#gourgaud

[napoleondidthat]

The Saint Helena Journal of Gen Baron Gourgaud, 1932

I am keeping this one because I like that it has his signature on the cover.

[oystercherie]

i need an AU where Junot and Gourgaud are stuck in the same room as Napoleon... incoming duel coming up /j

[joachimnapoleon]

It’s been a while since I’ve done some Gourgaudposting. Here is his entry from 18 September 1817, featuring Napoleon’s commentary on Junot, which shares some noticeable parallels to Napoleon’s St Helena rants about Murat—he committed nothing but sottises (follies/stupidities), he was a womanizer, he never should’ve been promoted so high etc.

***

Thursday, 18 (September 1817) – At 5 o’clock, the Emperor pays a visit to Mme de Montholon. The colonel of the 12th Regiment, arriving to the island from France, goes to Bertrand’s, asks to be received, but His Majesty responds that he is indisposed.

After my dinner, His Majesty summons me, treats me well, and speaks to me of the Russian campaign. “At Ostrowo and Witebsk, I managed to cut the Russian army off from the road to Petersburg. At Smolensk, Junot committed nothing but follies, as well as at Valoutina; I sent you there. It was you who came to tell me he could cut off the Russian rearguard, but that he couldn’t decide to go ahead with it. You asked him: Monsieur le Duc, if the Emperor inquires why you have not marched, how should I answer him? He replied in an embarrassed tone: ‘You say that night has come and that I’ve taken position.’ So, I dismissed him at night.” – “In the morning, Your Majesty, on horseback, sent General Denorval to prevent me from waking up, because I was tired. This surprised everyone, and they thought my fortune had been made.”

The Emperor, after a moment of silence, resumed the conversation: “I met Junot at the siege of Toulon. He was quartermaster in a battalion of the Côte-d’Or; I needed writers, I had requested one from Gavais, commandant at Fontainebleau in 1814, who was then at the head of this battalion. He sent me two of them. Junot arrived first, I took him, he pleased me. Being, the same day, in my battery, I had him write a letter; a cannonball covered us with earth, and he exclaimed: Good, there’s the ash for the letter! He had a superb hand, and he remained with me. The other quartermaster was, a long time afterwards, still a noncommissioned officer, while Junot had a great advancement. Such is fate. Junot has never been anything but a swashbuckler, a ferocious philanderer. He loved to surround himself with nobles. I never should have given him command; in the last days, he wanted to be marshal. At Valoutina, he was already insane.”

His Majesty critiques the book attributed to him.

***

Source: General Gourgaud, Sainte-Hélène - journal inedit de 1815 à 1818.

[francebonapartiste]

Lorsque Napoléon accompagné du Maréchal Berthier et du Général Gourgaud fut de passage à Sens à la fin de la Campagne de France.

[isthenapoleoncute]

My cousin's Gourgaud has requested a playdate with my Napoleon. My cousin wants a rest from her Gourgaud for a few hours, and she's pressuring me. I'm afraid the Gourgaud will create so much drama that violence might occur. Help!

Said it once, I’ll say it 1821 times if I gotta:

Your Gourgaud! Should not be so needy or annoying if he has enough space in his enclosure!!! They like to run around and fight, if you lock em up, they get moody. Your cousin wouldn’t want a “rest” from Gourgaud if she would just take him out for war more often!

That said. If you’re taking care of your Napoleon, I’m sure the Gourgaud will be able to play peacefully (er. Warlikely) in the big wide enclosure! Just get them some Cossacks to fight (again, you can buy a bag full for like fifty cents at Walmart?) they’ll have a blast, everyone’s happy! Except the Cossacks.

Seriously I hear “my gourgaud is annoying my Napoleon” all the time and my advice is and always will be: your Gourgaud will be fine if you just let him go to war! Let him kill stuff! That’s all he wants! He doesn’t want to play book club or court, he wants to kill! Let him kill!!

[usergreenpixel]

MALMAISON MEDIA SALON SOIRÉE 15: NEEDING NAPOLEON (2020)

1. The Introduction

Hello, Neighbors! Welcome back to Malmaison Media Salon! At last we’re here and today is a bit of a special review. Why special?

Let me explain:

1. Firstly, it’s one of those cases where I stumble upon a media piece via recommendation from another community member. This time it was @suburbanbeatnik , who interviewed the author of the book and there was a contest where the first 3 users to comment would get a free ebook copy via email.

