| Vendor | |
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Liepman Literary Agency
Marc Koralnik |
| Original language | |
| French | |
NAPOLÉON: Napoleon (BNF Collection)
A worthy showcase for a biographical gem. The first title of a new collection launched as part of a recently created partnership between Perrin and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF) (National Library of France).
Launch of the Bibliothèque des Illustres (A Library of the Illustrious): spectacular and largely unpublished iconography combined with a skillfully written biography, accessible to all and centered on the designated personality. The association of image and text constitutes an in-depth renewal of the art of biography.
Two titles per year will follow this initial offering, with Mazarin and Marie-Antoinette on next year's menu.
The first title of the collection is devoted to Napoleon by the highly talented young historian of the Empire, Charles-Eloi Vial who writes : "It takes some nerve to dare to examine Napoleon up close, through the eyes or the works of those who met him. The author must strip away the legend to return to the fundamental constructs of his personality, his relationship to power and his dealings with his contemporaries, thus allowing another image of the immortal emperor to emerge. Perhaps it all comes down to a single question: understanding who he was and whether he was the master of his destiny or the prisoner of a fate that surpassed him. In this interplay between two visions - of the man and of the genius - lies the challenge of Napoleon's biography."
Napoleon's life was an epic, the life of a man grappling with the major issues of his time. An unprecedented plunge into the collections of the National Library of France can help us to better understand him: images, eyewitnesses and archives are ready to speak.
CHARLES-ÉLOI VIAL is an archivist and paleographer with a doctorate in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He is a curator at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF). With Perrin, he has published notably a biography of Marie-Louise (winner of the Fondation Napoléon's Premier Empire prize, 2017), La Famille royale au Temple (The Royal Family at the Temple, 2018), Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène (Napoleon on St Helena, 2018) and 15 August 1811, L'apogée de l'Empire? (15 August 1811, pinnacle of the Empire?, 2019).
Two titles per year will follow this initial offering, with Mazarin and Marie-Antoinette on next year's menu.
The first title of the collection is devoted to Napoleon by the highly talented young historian of the Empire, Charles-Eloi Vial who writes : "It takes some nerve to dare to examine Napoleon up close, through the eyes or the works of those who met him. The author must strip away the legend to return to the fundamental constructs of his personality, his relationship to power and his dealings with his contemporaries, thus allowing another image of the immortal emperor to emerge. Perhaps it all comes down to a single question: understanding who he was and whether he was the master of his destiny or the prisoner of a fate that surpassed him. In this interplay between two visions - of the man and of the genius - lies the challenge of Napoleon's biography."
Napoleon's life was an epic, the life of a man grappling with the major issues of his time. An unprecedented plunge into the collections of the National Library of France can help us to better understand him: images, eyewitnesses and archives are ready to speak.
CHARLES-ÉLOI VIAL is an archivist and paleographer with a doctorate in history from the University of Paris-Sorbonne. He is a curator at the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF). With Perrin, he has published notably a biography of Marie-Louise (winner of the Fondation Napoléon's Premier Empire prize, 2017), La Famille royale au Temple (The Royal Family at the Temple, 2018), Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène (Napoleon on St Helena, 2018) and 15 August 1811, L'apogée de l'Empire? (15 August 1811, pinnacle of the Empire?, 2019).
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Book
Published 2020-11-01 by Perrin |