The Legend of Napoleon by Sudhir Hazareesingh - review by Douglas Johnson

Douglas Johnson

Believing In Boney

The Legend of Napoleon

By

Granta Books 336pp £20
 

WHEN I WAS nine my parents went to live in Lancaster, near to a large hospital for the mentally ill that everyone called 'the asylum'. I remember only too well how astonished I was when I was told that a local man had been sent there because he believed he was Napoleon Bonaparte. Now I discover from the first page of Sudhir Hazareesingh's book that in 1840 a physician called Esquirol carried out a study showing that most megalomaniacs in France took themselves either for Napoleon or for Jesus Christ. That an unfortunate man in Lancaster during the 1930s should also have believed that he was Napoleon is a sign of the fascination that the French emperor holds for everyone. This fascination is itself an important part of the Napoleonic legend. It explains, at least partly, why since his death on 5 May 1821, every month several books have been published somewhere with him as the subject.

The Napoleonic legend has been written about a great many times, especially in France. This study by Hazareesingh, who teaches at Oxford, is a valuable and distinguished contribution to the literature on the subject. The author has read widely and critically, and unlike the majority of his predecessors he has

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

RLF - March

A Mirror - Westend

Follow Literary Review on Twitter