Napoleon's French Kiss

How come yesterday's Napoleon has no problem seducing today's French?

Ask the British and they would say, "The French are simply as pathetic as Napoleon was."

Ask me and I would say the following:

Compared to his male contemporaries, the real Napoleon was of average height (5'6")* Yes, he was called le petit caporal (the little corporal). But that was a cute nickname honoring his young age of 24 when he was promoted to brigadier general overnight for liberating the French port of Toulon from a British fleet.

The British, however, had successfully caricaturized Napoleon as a dwarf in their wildly popular cartoons.** I am amused by social media folks who still buy into this kind of stale disinformation. But then, once popularized, even stale disinformation has legs.

Let's get serious about Napoleon.

Defeated in Waterloo though, Napoleon did have won big on creating a national identity of and for the French people who had all along been living in the shadow of the Bourbon dynasty.

Napoleon, a Corsican outsider, gave rise to French nationalism which in turn founded a forward-looking French nation in due course of history.

Also, for the very first time in modern history, a citizens' king strutted his stuff on a stage known to Shakespeare as the world.

France can never forget Napoleon's kiss.


Author: renqiulan

*https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/11/22/napoleon-short-myth/

**Englishman James Gillray (1756-1815), a political cartoonist, ran a spectacular campaign of caricaturing Napoleon. 

 

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday, 秋兰！Great post, thank you for sharing!

"France can never forget Napoleon's kiss", nor Qiulan,

a great historian in the U.S. :)

"once popularized, even stale disinformation has legs."

Unfortunately, this happens all the time and anywhere.

I got it. This Napoleon won something in the past

秋兰文末所附的链接显示：

The ‘little corporal’ was actually taller than average.

正如戈培尔的名言：“谎话重复一千遍就成了真理。”

Probably he was petit comparing to his fellow army men.

 长身大面（大胡子），似乎是军队的偏爱。

Hi, Buddy Q. Happy Monday to you too!

I bet your nice post has something to do with

Joaquin Phoenix's Napoleon who looks a bit too glum to me.

I'm not saying Napoleon was necessarily a happy warrior.

I'm inclined to believe Tolstoy's Napoleon is more real.

Hi, 小西! It seems to me that the French people

have never kissed Napoleon goodbye. Napoleon

was and still is a French legend burned into the nation's

collective memory, for better or worse (probably for better)

From the geopolitical perspective, France and Britain were

two superpowers, if you will, in Napoleon's time. Both were

competing for dominance, esp. in terms of global trade.

Happy Monday 秋兰！占位点赞，再来细看～～

Russia chose to ally with Britain rather than France because

欢迎新朋友来美坛玩，问好。：）

the latter was an imminent threat to the Czar who virtually

sealed Napoleon's fate. Waterloo or no Waterloo,

Napoleon was doomed.

Thank you, 永远老李, for your witty remark. I don't mean to

let you down, but "French kiss" here is meant to be a pun.

Thank you, dhyang_wxc, for your input. In many a Frenchman's

neck of the woods, pride meant and still means everything.

Hi,Buddy N! What's up? How're your fellow New Yorkers doing?

Like you, I didn't miss this latest Napoleon movie.

Like you (again), my wife shares your impression of

Joaquin Phoenix's Napoleon. For me, I kept asking why the

movie director, Sir Ridley Scott, didn't bother to take

a page from Tolstoy's "War and Peace." After all, Napoleon

had a lot to do with Russia.

谢谢盈盈!

Thank you for dropping me a line! Again, happy Monday to you

跟着秋兰学历史。

哪里呢。谢谢天边一片白云！

秋兰，we learned a lot from you because you know the world

so well, not only America, China or France. Thank you!

I see. Thank you for sharing your deep thoughts.

感谢，问好版主！

No Monday blues visited on me, thanks to your blessings!

As I quietly predicted,you couldn't help bringing up Tolstoy

"Napoleon" director Ridley Scott avoided Tolstoy on purpose.

In "War & Peace" Napoleon lost his bearings.

The military genius looked and sounded like a fool.

Still, the French love Tolstoy. Hahaha! Your thoughts?

Good morning! Tolstoy was a religious man. That's the point.