Strathern (James Joyce in 90 Minutes, 2005, etc.) wades into the
muddy waters of France's fabled North African campaign in 1798 -
99.It's well established that Napoleon fancied himself a new
Alexander the Great, eyes voraciously turned on conquering Egypt
and then India, and the author crafts a solid account of the young
general's ambitions. Having gained notoriety as the "liberator of
Italy," steeped in Constantin Volney's seminal 1787 text Voyage en
Egypte et en Syrie and harkening cries by Talleyrand and others to
liberate Egypt from the Mamelukes and jump-start French colonial
expansion, Napoleon in 1798 ransacked the Vatican's coffers and set
out with an armada of 335 ships. The campaign was as much a
"civilizing" enterprise as a military venture: The general took
along 167 "hand-picked savants" from France. Among them were
mathematician Gaspard Monge and chemist Claude-Louis Berthollet,
who intended to plant European ideas and extract the essence of
Egypt's ancient grandeur. Pursued by Admiral Nelson, however, the
general was thwarted at the Battle of the Nile and later at the
Siege of Acre; what was planned as a triumphal progress ended with
his precipitous flight back to France in 1799. In between the
battle scenes, Strathern paints a portrait of Napoleon the man,
sketching his humiliation over wife Josephine's infidelities and
his implausibly lofty ideals, which spawned a generation of
Romantic artists. His team of savants spurred the discipline of
Egyptology, thanks to painter Vivant Denon's sketches of fabulous
ancient ruins and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, among other
valuable artifacts.Inserting extracts from diaries and letters, the
author does a solid job re-creating Napoleon's "dream of an
Oriental empire" without offering many new insights. (Kirkus
Reviews)
Napoleon's attack on Egypt in 1798 was the first on a Middle
Eastern country by a Western power in modern times. With 335 ships
and 40,000 men, it was the largest long-distance seaborne force the
world had ever seen. Napoleon's assault was intended to be much
more than a colonial adventure, however, for he took with him over
one hundred and fifty scientists, mathematicians, artists and
writers - a 'Legion of Culture' - with a view to bringing Western
civilization to 'backward' Egypt. Ironically, what these
intellectuals discovered in Egypt would transform our knowledge of
Western civilization and form the basis of Egyptology. But there
were also setbacks. Nelson's destruction of the French fleet at the
Battle of the Nile apparently put an end to Napoleon's secret plans
to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and invade India.
Napoleon was just twenty-eight when he invaded Egypt and it was an
episode which contained in embryo many seminal events of his later
career and set the standard for his brilliant, ambitious and
ultimately disastrous career.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(1)
