Napoleonic Literature
The Memoirs of Baron de Marbot - Volume I
Translator's Preface

This English version of what is in some respects the most interesting book that has appeared in France--or for that matter in either country--for a generation must be taken for what it is, namely, an attempt to convey some of the interest of this work to English readers who do not read French fluently. Owing to circumstances not necessary to specify here, the work was entrusted to a translator whose principal qualifications were a fair knowledge of French, and just enough acquaintance with French military terms to be aware that brigadier does not mean a brigadier, nor maréchal de camp a field-marshal. Further, the different conditions of the book- market in England and France made it impossible to render the 1,200 and odd pages of the original in their entirety; and consequently the whole work, except the most exciting episodes, has had to be somewhat condensed, and several passages reduced to little more than abstracts. These last are indicated by brackets. The book has been less injured than some would be by this treatment--for 'style' was not General Marbot's forte. He tells his stories (and excellent stories they are) quite intelligibly, and with the most engaging good faith, but with a decided excess of relative clauses. On the other hand, it has been thought expedient to preserve, as far as possible, the colloquial turns of phrase which abound, and give the recital much of its freshness. Whether it be that a good deal of the book was composed by the process of copying notes made at the moment, or that the author, as he wrote, identified himself with his former self to the point of adapting his diction to the period of his life which he happened to be recording, it is certainly noticeable that these colloquialisms are much less frequent in the later portions of the book. In fact, from the beginning of the Russian campaign and his own promotion to the command of a regiment, a curious accession of seriousness is to be remarked, and at last a tone of positive bitterness when the enemies of France are mentioned. No doubt the recollection of that time was enough to inspire seriousness, and even occasional bitterness, in the tone of any Frenchman who had taken part in its events.

On the whole, the author's fairness is very conspicuous. Though attached to Napoleon, he is by no means a blind partisan, and when he thinks the Emperor in the wrong, does not scruple to say so. When, as in the case of Napoleon's conduct towards Prince Hatzfeld, or his treatment of Hofer, we miss any impression of the reprobation with which most honest men regard those deeds, it is clearly because General Marbot only knew the versions current in France. He was not writing history, still less criticism; nor does he, as a rule, lay any claim to special knowledge in regard to matters which did not fall under his personal observation. For this reason it has been thought worth while to depart from the course usually and rightly followed in the case of translations, and to append an occasional note to statements which seem at variance with the facts as established after investigation of evidence by professed historians (and that even in cases where Marbot's evidence ought probably to be accepted), most of all in those portions of the story which are especially likely to interest English readers. That these notes may now and then have been prompted by a feeling akin to that which made Dr. Johnson object to 'letting the Whig dogs have the best of it' the translator is not concerned to deny. If so, it is a tribute to the interest of the book. It should here be mentioned that in the first volume the notes are practically all due to the translator. In the second volume, where the French editors have annotated more freely, he has distinguished his own additions by brackets. Where names have been suppressed by the French editors it has been felt that any attempt to supply them would hardly be in good taste.

As to the question which has been raised in some quarters with regard to the genuineness of the Memoirs, it will suffice to say that there are persons of the highest authority who were acquainted with General Marbot, saw the Memoirs in MS. during his lifetime, and vouch for the virtual identity of the book as now published with what they then saw. Its genuineness once established, it is hardly possible to doubt that it is a faithful record. There is sincerity in every line of it. With an utter absence of anything like swagger, there is no pretence of self- depreciation. Whether in his younger days Marbot performs some daring feat of arms, or, in a more responsible position saves his regiment by his own good management from some of the worst miseries of the Russian retreat, he knows that what he did is creditable to him, and does not mind, in a modest way, taking credit for it. When his services are recognised, his delight is childlike; '0'était un des plus beaux de ma vie' is almost a refrain, at least in the first half of the book; when the promised reward is delayed, he makes no affectation of indifference. The boyish countenance which he seems to have borne, even at thirty years old, is the outward sign of a boyish temperament, using the word in its best sense and in no way so as to detract from the type of an almost ideal soldier such as the book presents to us, the soldier who--

But the book needs no introduction to English readers. Since its appearance in France, more than half a year ago, many notices of it have appeared, in our reviews and magazines, from the pens of approved men of letters, and must have made many, even of those who do not read French with ease, desirous of its further acquaintance. To some at least of these it is hoped that the present version may be of service.

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