Evening star., 1933-02-05
NAPOLEON. BY Hilaire Belloc. Philadelphia
]. B. Lppincott Co.

IN MS cauSt1c style ana entlreIy nOe-
pendent point Of view. He Is at his
best as biographer and historian at his
second best as novelist poet and essayist. The
method employed in this study Of Napoleon Is
to relate a number of dramatic episodes In his
career-and there were maryland through
these episodes to develop the remarkable char
acter at the center of them One of the most
important episodes in the life of Napoleon was
his mother. Maria Letizia Ramolino, descended
from the lesser nobility of Tuscany, the youth
fu. wife of Charles Bonaparte, was hardy
enough physically and stern enough mentally
to be The mother of a hero. During the Winter
preceding the birth of her fourth child Napo-
eon she rode with her husband and his brigand
forces on small horse of the type of the New
Forest PONIES, for Corsica was in revolt against
Genoa and her foreign ally, France. With this
warlike prelude the child was born on the day
of the Assumption of Our Lady and his mother
dedicated him to the Mother of God. He was
to prove unruly
The pictures which follow are of 9year-
old boy at the monastic school of Brlenne In
Champagne, where he learned little; then Is
year-c,d boy at the Ecole Militaire in Paris,
where "the military air was all about him.
and his real career began. The French Revo-
lution-the 18th Vendemiaire- young cav
airy officer Murat sent off for guns to defend
the Parliament against THE People'-Napo-
leof in command of a critical battery at
critical moment-and Napoleon took over the
dIniy OF FaTlS-dnQ now luOeeQ Ilc WAS kl1OWL
His marriage with Josephine de Beauharnais
mistress of Barras, was an episode fraught with
many complications for his future. The war
in Italy with ever-growing glory; the invasion
of Egypt, the coup d'etat of the 10th Brumaire
BY which Napoleon became First Consul. the
with Austria, and then Napoleon arrived at
the goal of his life when, in Notre Dame, De-
cember 2, 1904, "the Emperor and the Empress
came forward toward the thrones prepared for
them"
The rising action was over and the falling
action was about to begin. The coalition Of
Europe against this upStart Corsican was
formed, war became the normal condition for
France and the invasion of Russia seems to
today to prove delusion of grandeur possible
only in an unbalanced mind. Then defeats
and defeats, desperate second marriage in the
attempt to secure Austria ally, abdication
exile to Elba, brief fare-up of return and
Napoleon sank into deserted melancholy on the
lonely island of st. Helena. where the last cur
tain fell as he lay on his Iron camp bed with
the silver eagles on its four corners in a
wretched room in the shanty which was his
prison.
pathetic, though he elucidates through his epi-
sodes the steps by which the unusual genius
brought about his own downfall. The elimina-
ton of mere detail and the preservation of the
theme Of personality make this most readable
book
THE KING OF ROME: NAPOLEON II,
"L'AIGLON." BY Octave Aubry Authorized
translation by Elizabeth Abbott. Phila-
delphia: j. B. Lippincott Co.
A PPROPRIATE companion to the foregoing
book is this biography of the pathetic
"King Of Rome" Napoleon's son by Marie
Louise, daughter of the Emperor of Austria.
Marie Louise had not wished to marry Napo-
leon; in fact, had protested wildly against be-
handed RI 'sths Ol1pdarer of hoy1co
the thief Of her fathers throne, the anti
Christ" The marriage took place, nevertheless
Political considerations were far more impor-
tant than the preferences of princess. When
Napoleon's son, his only legitimate child. was
born in 1911, Paris saluted the birth of the heir
with % cannon shots and the Emperor himself
said to his friend Duroc: II evny that boy!
Glory is waiting there for him; I had to run
after her"
Marie-Louise had found Napoleon rather bet
ter than the "anti-Christ' she had imagined
and even felt some affection for him. but not
enough to cause her to accompany him into
exile She has been criticized for this, but he
married her for connection with hereditary
royal house and for a son, and she left him
when he could no longer give her an empire.
When Napoleon left the Tuileries to join his
army after the Battle of Leipzig, when the al
lies threatened Paris, he looked upon the little
King of Rome asleep in his small bed for the
last time Marie-Louise and her son soon took
refuge in Austria The boy became the Duke
Of Reichstadt instead of the King of Rome, and
he never had news Of his father, as his father
never had news OF him. Marie-Louise had q
lover. Napoleon was forgotten when his son,
after a futile life dominated by Metternich,
died at Schonbrunn at the age of 21-Napoleon
Francois Joseph Charles Bonaparte. The book
IS popularly and colorfully written.
THE ROMANCE OF WINE By H. Warner
Allen. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
THE esthetics Of wine, the virtues OF wine, the
y gentle art Of wine drinking, the technique
Of wine drinking and the making of wines,
furnish material for q sizeable volume of con-