I was the first to comment because I was given the link and because I was really excited about what sounded like a promising story, considering my soft spot for the adventure genre, time travel and alternative history. So yeah, I became one of the lucky three users.

Unfortunately, the book is only available in English and has to be purchased through websites like Amazon, so those who don’t speak English too well might be out of luck for now.

2. Secondly, it’s one of the few anglophone (British, to boot!) media pieces that DO NOT paint Napoleon as a villain! How cool is that?! For newcomers, stumbling upon a gem like that is about as likely as seeing a UFO, so you can bet your asses that I HAD to check out the book!

3. Thirdly, I already mentioned that I’m a sucker for adventure, time travel, historical fiction and alternative history so that really boosted my excitement… as well as my worries. I prayed that the book would turn out to be good. Luckily, it did! More on that later though.

Anyway, before we proceed, this review is dedicated to @suburbanbeatnik and @garethwilliamsauthor . Not only is the latter, well, the author, but he also graciously gave me permission to write said review and I’m thankful for this.

Okay, with formalities out of the way, let’s begin!

2. The Summary

The novel tells the story of one Richard Davey, an ordinary schoolteacher who admires Napoleon and lives a very boring, lonely life.

However, during a fateful holiday in Paris, he gets a chance to leave his old life behind, meet his hero and maybe even change the course of history.

To me, the idea sounds very interesting, so let’s move onto the deeper analysis and see if the execution matches the potential.

3. The Story

Although the beginning of the story did confuse me a bit because we jump straight into action, I. Fucking. Love. This. Book. I was extremely hooked when reading and felt like I was back in my childhood, reading my favorite swashbuckling stories. The excitement is REAL.

The pacing is excellent, most loose ends get tied up in the end, the ending is satisfying yet also realistic and we don’t have the protagonist getting everything he wanted, which is awesome!

I did have a problem with the flashbacks though, mainly because they kept popping up and breaking the storyline immersion, but that’s just me.

Also, there’s a good mix of gritty artlessness (in a good way because it doesn’t gloss over war), a swashbuckling adventure, romance and down time (we can’t have action ALL the time).

The romantic subplot is very well-written and realistic, even though my asexual self still didn’t care much because I don’t normally like romance. Spoiler, it’s one of the few times where the protagonist doesn’t get the love interest in the end, for a lot of reasons.

So yeah, only minor complaints here and there.

(Oh, and tiny bonus for the Frev community: Frev isn’t demonized either!!! Yay!!!)

(P. S. Also there were a lot of moments that cracked me up, like the pun with HMS Bellerophon being called Billy Ruffian.)

4. The Characters

Richard Davey is by far one of the most relatable characters ever, since I can relate to his loneliness (me during the worse days of depression) and love for History (I’m a Frev and Napoleonic nerd). He’s flawed, reacts realistically and in his own way to situations and has a great character arc, from a man just going with the motions of life to a hero who can and does make a difference in history, just not in the way he first planned.

Emile Béraud, a soldier Richard befriends in the past, is an absolute sweetheart. Loyal to a fault, friendly and just as lonely as Richard, he takes part in the adventures and is a very compelling character.

Aunt Patricia, Richard’s only living relative, might be a minor character who doesn’t personally appear, but her presence is felt throughout the story and Richard constantly imagines what she would have to say in his position and how she would judge him.

Madame Odillet, the owner of an antique shop who helps Richard get back in time, is a mysterious woman with a troubled past, who definitely knows more than she first lets on. I like the book parallels between her and witches, even though she’s just a regular human.

Napoleon starts out as an insufferable punchable prick, but later on his portrayal becomes nuanced. He loves and misses his son, has a soft spot for kids, has a temper and at times alternates between acceptance of his fate and resolve to fight back. He’s not in a good place mentally nor physically, but he’s portrayed as someone flawed yet far from being a bad person.

Jerome is an arrogant hedonistic ass. Full stop. But he’s a minor character so I can understand why he’s not as nuanced, even if I wish there was a bit more complexity.

Gourgaud is an impulsive and arrogant bastard who is loyal to his emperor yet entitled due to having saved said emperor twice.

Bertrand and Fanny are extremely sweet.

Las Cases… I found him unpleasant and arrogant.

Murat and Caroline are mentioned and, LUCKILY, not depicted as traitors.

Ney in his cameo is his usual post-Russia reckless self (he possibly had PTSD, I believe).

Overall, the cast is memorable and I did enjoy the portrayals for the most part.

