#hippolyte charles

[the-marquis]

Poor guy pouring his heart out, only for his wife to give him the cold-shoulder and go party with her lover.

Joséphine ou la comédie des ambitions 1979.

[napoleondidthat]

I Am Dying A Thousand Deaths…

I’m currently watching the director’s cut of Napoleon by Ridley Scott. There is quite a bit new material that does fill out the story, explains things better and overall makes the movie flow better. There are gross inaccuracies still that makes the Napoleonic historian, us, cringe, but the average viewer wouldn’t care.

Some scenes are good, some are meh and then a few like what the hell am I looking at?

I haven’t been through the whole movie yet because I have to stop it every now and then but I had to stop and talk about this fucking scene.

This. Fucking. Scene.

Napoleon seeks out Hippolyte Charles to get advice on how to get Josephine pregnant.

Scene opens with Hippolyte waiting to be summoned by the Emperor and he seems nervous because he probably thinks Napoleon is going to confront him on his affair with the wife. Cannons are being fired outside randomly, who the fuck knows why, and every explosion makes Charles fidget more and look more guilty.

He is summoned.

Napoleon asks him if he can keep this conversation to himself and be discreet. Charles agrees. Napoleon then asks if he has children.

Yes, he has three sons, he says.

Napoleon asks if it took long (the act) to conceive.

Charles says he can’t remember.

Napoleon then asks, I shit you not, “is it important to pleasure a lady before you enter her”

Charles is like “dude” and mumbles about loving his wife. Napoleon says he loves his wife too and doesn’t want Charles to be shy, speak openly. Charles says he doesn’t know what the FUCK is going on.

Napoleon then says, again I shit you not, “tell me is it important for me to use my mouth down below between my wife’s legs before I enter her. “

The fuck is going on! Am I having a stroke? Am I stroking out?

Charles says he believes that a more a woman is aroused the more likely she is to conceive.

Napoleon thanks him and says he sought him out because he is a man of good “cocksmanship”, has a pretty face and the aire of a hairdresser.

I want to throw myself out of a window. I am dying watching this. Not laughter, like I want to go crawl under the bed and never come out again.

This fucking scene.

What in the absolute actual fuck did I just watch?

[captainknell]

Pretty sure I have seen people saying that the Josephine and Hippolyte Charles affair did not happen. But in this book, he has "proof". So where is this stuff coming from? Did it happen or not? Christopher Hibbert believes that Josephine was cheating on Napoleon with multiple guys like Barras and Murat as well. 🤨

[pedroam-bang]

Napoleon (2023)

[ic-napology]

How to prove Hippolyte Charles was gay?

I need your advise on this.

Sandra Gulland, who's the author of the Josephine B. literary saga and very acclaimed for her deep study on Josephine and the napoleonic era, wrote both in fiction and on articles that Hippolyte Charles was gay. In the "sequel" of the Josephine sara, The Game of Hope, she even portrays him as a crossdresser.

I thought most of it was fictional embellishment and some liberties, despite the fact that she rarely strains much from reality even in fiction; Some of you among the most experts said something similar about him being queer, like @maggiec70, about Barras as well. Would you tell me what makes you think that and the sources? I might need to use that for a discussion.

Thanks!

[miffy-junot]

What Junot and Hippolyte Charles got up to in Paris...

or alternative title: when you befriend a guy because you're both silly and slutty, then tell your other friend that the guy is possibly sleeping with his wife, therefore ruining the guy's military career, but you remain friends for years and lend each other money and dine together at your house and use 'tu' rather than 'vous' in your letters to each other

(istg this is a joke, they were just close friends, but I could not resist the urge to make it toxic yaoi)

[siriusly-amazing]

I might hate Napoleon (2023), but I adored that they put Hippolyte Charles in my favourite period drama men blue.

[josefavomjaaga]

Eugène’s letter to his mother, July 24, 1798

Ma chère maman, j'ai tant de choses à te dire que je ne sais pas où commencer ; Bonaparte depuis cinq jours paraît bien triste et cela est venu à la suite d'un entretien qu'il a eu avec Julien, Junot et même Berthier. Il a été affecté plus que je ne croyais de cette conversation. Tous les mots que j'ai entendus [reviennent] à ce que Charles est venu dans ta voiture jusqu'à trois postes de Paris, que tu l'as vu à Paris, que tu as été aux Italiens avec lui dans les quatrièmes loges, qu'il t'a donné ton petit chien, que même il est en ce moment près de toi; voilà en mots entrecoupés tout ce que j'ai pu entendre. Tu penses bien, maman, que je ne crois pas cela, mais ce qu'il y a de sûr, c'est que le général en est très affecté. Cependant, il redouble d'amitiés pour moi. Il semble, par ses actions, vouloir dire que les enfants ne sont pas garants des fautes de leur mère; mais ton fils se plait à croire tout ce bavardage fabriqué par tes ennemis. Il ne t'en aime pas moins et ne désire pas moins de t'embrasser. J'espère que quand tu viendras tout sera oublié.

My dear Maman, I have so many things to tell you that I do not know where to begin; Bonaparte has seemed very sad for the last five days and this has come about as a result of a discussion he had with Julien, Junot and even Berthier. He was affected more than I could believe by this conversation. All the words I heard [relate to] that Charles travelled in your carriage up to three posts from Paris, that you saw him in Paris, that you went to the Italians [i.e., Italian operas/theaters] with him in the fourth boxes, that he gave you your little dog, that he is even near you at the moment; there you have in broken words all I could hear. You can be sure, Maman, that I don't believe that, but what is certain is that the General is very affected by it. However, he is redoubling his affection for me. He seems, by his actions, to be saying that children are not liable for their mother's faults; but your son pleases himself to believe all this gossip fabricated by your enemies. He loves you no less and desires no less to embrace you. I hope that when you come all will be forgotten.

Cited in Françoise de Bernardy, »Eugène de Beauharnais, le fils adoptive de Napoléon«, and I believe originally cited in Masson’s book about Josephine »Madame Bonaparte«. (Masson tends to not be very forgiving when it comes to the ladies, from what I have read.)

I do not know if the original letter still exists; if so, it would probably be in Great Britain(?). This letter apparently was among those captured by the British navy, along with the one by General Bonaparte, speaking of his »domestic chagrin«.