The regal rise of le petit caporal

Ruth Scurr

WITH RETROSPECT, Napoleon claimed that there was a specific moment when he first realised he was superior to other men. It was just after the Battle of Lodi (10 May 1796), when he was leading the French revolutionary army in Italy and his soldiers had affectionately named him the Little Corporal: “I said to myself: I am the one who will end the Revolution.” Inspired by Alexis de Tocqueville, William Doyle offers not a history, but a study of the Consulate, the government of France from 1799 to 1804, that Napoleon dominated as First Consul. Doyle considers Napoleon’s success in healing three major wounds inflicted by the Revolution: war, religious chaos, and the absence of stable and effective executive power. Napoleon, Doyle argues, knew that it was not enough to…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, November 2022

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