Napoleon Bonaparte

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Un drame sous Napoléon 1er (Uncle Bernac in French, Librairie Paul Ollendorff, 1908)

Napoléon Bonaparte (15 august 1769 - 5 may 1821) aka Napoléon 1er was a French military officer and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led a series of successful campaigns across Europe during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1796 to 1815. He was the leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804, then of the French Empire as Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814, and briefly again in 1815.

Arthur Conan Doyle was fascinated by the Napoleonic era. He described Napoleon as "a wonderful man — perhaps the most wonderful man who ever lived." He was so impressed by "The Memoirs of General Marbot," that he wrote his fictional version of Marbot as Brigadier Etienne Gerard, a saga of 20 stories (19 short stories and 1 novel, not counting another novel "The Great Shadow") where Napoleon appears many times. Conan Doyle did a great deal of research into Napoleonic days and military details.


Conan Doyle about Napoleon

  • « He [the captain] has a dog who has been taught to love the name of Napoleon, if you talk of shooting Napoleon he will make a dart at you. » (Log of the S. S. Hope, 1880)
  • « The terrible wars of Napoleon put an end to duelling for the time, but the restoration brought it forward again with renewed vigour. » (The Duello in France, 1890)
  • « He [Napoleon] was a wonderful man — perhaps the most wonderful man who ever lived. What strikes me is the lack of finality in his character. When you make up your mind that he is a complete villain, you come on some. noble trait, and then.your admiration of this is lost in some act of incredible meanness. But just think of it! Here was a young fellow of 30, a man who had no social advantages and but slight educational training. a member of a poverty-stricken family, entering a room with a troop of kings at his heels, and all the rest of them jealous if he spoke a moment longer to one than to the others. Then there must have been a great personal charm about the man, for some of those intimate with him loved him. » (A. Conan Doyle at Home, 1894)
  • « Oh, no one could ever compete with him [Napoleon] in that line. If he intended to invade Africa, he would give out that he was going to Russia ; then he would tell his intimates in strict confidence that Germany was the spot he had his eye on ; and finally he would whisper in the ear of his most confidential secretary that Spain was the point of attack. He was certainly an amazing and talented liar. [..] The secret of his success seems to me to have been his ability to originate gigantic schemes that seemed fantastic and impossible, while his mastery of detail enabled him to bring his projects to completion where any other man would have failed. » (Real Conversations. — V. A Dialogue between Conan Doyle and Robert Barr, 1894)
  • « Our military history has largely consisted in our conflicts with France, but Napoleon and all his veterans have never treated us so roughly as these hard-bitten farmers with their ancient theology and their inconveniently modern rifles. [..] One thinks of Napoleon striking at Egypt; how he gave it abroad that the real object of the expedition was Ireland, but breathed into the ears of one or two intimates that in very truth it was bound for Genoa. [..] In the days of Marlborough, in the darkest hours of Frederick the Great, in the great world struggle of Napoleon, we have been the brothers-in-arms of these people. So with the Austrians also. If both these countries were not finally swept from the map by Napoleon, it is largely to British subsidies and British tenacity that they owe it. [..] Mathias of the former, Digby-Jones and Dennis of the latter, showed that 'two in the morning' courage which Napoleon rated as the highest of military virtues. [..] One of Napoleon's maxims in war was to concentrate all one's energies upon one thing at one time. » (The Great Boer War, 1900)
  • « I am rather proud of those, for they are my collection of Napoleonic military memoirs. There is a story told of an illiterate millionaire who gave a wholesale dealer an order for a copy of all books in any language treating of any aspect of Napoleon's career. [..] Napoleon never thought of the conquest of Britain. He has expressly disclaimed it. What he did contemplate was a gigantic raid in which he would do so much damage that for years to come England would be occupied at home in picking up the pieces, instead of having energy to spend abroad in thwarting his Continental plans. [..] Talking of Napoleon's flight from Egypt, did you ever see a curious little book called, if I remember right, "Intercepted Letters"? [..] Now, if you want to understand the character of Napoleon – but surely I must take a fresh start before I launch on so portentous a subject as that. ... » (Through the Magic Door, 1906-1907)
  • « Napoleon, who had never met them in battle, imagined that their unbroken success was due to some weakness in his marshals rather than to any excellence of the troops. "At last I have them, these English," he exclaimed, as he gazed at the thin red line at Waterloo. "At last they have me, these English," may have been his thought that evening as he spurred his horse out of the debacle. Foy warned him of the truth. "The British infantry is the devil," said he. "You think so because you were beaten by them," cried Napoleon. Like von Kluck or von Kluck's master, he had something to learn. » (The German War, 1914)
