. A few months ago, before we’d announced our Big Book Readalong selection, Alicia read a few novels featuring Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars that sparked her interest—and we were like…oh Alicia, just wait ‘til you see what we have in store for you! She wrote this piece about her reading experiences, and we’re so happy to share it with you today. If you’re looking for Les Mis readalikes or similar historical fare, this essay is for you. You can find more of Alicia’s writing at
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Hi Classics Club!
I’m Alicia from WA (@rev.alicia.reads on Instagram)—an ordained reverend, former English teacher, BA & MA in literature, and committed supporter of public scholarship. I’m thrilled to be offering a guest post today, born out of an incredibly nerdy deep dive into Napoleon. Hope you have as much fun as I did. Let’s dive in!
In Sara’s 2023 Paperback Summer Reading Guide, I was immediately drawn to the category “The Ones That Got Away” and her featured selection of Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. Who knew that a Victorian novel I had barely skimmed for a grad school seminar would come back to me as such a delightful summer read? Suddenly I was reading several other classic novels I had skipped over during my formal literary education– The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexander Dumas; Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray; War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy– all of which have key plot points revolving around Napoleon Bonaparte and the Napoleonic Wars. Now, I’m so excited to be reading the UNABRIDGED text of Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo. I read the abridged version in highschool, and loved it, but it’s been a minute since I brushed up on this particular moment in history– which is a perfect opportunity for a super nerdy deep-dive and a little public scholarship round-up!
First, a quick bio:
“Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica in 1769 to an Italian family that was given French noble status nine years later. He attended France's prestigious Ecole Militaire and was serving in the army when the French Revolution started. He rose quickly to general, gaining fame and power as he won victory after victory.In 1799, he led a coup d'état and was appointed First Consul; within a few years he named himself Emperor and set out to claim an empire. Over the next ten years, the armies of France under his command fought almost every European power, and acquired control of most of continental Europe by conquest or alliance.The disastrousinvasion of Russia in 1812marked a turning point. The defeat at the Battle of Leipzig the next year was the death knell for the Emperor, and he abdicated the next April after the Allied Coalition invaded France. He was sent in exile to the island of Elba. The next year, he escaped from Elba and marched on Paris, collecting an army as he went. This brief return to power is known as the Hundred Days, but ended definitively with the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. He spent the rest of his life in exile on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821.” (explore a more detailed timeline of Napoleonic Era via the digital collections at the University of Washington)
“The Napoleonic Wars” refer to a series of conflicts throughout Europe between Napoleon and a variety of European coalitions from 1803–1815. Just as World War 1 and World War 2 shaped the collective consciousness and art of the early 20th century, becoming a defining feature of the modernist movement, similarly, the Napoleonic Wars loomed large over the early 19th century and cast long shadows well into the 20th century. No one could give a better recap than high school history teacher Lauren Cella in her “Gen Z History” series on TikTok.
While we might initially think of these conflicts as primarily a European calamity (hundreds of thousands of men dyingover more than a decade of armed conflict across the continent), the truth is that the Napoleonic Wars had significant consequences for the global community. As many of the political power players in Europe could not trade with Napoleon while they were at war, they increasingly turned to their global colonies in the Caribbean, Central and South America, Africa, South Asia, and the South Pacific. Napoleon constantly needed to sustain a huge military, and instituted mass conscription, which was also adopted by other governments. In 1802 he reinstated the slave trade in French colonies, with innumerable geopolitical consequences that fundamentally shaped the region. In 1803, Napoleon sold the Louisiana territory to the United States, which further fueled American colonial expansion and their genocide of Native tribes and exacerbated their ongoing tension with Britain leading up to the War of 1812. Napoleon invaded Spain in 1807, effectively crippling the Spanish government, decimating the Spanish empire’s authority in their South American colonies, and creating a power vacuum that eventually led to a string of nations throughout Central and South America declaring their independence from Spain.
Napoleon was a master propaganda artist, publishing his own newspapers and commissioning a variety of art (from grand portraits to simple cartoons) to maintain control of the political narrative. Many other publications responded in kind. Browse a collection of these political cartoons and caricatures from the digital collection of the University of Washington.
We probably all know about Waterloo (June 18, 1815)– even if just from that catchy ABBA song– where Napoleon’s empire and nearly two decades of constant conflict came to an end. But maybe we don’t know what we thought we knew about the battle…
“The challenge of interpreting Waterloo began almost as soon as the guns fell silent. Napoleon himself published the first French-language account of the battle. Over the succeeding years, his subordinates, acolytes and detractors all put their own accounts to paper – as did his British, German, and Dutch adversaries. The growing European literacy rate not only led to an unprecedented number of witness accounts from soldiers and civilians who had lived through the wars, but also guaranteed a large, engaged audience for published works.” ("Winning and Losing at the Battle of Waterloo," by Lauren Henry)
This is fascinating, especially when we think about the war stories that Thenadier tells– there’s no one to contradict his story of being a hero in the Battle of Waterloo, and the general public is craving stories of heroism and grandeur on the battlefield, which he is happy to embellish for anyone who will listen. It’s also understandable that Marius would have never heard about his father’s exploits on the battlefield, if his grandfather only subscribed to royalist papers and propaganda and actively kept information from Marius. The ways stories are being told and the ways stories are being consumed are changing all the time, and this time period is a fascinating example.
The military men that we meet in Austen’s novels are all connected in some way to the Napoleonic Wars– either engaging in international conflicts, like Frederick Wentworth in the royal navy (Persuasion), or British militia men guarding the homefront from potential invaders, like George Wickham and the officers stationed in Merryton (Pride and Prejudice).
Caroline Bingley offers a snide remark laden with political prejudice: “Apparently Lady __ is redecorating her ballroom in the French style. A little unpatriotic, don’t you think?”
In Mansfield Park we see an aristocratic family who made their fortunes via plantations in Jamaica, profiting from the labor of enslaved people. It’s also suggested that Mr. Bingley (Pride and Prejudice) made his fortune in trade (likely via colonial exploits, considering that European trade was problematic at the time of Napoleon).
One last little treat: “The Dessert That Napoleon Couldn’t Resist” (Ancient Recipes with Sohla El-Waylly on the History Channel). Supposedly this was Napoleon's wedding cake, so who’s to say that this wasn’t the same kind of wedding cake in all our Austen weddings as well? I like to think so. How sweet is that?
I hope knowing a little more about Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars enriches our summer reading together. As always, it’s a joy to read and discuss books with this incredible community.
We’ll be back in your inbox with another newsletter soon! Until then, we declare after all, there is no enjoyment like reading. How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!
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Thanks to Alicia for the deep dive (and y'all for sharing)! When I read Vanity Fair earlier this year, I had to look up Waterloo to remind myself the details (like *ahem* who won!) Knowing more context would've helped immensely!
Thanks to Alicia for the deep dive (and y'all for sharing)! When I read Vanity Fair earlier this year, I had to look up Waterloo to remind myself the details (like *ahem* who won!) Knowing more context would've helped immensely!