 |
Art and Architecture Collection > Napoleonic Era: A Research Guide Literature and Fiction Napoleon did not foster the literary arts in the same way he did the fine arts. He opposed the freedom of speech espoused by literary figures and was unsympathetic to the two great writers of his era. Vicomte Francois-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1817) Chateaubriand and Mme de Staël were early leaders of French Romanticism in literature and modern criticism. However, Napoleon ignored Chateaubriand and actively disliked Mme de Staël, exiling her at various intervals during his reign. The literary arts in France flourished better after Napoleon’s reign ended. One notable novelist and critic, Stendhal (Henri Beyle 1783-1842), served in Napoleon’s army under the Commissariat branch, in the early part of his career. His experiences form a backdrop to the themes of his great works, The Charterhouse of Parma (1839) and The Red and the Black (1830). The Romantic Movement of the early nineteenth century guided the development of “Le Romantisme” in French literature, which would flower later on with the works of Théophile Gautier (1811-1872), Victor Hugo (1802-1885), and Alphonse-Marie-Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790-1869). Fiction about the Napoleonic EraA number of later works have been produced that feature the First Empire of Napoleon. Burgess, Anthony. Napoleon Symphony. 1974. Cornwell, Bernard. Sharpe’s Trafalgar. 2001. Dumas, Alexandre. The Whites and the Blues. 1894. The Company of Jehu. 1894. Gulland, Sandra. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. 1995. The Last Great Dance on Earth. 2000. Orczy, Emmuska, Baroness. The Bronze Eagle: A Story of the Hundred Days. c.1915. Rambaud, Patrick. The Battle. 2000, c1997. Won the Prix Goncourt. The Retreat. 2004. a third installment will be forthcoming. Selinko, Annemarie. Désirée. 1953. Teegan, Thomas Henry. With the Grand Army to Moscow: An Historical Novel. 1900. Tolstoy, Leo. War and Peace. 1865-9. The great classic. |