"C' est magnifique, mais ce n' est pas la guerre."

Quelle horreure!  Nom de Dieu! La plume de ma tante ... no, no, that's not right, I know, but I'm scratching desperately at the back of my memory for some of those French phrases that helped me pass one of the few 'O'-levels I did manage.  Alas and alors (oh shut up with the French, already!) if my written French is abysmal my spoken French has been known to reduce strong Frenchmen to tears.

And tears, if I may suddenly turn serious, are the only response on reaching the end of Adam Zamoyski's superb but terrifying history "1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow". For once words almost fail me but thank goodness they didn't fail Zamoyski because this is history at its very best.  I thought I knew the bare bones of the tragedy but now I realise I only knew the tiniest fraction of it.  I almost wish I hadn't learnt the rest!  I found myself letting the book fall in time with my dropping jaw!  The monstrous stupidity, venality, arrogance and culpability of the two high commands and the courage, stamina, loyalty and esprit de corps of so many of the soldiers is a contrast almost unbearable to read about.  I use French phrases but what I had not realised before reading this book is what a polyglot European army it was that Bonaparte led into death and damnation.  At Zamoyski's best estimate, something like 550,ooo to 600,000 soldiers went into Russia and roughly 100,000 made it back.  He makes a brave effort at judging Russian casualties but they are virtually unknowable but were likely to have exceeded the invader's.  This is not, I hasten to add, just military history of the 'Gen. A pushed his division north and Gen. B outflanked him' type.  It is also packed with the private and personal anecdotes of the participants, some of which are tremendously heartening and others make you either want to weep or to throw up.

A terrific tale told by a terrific writer - get on to Amazon NOW!

Additional:  I seem to be reading dates these days.  I told you about "1815", above, but now I have started "1599" by James Shapiro.  I have only reached page 45 and already I have trebled my knowledge of Shakespeare and his theatre - which is a sort of confession of my shameful ignorance hitherto.  I am lost for the right words to express my admiration for Shapiro's book and also my gratitude because my next 'job' starting in September is to direct "Hamlet" and "1599" is simply invaluable.  I should stress that it is not solely concerned with Shakespeare but includes the domestic and international politics of the day as well as the social mores of the times.

Sorry, folks, but get on to Amazon - again!

Comments

[Hank]

David

That is one campaign I have avoided learning about, I know just enough to realize the how acute your description is.

Now the Peninsular campaigns have the same story of the bravery of the solidiers and the stupidity of the hign command, but redeemed somewhat because the British had a reasonably competent commander with enough political pull to insure most of his immediate subordinates were reasonably competent.

C’est la change - C’est plus meme chose!

Cheer up, my French is one step above

Je ne parle pas ou n'écris pas français

[David Duff]

Read it, Hank, it is not to be missed! Also, what is amazing in retrospect is that in the following century another victim of hubris went and made exactly the same fatal error - thank God! Truly, the First Law of War is 'never invade Russia'.

I would add one other footnote. The Italian army has always been considered something of a joke because of their poor performance in WWII which, of course, had nothing to do with their courage and much more to do with their reluctance to fight and die on behalf of the Germans. Anyway, as Zamoyski makes clear in this book, in the Russian campaign of 1812 the Italians were superb.

[dearieme]

I've just got 1599 for my birthday. I hope Shapiro is better than another US academic who recently wrote about Will: 'Greenblatt comments that "as a country boy, he had almost certainly seen his share of sharp-quilled porcupines." ' The famous porcupine colony of Stratford had heretofore eluded historians.

[David Duff]

"sharp-quilled porcupines".
Perhaps he was referring to the 16th c. critics!

Let me know what you think of the book.