5. The Setting

The descriptions really sell the setting here, in my opinion. I particularly enjoyed the scenes at Malmaison where Napoleon essentially is Richard’s tour guide.

Always nice to see that the author really did their research and has a way with language to make immersion that much easier to achieve.

6. The Writing

Once again, the descriptions. Short, sweet, to the point.

The language is mostly easily understandable, but there are French words sprinkled in that (fortunately) can be more or less understood in context. I wish there were footnotes with translations though. Oh, and some words were unfamiliar to me as a foreigner so please keep that in mind too.

7. The Conclusion

If you can, please give the book a go. Remarkable adventures, nuanced characters and believable settings that are reminiscent of swashbuckling novels are definitely worth your money, in my humble opinion.

Of course, no work is perfect but I throughly enjoyed this one despite some flaws and I look forward to reading the sequel. It’s not every day we get an anglophone pro-Naps media piece, after all.

On that note, let us conclude today’s soirée. Please stay tuned for updates on future reviews, my dearest Neighbors.

Love,

Citizen Green Pixel

[microcosme11]

The hat seems a bit large or too many feathers...

Unique uniform attributed to "officiers d'ordonnance de l'Empereur" and especially Gourgaud who accompanied Napoleon to Saint Helen.

The colour of this jacket was so particular, that we had to dye 100 metres of fabrics to get it! Embroideries are a mix of leaves: laurel, oak and palm. There were only 12 staff officers. They transmitted direct orders from the Emperor, and even field marshals had to respect their orders.

(translated from French)

empirecostume

[bougredane]

Gourgaud has a gourmet existential experience.

10 mars 1817 :

Après une promenade à cheval, je rentre à 6 h 30. S.M. me demande, me dit d’être gai, prétend que je suis un gros enfant. Pourquoi me chagriner ? Je ne réponds pas. Elle me fait jouer aux échecs, me traite avec beaucoup de douceur.

Dîner. S.M. me parle souvent et, chose extraordinaire, fait pour moi ce qu’Elle n’avait fait encore qu’une fois, et encore pour le seul Las Cases : Elle met une cuiller dans les macaronis, m’en offre en me disant : « Allons, Gourgaud, que je vous donne des macaronis ! » Elle m’en sert deux fois, me demande comment je les trouve : « Excellents, sire, je n’en ai jamais mangé d’aussi bons. » Les Montholon enragent ; tous les gens sont stupéfaits ; on a pour moi des attentions qu’on n’avait plus.

S.M. renvoie les gens et lit Andromaque. Elle critique les vers : « Je viens chercher ou la vie ou la mort. » (1) Elle dit qu’il faudrait mettre « trouver » ; Mme de Montholon est aussitôt de cet avis, je suis contre : « chercher » laisse du vague car elle peut ne pas trouver. Coucher à 10 heures.

---

10 March, 1817 :

After a ride, I return at 6.30. His Majesty asks for me, tells me to be gay, and maintains that I’m a child. He asks why it is that I grieve. I don’t reply. He has me play chess, treats me very kindly. 

Dinner. His Majesty speaks to me frequently and - an extraordinary thing - does for me what he has done only once before, and then only for Las Cases : he dips a spoon in the macaroni and offers some to me, saying « Here you are Gourgaud, let me give you some macaroni ! » He serves me twice, asks me how I find it. « Excellent, Sire, » I reply. « The best I’ve ever had. » The Montholons are furious ; all the servants are stupefied ; it’s been a long time since someone has received such attentions. 

His Majesty sends away the servants and reads Andromache. He critiques the line : « seek either life or death [whether life or death to contemplate] » (1) He says it would be better to say « to find » ; Mme de Montholon agrees immediately. I am of another opinion : « seek » remains ambiguous - the end is not necessarily found. Bed at 10 o’clock.

Emphasis in the original (maintained by the 2019 Thierry Lentz edition.)

---

(1) Here’s the Racine :

ANDROMAQUE - ACTE I, SCÈNE 1 :

ORESTE :

Hélas ! Qui peut savoir le destin qui m'amène ? (25)

L'amour me fait ici chercher une inhumaine,

Mais qui sait ce qu'il doit ordonner de mon sort,

Et si je viens chercher ou la vie ou la mort ?

ORESTES :

Alas, who knows what future leads me on? (25)

Love made me seek her, the unkindest one.

But who knows what it orders for my fate,

And whether life or death to contemplate?