  • « Is there any example, by the way, of a very great soldier having what one usually calls a soldierly appearance? Not Napoleon certainly, with his chubby face, nor Wellington with his grave aristocratic features, nor Frederick with the expression of a pedantic schoolmaster, nor Marlborough with his handsome serenity. » (Western Wanderings, 1915)
  • « Great was the French soldier under Louis the Sun-King, great too under Napoleon, but never was he greater than to-day. » (A Visit to Three Fronts, 1916)
  • « When I had finished my medical education in 1882, I found myself, like many young medical men, a convinced materialist as regards our personal destiny. I had never ceased to be an earnest theist, because it seemed to me that Napoleon's question to the atheistic professors on the starry night as he voyaged to Egypt: "Who was it, gentlemen, who made these stars?" has never been answered. » (The New Revelation, 1918)
  • « Napoleon, no mean judge of human nature, said of it: "It is different with Christ. Everything about Him astonishes me. His spirit surprises me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and anything of this world there is no possible comparison. He is really a being apart. The nearer I approach Him and the closer I examine Him, the more everything seems above me." » (The Vital Message, 1919)
  • « Whilst there [Davos] I began the Brigadier Gerard series of stories, founded largely upon that great book, "The Memoirs of General Marbot." This entailed a great deal of research into Napoleonic days, and my military detail was, I think, very accurate — so much so that I had a warm letter of appreciation from Archibald Forbes, the famous war correspondent, who was himself a great Napoleonic and military student. » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XII, 1922-1923)
  • « Another book of those days was "Uncle Bernac," which I never felt to be satisfactory, though I venture to claim that the two chapters which portray Napoleon give a clearer picture of him than many a long book has done, which is natural enough, since they are themselves the quintessence of a score of books. » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XV, 1922-1923)
  • « Napoleon went one better, however, on a certain occasion when he published an Intercepted British mail, which led to a British reprisal of the same sort, not at all conducive to the peace of families. » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XVIII, 1922-1923)
  • « I had one other dramatic venture, "Brigadier Gerard," which also was mildly successful. [..] Lewis Waller played the Brigadier and a splendid dashing Hussar he made. It was a glorious performance. I remember that in this play also I ran up against the conventionalities of the stage. I had a group of Hussar officers, the remnants of the regiment which had gone through Napoleon's last campaign. When it came to the dress rehearsal, I found them, to my horror, dressed up in brand new uniforms of chestnut and silver. "Good heavens!" I cried. "This is not a comic opera!" "What do you want done?" asked Waller. "Why," said I, "these men are warriors, not ballet dancers. They have been out in all weathers day and night for months. Every scrap of truth goes out of the play if they appear like that." The uniforms had cost over a hundred pounds, but I covered them with mud and dust and tore holes in them. The result was that, with begrimed faces, I got a band of real Napoleonic soldiers. » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XXII, 1922-1923)
  • « The talk got upon Napoleon's Marshals, and you would have thought that he [George Meredith] knew them intimately, and he did Murat's indignation at being told to charge au bout, as if he ever charged any other way, in a fashion which would have brought down the house. » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XXIII, 1922-1923)
  • « There were present also Prince Victor Napoleon ["Napoleon V"] and his wife, who was, I think, a daughter of my old aversion, Leopold, King of the Belgians and Overlord of the Congo. » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XXVII, 1922-1923)
  • « I wrote at the time: "Soldiers of France, farewell! In your own phrase, I salute you! Many have seen you who had more knowledge by which to judge your manifold virtues, many also who had more skill to draw you as you are, but never one, I am sure, who admired you more than I. Great was the French soldier, under Louis the Sun-King, great too under Napoleon, but never was he greater than to-day.". » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XXX, 1922-1923)
  • « "Then it will last some years and end in a Napoleon," said I. He [Lloyd George] agreed. "The revolt," he said, "was in no sense pro-German." » (Memories and Adventures. Chap. XXXI, 1922-1923)
  • « Take the last of the Brigadiers also. My whole object is to give the reader a stunning shock by Napoleon lying dead at the crisis of the adventure. But the story is prefaced by a large picture of Napoleon lying dead, which simply knocks the bottom out of the whole thing from the story-teller's point of view. » (Some Letters of Conan Doyle, 1930)


