Does anything remain to be said about Napoleon, the man who has inspired more books than any other figure in history?
Dorothy Carrington suggests that the answer is yes, with her study allowing her to present a new and surprising story of Napoleon’s first sixteen years.
Was Carlo, his father, as futile and incapable as has been supposed?
Was his mother, Letizia, as irreproachably austere?
The answer, told in this book, is no to both. There is more to Napoleon’s parents than when and where they married.
Documents that could have told another tale remained hidden away in Corsican homes and archives, too little known and too fragmentary to discredit the accepted story. And all this time, and till today, an essential source remained unexploited: the Bonaparte family papers, saved from the destruction of their home when they fled Corsica in 1793, and inherited by Prince Louis Napoleon. Access to this invaluable collection has led to a story very different from any hitherto presented; one which, if incomplete, and at moments obscure, is unquestionably closer to what really happened.
Dorothy Carrington reveals Carlo as a militant partisan of Pasquale Paoli, revolutionary leader of independent Corsica, and Letizia as the fashionably-dressed reigning beauty of Paoli’s mountain capital. She shows them fleeing for their lives before the invading army of Louis XV. Then, in record time, they emerge as favourites of the French commander Marbeuf, the most powerful man on the island.
Impecunious and obscure, the Bonaparte successfully attempt to scale the heights of French society. Carlo was as ambitious, in his way, as his famous son. By exploiting their assets, Letizia her looks, Carlo his wit and skill in law, their meagre properties and dubious claims to noble ancestry, they worked as a team with Carlo’s uncle Luciano, a crafty ecclesiastic who preferred litigation to religion.
Did Carlo fake documents to make his way? Or was his success due to Letizia, whom Marbeuf adored? Was Marbeuf the father of their son, Louis? These questions are debatable. Gamblers in life, they invited risks. Carlo’s ascension as courtier-politician took him to Versailles, to the presence of the king; with Letizia he rubbed shoulders with the great of the land. The education he provided for his four eldest children could be said to have been a key part of the Bonaparte story. Carlo died just when Napoleon was about to finish his education; if any man deserved such a son, it was he.
It can also be said that Napoleon deserved such parents. Adventurers? Parvenus? Or simply good parents striving to give their children a better life than theirs?
'Elegant and evocative prose' The Observer
Dorothy Carrington (1910-2002) studied at Oxford University before settling in Corsica where she began a career as a writer. She was known for her award-winning book on her home island, Granite Island, and for her scholarship on one of its revolutionaries, the Corsican liberator Pasquale Paoli). She married the painter Francis Rose, becoming Lady Rose, and was a lecturer and journalist.
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