Napoleon invalidated

This book is Napoleon's reissue Tel Quel, published for the first time in 1969. It includes, in general terms, the content of television Henri Guillemin conferences devoted to the French emperor in programs now available for free on the Swiss TV website.

The title of the first chapter gives a tone for the rest of the book: "The little jackal." Yet from the start, Guillemin denies having a taste for scandal, denigration; the passion he claims is as follows:. "The one I realized, look good, to know, to understand the horror of leave to tell me everything to refuse, as Hugo said, that 'on me "goes up on the brain." And, believe me, I have much more joy to discover such (Zola, for example) that had been described to me hideous, was admirable reality, many more joy that I experience pleasure in the reverse operation. No gay, recognize what is unclean thought noble. But the truth first. "

Napoleon Guillemin that invites you to discover over these 150 pages, built as a biographical pamphlet, here it is: a thug hearted, ambitious, very cunning, ready for any baseness, all the betrayals to achieve power and wealth ; a liar, a being without any sentimental attachment; a perjurer, a murderer; a real gangster, finally, the spectacular success continues beyond death, after the end of life that had to envy Al Capone:

"England had rendered a great service to his prestige by providing a clean exile frame strike the imagination: this island, there, on the other side of the earth, and he, no doubt, gray coat and small hat, which looks with a telescope in the direction of France that this is hiding the curvature of the globe; it is chained eagle flapping its wings desperately to the point of a rock, or the great bird, motionless, awaiting death in a pathetic silence, full of memories and dreams. Reality has nothing to do with this fiction. Longwood bears little resemblance to the black and icy dungeon where Bonaparte killed in a few months, Toussaint Louverture. At Longwood, thirty servants, and the British authorities there are wear every day, a hundred pounds of meat, six chickens, sugar, butter and fruits in abundance and monthly late 1200 bottles of wine chosen by the "prisoner", plus 14 bottles of champagne He devours and fattens again:.. a sign of health "

Too bad Guillemin is not a very orderly. Serious, yes, but a bit messy. If, when it launches an assertion, it never fails to cite a document supporting his say, he happens to forget to give the exact source, or date, which is worse. Sometimes, it tends to make small leaps in time, forward or back, which can mislead the reader. Then it's all about trust. Guillemin or Napoleon? See for yourself.