Reviews for Emperor's Friend, Vol. 191

The average rating for Emperor's Friend, Vol. 191 based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-02-08 00:00:00 Frank Pires The book has been the subject of attack by people displeased by a review Margaret Chrisawn wrote about an author they cherish. So there's that. I received a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. I will start by saying that the current price Amazon wants for a copy of The Emperor's Friend is absurd. I'm not sure I would pay even the Kindle edition cost for a personally autographed first edition of the Bible. Lannes is a lesser known marshal of Napoleon's army who was without an English biography until Chrisawn took him on. The result is this engaging but difficult book. It is engaging because Chrisawn clearly lost her heart to Lannes, and difficult because he was not a man with an enormous interior life, so in order to write his biography, Chrisawn turns to a series of profiles of Lannes doing what he did best, i.e. fighting battles. Beginning with his service in the early Franco/Spanish skirmishes`and ending when he was fatally wounded by an Austrian ball after Essling, she chronicles Lannes rapid rise through the ranks through his courage, absolute loyalty to Bonaparte, remarkable military skill and, yes, he really did have it, elan. The battles would be hard to follow without the felicity of Chrisawn's descriptive prose and the fantastic maps courtesy of Max Sewell, which appear on almost every other page (Lannes fought a lot of battles). In addition to these, however, there are laugh-out-loud characterizations of almost everyone with whom Lannes dealt, some from the horse's mouth: Lannes on Joseph Bonaparte: "Napoleon better not put Joseph under my orders because I'd arrest him the first time he made a mistake", an unflattering assessment that did not prevent Joseph from admiring accounts of Lannes in his memoirs; on Talleyrand, "a piece of shit in a silk stocking"; on an army surgeon in Syria who was ineffectually trying to treat Lannes after he was shot in the neck, "leave me alone --- I'm not dead yet", and many others --- and some from Chrisawn's able pen: "Louise did not object to her blind date for life, or at least no one said that she did" takes care of Lannes' second wife. Her translations of Lannes' actual speech bring the man sharply alive. He is profane, to the point and upon occasion, very funny. Not witty --- Lannes wasn't that kind of guy --- but he could be funny and coarsely to the point. What makes the book particularly useful is the reality it presents of Napoleon's generals and the atmosphere of the Directory, Consulate and Empire. We have a tendency to view these things through the hindsight of history, frozen in place by the kinds of narratives that substitute asterisks for letters in curse words and make war of the period sound like the stately movement of armies. Chrisawn gives us a gamut of characters, from parvenus to snooty British ambassadors --- her account of Lannes brief tenure as the representative of the Republic to the Court of Lisbon is hilarious, as Lannes' bull in a china shop approach to the diplomatic niceties both succeeds brilliantly and pisses off the Brits --- to the Emperor himself. One of the reasons that Bonaparte and Lannes understood each other so well is that they came from roughly the same social and economic background, one that left each man determined to make his way as best and as far as he could with the resources at his disposal --- courage and a brutal, clear-eyed realism about the way the world of revolutionary France functioned. And if the results occasionally look like a haphazard mess in Chrisawn's excellent biography? Well, they frequently were, right down to the musket ball that finally killed Lannes. By that time I had lost track of the sheer number of times the man had been wounded, and was genuinely surprised that he couldn't avoid death one more time. He was a rogue and a hero, and it amazes me that someone hasn't made a movie of Lannes' life. It would have been a great part for Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power. Surely there is someone who can play him these days?

Review # 2 was written on 2014-08-12 00:00:00 Christopher Lawson In her acknowledgements, the author of this book, who is known to me, called this book (quote), "nonfiction on an obscure subject"(end of quote). Indeed, I had never heard of Marshal Jean Lannes before this book came to my attention. As a noncommissioned officer (NCO) in the US Army during the 80's and 90's (post-Vietnam era, Cold War soldier), there was no need for me to know about this gentleman. I obtained a free sample to use for this review from Amazon Kindle. I also used a free sample from Google books. The price of this book puts it outside of my purchase ability. This review is voluntary. I wasn't asked to write this review by the author. I write on my own personal initiative. Firstly, other reviewers have indicated that the author is a talented and dedicated researcher, but somewhat lacking in other skills. All of this, however, must take a backseat to her ability to present a historically accurate text in a convincing manner. I draw your attention to that fundamental question here. Is this book convincing? To answer, a qualified military opinion is enlightening. I turn to the written comments of Major Michael A. Boden, an operations observer/controller at the Combat Maneuver and Training Center at Hohenfels Training Area in Germany. Major Boden is a former assistant professor of history at the US. Military Academy. At the time of writing (2003), he was a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and a Ph.D. candidate in history at Vanderbilt University. He served during the Gulf War in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait with the 1st (Tiger) Brigade, 2d Armored Division, and in Kosovo during 2002 as Executive Officer (XO) of the 1st Battalion, 77th Armor. Writing in "Army History Magazine," (the Professional Bulletin of Army History) in the Summer-Fall 2003 issue, he concluded his book review by saying: (quote)"In the final analysis, this is a study of Jean Lannes, French marshal and advance-guard commander extraordinaire. The focus remains throughout on his personality and leadership style and how Lannes applied himself to and executed his duties as a soldier of France. Chrisawn's research is excellent, her writing crisp, and her conclusions solid. The text is augmented by a better set of maps than most historical works possess, which only adds to the project. This is an excellent book and should serve as the foundation for any secondary research on Jean Lannes for the foreseeable future." (end of quote) I concur with this conclusion, based in part on my own military service of over 14 years, which also afforded me several opportunities to participate in military training exercises at Hohenfels, Vilseck and Grafenwoehr, Germany. To conclude, I provide a compelling anecdote that captured my attention. It is taken from Chapter 7: Revanche on a Grand Scale: Jena 1806. ""Lannes reached Paris before Christmas...He did not spend much time in Paris in case Napoleon had plans for him. Instead, he went to Lectoure...Lannes refused the invitations that he received, including one from Napoleon... "Tell the emperor I'll obey him on the battlefield, but not now-I'm on leave,"... Evidently Napoleon...left hm alone." (end of quote) Makes you want to know more about Marshal Jean Lannes, "The Emperor's Friend", doesn't it? Get this book if it does... Reviewed by Thomas Jerome Baker Author of Boudicca: Her Story