the fact that NOT EVERYONE agrees with what may be their personal viewpoint. And I don't think thousands would have turned up to 'gawp' at Hitler. Attempting to suggest people would have done so, is basically insulting the British people. They know the difference between a Hitler and a Napoleon. They can think and decide for themselves and don't have to agree with some people's biased opinions and viewpoints. |
Gazzola | 21 Aug 2024 3:43 p.m. PST |
Allan F Mountford – Thanks for link. Much appreciated. It looks a good site but I do not like reading books online. I prefer to hold and read the actual books, in the flesh, so to speak. Of course, I have to suffer reading material online when researching because sometimes you can't find or obtain the information searched for in print form. I know a lot of people are happy to read Ebooks etc but it is not for me. I can read for hours on end with printed material but my eyes just won't take it for long when it is online. But I will nip into the site now and again and read some of Sir Walter Scotts texts a bit at a time. Thanks again for the link. |
Tango01 | 21 Aug 2024 3:58 p.m. PST |
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dibble | 22 Aug 2024 3:37 p.m. PST |
Gazzola So, why do you think that they turned out to see him? But people gawping at a tyrant means what? And what would be insulting to the British people? People are naturally curious. 'rubber necking' still goes on to this day. including at disasters. But all the same. Why do you think they came in droves to see the tyrant? "Some people just have to get over the fact that NOT EVERYONE agrees with what may be their personal viewpoint." until "some people" demand or ask to be agreed with, it is but an opinion. Something I believe, none of us has ever asked for or demanded either. And as for opinion. The topic in that link is just that. |
Gazzola | 23 Aug 2024 3:15 a.m. PST |
dibble Ever thought that people then did not think him the evil tyrant some people want to portray him as? That perhaps not everyone fell for all the threats created to put fear into the British people to keep them at war. And it is, in my OPINION, insulting of you to say British people were going there just to gawp! This man made history and that's what they wanted to see. Either that or to see if he really was that terrible to behold and the reason for having to pay all the new taxes thrown at them. LOL Yes, you have YOUR opinion. But not everyone agrees with you, the same as not everyone agrees with me. That's life, accept it and get over it! |
Gazzola | 23 Aug 2024 3:20 a.m. PST |
Good news. Did more searching and came across some reprints of some of the volumes of Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon, unabridged as well, for less than £10.00 GBP each. So I might yet find out why people challenged the author to duels. LOL |
Bill N | 23 Aug 2024 2:21 p.m. PST |
Why is this so surprising? The greater the opponent the greater the victory. Rommel in North Africa. Lee during the ACW. |
Erzherzog Johann | 23 Aug 2024 6:58 p.m. PST |
The reasons for Napoleon's 'popularity' in post-Napoleonic era Britain are probably many and varied, and some more deep-seated than others. I'm sure some did just 'come to gawp'. or to see a figure of historical note, just as Romans came out to see Vercingetorix. Others would have had genuine admiration for the man. There were strong pro-revolutionary sentiments in certain sectors of British society during the French revolutionary period. Some of that would have been transferred to admiration for Napoleon, even though he had, in some ways, betrayed the revolution. Movements like Chartism drew heavily on rights that had been promulgated by some French revolutionaries. This is not unlike the enduring support for Stalin amongst 20th Century revolutionary socialists, who admired the Bolshevik revolution, and not all of whom saw Stalin as having betrayed, rolled back, or otherwise led the revolution off track. Stalin is still debated in these terms today, both by people on the right and on the left, both groups including people who see Stalin as the logical outcome of Bolshevism and others who see him as its antithesis. Powerful leaders always draw an enduring interest. It would need a lot more research to get any real answers. |
Gazzola | 26 Aug 2024 2:10 a.m. PST |
With the brilliant books by Sir Walter Scott, it is great to be able to read about the French Revolution and Napoleon from someone who actually lived during such an incredible and exciting period. Besides adding to our knowledge and understanding of the French Revolution, Napoleon and the various events of the time, it offers an insight to what people thought and how they reacted. Such publications (reprints), in my opinion, should be applauded for being made available, and without having to break the bank as well. LOL |
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