That's the anonymous translation, which I liked just fine (there are modern ones), and can be bought for a buck or two just about anywhere. I'm guessing that Waterloo gets cut in a lot of abridgments, though.
My favorite extract - "the finest word, perhaps, that a Frenchman ever uttered":
Victor Hugo had the 19th-Century habit of putting too much into a book. He had plenty to say about the Battle of Waterloo, some I dare say correct, but he had small excuse for putting it all into Les Miserables. (And then there's the long excursion on convents, which the Penguin edition displaces to an appendix, but that's an argument for another day.)
John Keegan gives it a very readable treatment in The Day of Battle.
they were doing a sort of 'live blog' with constant updates. we're only coming in at the end, with the prussians arriving as a sort of 'one more thing'
When people talk about Napoleon plublicly (on TV for example), it is still very political. There was another emperor nammed Napoleon III until 1871. France lost a region called "l'Alsace et la Loraine" and it leads to WWI.
British tends to compare him to Hitler but he is more in the bag with Alexander the Great or Caesar. Warlords.
A little bit. But in the end, I feel confident that most of those who might resent the attention given to Waterloo can still feel overall morally superior to the oppressors who won this battle. A lot of people don't care at all, but among those who care a bit, it's not comparable to, say, the 8th of May where most people more or less agree that the "good" won. Very few people in France will have the opinion that the good won at Waterloo.
I mean even when admitting Napoleon's numerous bad aspects, the Coalition was hardly more legitimate that the Empire, so from this point of view commemorating Waterloo feels more like pure military brag and less like celebrating something actually good, thus reinforcing the feeling of righteousness on the losing side.
It sure feels much less important than de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June.
Not really. There's not a Napoleon cult in France and people don't talk much about it.
Interestingly, for the Belgium coin I heard on the news this morning that Belgium wanted to release an Euro coin for the bicentenary of Waterloo's battle and French government pressured Belgium so that it only remained a "collection" coin of 2.5 or 10 Euros (only valid in Belgium).
18th of June is also another important anniversary for France : it is also the De Gaulle 18th of June appeal (WWII London radio appeal for resistance)
Only as much as the Brits feels the need to over emphasizing "theirs" victories: ad nauseum. The only other nation on Earth that like this kind of ultra nationalist celebration is the USofA as far as I can tell, in this part of the hemisphere. There are certainly bad and good parts in Napoleon's legacy, and reducing it to a single battle is kind of insulting.
Just remember one thing: the context of the late 18th century and early 19th century was the struggle of the old monarchies fighting against the seed of democracy. Napoleon was a tyrant, but he was still regarded as the "enfant terrible" of the French Revolution. He had to be suppressed by the monarchic powers in Europe.
I don't think the date is well known around the country, people know more about the De Gaulle appeal (18th of June) than the Waterloo battle. People obviously are hearing about it on TV but I still think that the 18th of June appeal gets more attention.
[+] [-] devindotcom|10 years ago|reply
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/135/135-h/135-h.htm#link2H_4_...
That's the anonymous translation, which I liked just fine (there are modern ones), and can be bought for a buck or two just about anywhere. I'm guessing that Waterloo gets cut in a lot of abridgments, though.
My favorite extract - "the finest word, perhaps, that a Frenchman ever uttered":
http://coldewey.cc/post/19163335604/the-victor-of-waterloo-a...
[+] [-] pygy_|10 years ago|reply
Victor Hugo was a member of the imperial senate (la chambre des Pairs) and tried to have a law passed to curb child labor from 16 to 10 hours per day.
That law was defeated, and Louis Jacques Thénard one of its most ferocious opponents became Thénardier in the book.
[+] [-] cafard|10 years ago|reply
John Keegan gives it a very readable treatment in The Day of Battle.
[+] [-] vmorgulis|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AnimalMuppet|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frikk|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] devindotcom|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stellographer|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wahsd|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blumkvist|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vmorgulis|10 years ago|reply
British tends to compare him to Hitler but he is more in the bag with Alexander the Great or Caesar. Warlords.
Hitler is with Pol Pot and Staline.
[+] [-] seszett|10 years ago|reply
I mean even when admitting Napoleon's numerous bad aspects, the Coalition was hardly more legitimate that the Empire, so from this point of view commemorating Waterloo feels more like pure military brag and less like celebrating something actually good, thus reinforcing the feeling of righteousness on the losing side.
It sure feels much less important than de Gaulle's Appeal of 18 June.
[+] [-] bengalister|10 years ago|reply
18th of June is also another important anniversary for France : it is also the De Gaulle 18th of June appeal (WWII London radio appeal for resistance)
[+] [-] touristtam|10 years ago|reply
Just remember one thing: the context of the late 18th century and early 19th century was the struggle of the old monarchies fighting against the seed of democracy. Napoleon was a tyrant, but he was still regarded as the "enfant terrible" of the French Revolution. He had to be suppressed by the monarchic powers in Europe.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] realusername|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
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