I remember very well have followed the passionate soliloquies Henri Guillemin on the small screen, with my parents, in the late 60s; polemicist was not prohibited antenna on Belgian television and the shock wave caused by emissions of Napoleon has not yet cleared. The proof is this reissue of his "Napoleon as is" (published by Treviso in 1969), under the new title of "Napoleon, legend and truth."
Henri Guillemin denies having produced a pamphlet, arguing pamphlet called "the truth is displeasing." This is probably true in many cases but that the remark made, the tone and style Employees: virulence, lack of moderation, crude vocabulary that designate the pamphlet.
Moreover, it is through the choice of weapons that the polemicist is honored or discredits; gold, Guillemin, by his inability to choose, firing on all cylinders, scatters and often misses its target: we do not screen darts an opponent that holds under a platoon fire ...
"When we can use lightning, you have to prefer the cannon," said the Emperor. Clearly, Guillemin has not lightning hands.
The reproaches that Napoleon merit (elastic morals and lack of principles, megalomania, insensitivity, and this bloody mark it leaves on History) are heavy enough without wasting time add as mediocre petty useless. Ironic about his 64 meter ("short size and short legs" p.15) when it is proved that measured 1 m. 69 more than the average of the time, on its spelling, is known to have been hateful, but everyone at the time did not care *, or write to, inter alia: "In the chapter money Talleyrand and he (Bonaparte) are as alike as two drops of pus "bring nothing. The insult is not the language of the historian.
A too dumpster diving, it goes bad smell, like too look through the keyholes, we lose a sense of proportion.
If it is obvious that a man as exceptional destiny Bonaparte, could not be, or only be, the little poor officer, ambitious crass, slicker, opportunist, interested, unscrupulous and moral, traitor his Corsican and French homelands, some crook and almost pimp that depicts Henri Guillemin, this book is still read as beneficial to all those that force us to question our ideas, received or installed ... And if we do not change for opinions which sometimes changed its point of view, better we know why. **
Monster or demigod is what Napoleon was Baal, a fabulous being and / or hateful, having brought human nature at its worst, "a legend and truth"; this is what he had to say and show, not reduce claim a mythical figure to a contemptible worm ...
"There are two ways to miss its target, said Jules Ferry, do not reach beyond it." Attacking a gunner, Henri Guillemin has managed to do one and the other ... ***
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* "Henri IV, Louis XIV and Marshal Richelieu, less excusable, were little more correct", François-René de Chateaubriand, Memoires d'Outre-Tombe.
** "They (the English ministers) have flooded Europe pamphlets and libels against me. (...)
"What would have served me we would have defended me? It was as if I had paid, and that would have discredited me a bit more. A victory, a monument more, this is the best, the real response, I said constantly. The lie goes, the truth remains. Wise people, especially posterity, judge only on the facts. So what happened? Already, the cloud dissipates, light pierces, I earns daily; soon there will be nothing more spice in Europe that do me justice (...).
(...) The first fury passed, people of mind and judgment will come back to me; I will keep enemies as fools or villains. I can remain calm, I just have to let it go, and the sequence of events, debates opposing parties, their adverse productions will shine each day the safest materials, the most glorious of my story. "Napoleon Las Cases, quoted in "Napoleon, political and social Thoughts", Flammarion, 1969, p.417.
*** "It seems that Napoleon would be glad of all the books he is the subject. He was an author. In silence he always prefers the exhaustion." Jacques Bainville, "Napoleon", 1931, quoted in "Napoleon Folder" Gérard Editions, 1962 p.392.
