I love your "Joseph Fouché described by women" compilation post! Would you mind making similar compilation posts for other Napoleonic era figures if you can find relevant quotes, maybe this time for historically quite handsome fellows like Murat or Wellington? :D Thanks!
You're so kind, I cannot refuse your request <3 so here we go again :
Joachim Murat described by women
“Murat was a good man. He possessed remarkable bravery and military talent, as well as a strong desire to please and to be distinguished. He sought to present himself in the best possible light and went to extreme lengths to do so. One could see, from his exaggerated demeanor and his attentiveness toward the ladies, that he wanted to resemble the Villarceauxs and the Sévignés of Louis XIV’s time. These were the models he had adopted, but the republican warrior emerged in spite of himself, and the mixture of these two such opposing figures would have lent itself to ridicule had the brave soldier not stepped forward to silence the critics. Thus, despite his masculine and warrior-like beauty, he was far less dangerous than he had hoped. His heart was excellent, his mind mediocre, and his fortune had been too great for it not to have turned his head a little. Ambition, without the qualities that sustain it, is nothing but a wretched flaw, and it is only the great men who can sometimes elevate it to the height of virtue. Murat’s ambition sprang from his fortune, and from a distinguished general he became a rather forgettable sovereign.”
– Mémoires de la Reine Hortense, v. II, Plon, Paris, 1927, p. 134
“Prince Murat was a very handsome man, very tall, very generous, and very kind to those around him; Queen [Caroline] was imbued with the same sentiments. [...] We know of King Murat’s fondness for finery, which stood in striking contrast to his incredible bravery and the stoicism with which he endured all suffering and deprivation on the battlefield. [...] His curly hair, falling over his shoulders and making him look like a stage king, was particularly displeasing to [Napoleon].”
– Mémoires de Mademoiselle Avrillion, première femme de chambre de l'Impératrice, v. I, Ladvocat, Paris, 1833, pp. 362-363
“Murat then appeared before me, and truly one would have had to have read the reports of the Grande Armée with the same precision as my admiration for him to believe that I was standing before one of the great captains of the nineteenth century. Imagine Francis I, young and handsome, adorned with all the radiant luxury of silks, his head crowned with a waving plume; an air of gallantry radiating from his entire person, [...] resembling a hero of a novel rather than a king of modern Europe: the most magnificent head set upon a body of the most elegant and slender proportions, and what was most extraordinary, beneath a costume that was already so striking, I admired the ease of his manner, the good taste born of habit and experience, the grace and fluidity of movement that supported what I would almost dare to call a fifteenth-century study and the likeness of a paladin. [...] To all these charms, I added at that moment the laurels of twenty victories, and I was truly dazzled.”
– Ida de Sainte-Elme, Mémoires d'une contemporaine, v. III, Ladvocat, Paris, 1828, pp. 336-337
All of these are very interesting, now let's read Murat's description by Laure d'Abrantès !
“As for Murat’s beauty and the nobility of his features, that is a highly debatable point. I do not accept that a man is handsome simply because he is tall and dresses up like it’s Carnival Day. Murat did not have handsome features, and I would even add that, when viewed without his curly hair, his plumes, and his embroidery, he was ugly. He had a face in which one could see much of the N****, although he did not have a flat nose, but thick lips and a nose which, though aquiline, had no nobility, giving him a strong resemblance to a face that was, to say the least, mixed-race.”
– Mémoires de Mme la duchesse d’Abrantès, v. III, L. Hauman, Bruxelles, 1831-1837, p. 119
...oh uhhhmmm. yeah, nevermind.
ANYWAY thank you so much for your ask, Anon !
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