Napoleon in Conan Doyle's Fictions

Illustration by Frederic Dorr Steele for The Six Napoleons in Collier's (30 april 1904)
Illustration by Frederic Dorr Steele for The Six Napoleons in Collier's (30 april 1904)

Napoleonic era

Brigadier Gerard

Sherlock Holmes stories


Other fictions

  • That Little Square Box (1881) : "Napoleon" as a game.
  • An Exciting Christmas Eve(1883) : Friedrich Staps who attempted to assassin Napoleon.
  • Our Midnight Visitor (1891) : Napoleons, the gold coins.
  • A Foreign Office Romance (1894) : Mention of the absurd account of Napoleon's second visit to Ajaccio.
  • The Stark Munro Letters (1895) : "The greatest monument ever erected to Napoleon Buonaparte was the British National debt." [..] Cullingworth, a sort of Napoleon of medicine.
  • Rodney Stone (1896) : "peace between Napoleon and ourselves..." [..] "... the power of Napoleon and to prevent him from becoming the universal despot of Europe." [..] "... Napoleon's ambition for ever to the land, and his death..." [..] "... the renewed threats of Napoleon were secondary things in the eyes of the sportsmen..."
  • The Tragedy of the Korosko (1897) : Colonel Cochrane, a caricature of the great Napoleon.
  • A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus (1899) : "The distance from the ear to the forehead is said to be only equalled by Napoleon and by Gladstone."
  • The Début of Bimbashi Joyce (1900) : "Napoleon had said, and Hilary Joyce had noted, that great reputations are only to be made in the East."
  • An Impression of the Regency (1900) : "... to push Napoleon's veterans out of the Peninsula."
  • The Death Voyage (1929) : "I think that Napoleon should have died at Waterloo."


Adaptations

Plays and movies with Napoleon in Conan Doyle adaptations

Year Title Napoleon Media Country
1903 The Adventures of Gerard Edmund Breese Play USA
1906 Brigadier Gerard A. E. George Play UK
1906 Brigadier Gerard A. G. Poulton Play USA
1907 Brigadier Gerard Keith Fraser Play UK
1915 Brigadier Gerard A. E. George Movie UK
1921 Un drame sous Napoléon Émile Drain Movie France
1927 The Fighting Eagle Max Barwyn Movie US
1954 How the Brigadier Won His Medals Booth Colman TV US
1970 The Adventures of Gerard Eli Wallach Movie UK / CH

Movie and radio adaptations of The Six Napoleons

Year Title S.H. Media Country
1922 The Six Napoleons Eille Norwood Movie UK
1931 The Adventure of Six Napoleons Richard Gordon Radio USA
1941 The Six Napoleons Basil Rathbone Radio USA
1948 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons John Stanley Radio USA
1954 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons John Gielgud Radio UK
1955 The Adventure of the Six Napoleons John Gielgud Radio UK
1958 Les Six Napoléon Maurice Teynac Radio France
1965 The Six Napoleons Douglas Wilmer TV UK
1966 The Six Napoleons Carleton Hobbs Radio UK
1967 Sechsmal Napoleon Erich Schellow TV Germany
1978 Sześć popiersi cesarza Piotr Fronczewski Radio Poland
1978 The Six Napoleons Barry Foster Radio UK
1986 The Six Napoleons Jeremy Brett TV UK
1993 The Six Napoleons Clive Merrison Radio UK
2013 The Six Napoleons John Patrick Lowrie Radio USA

Other adaptations

Year Title S.H. Media Country
1989 The Napoleon of Crime John Wrisley Play USA


Related articles


See also




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