Conclusion

Abstract

“What a novel my life is!” Napoleon once exclaimed. The irresistible rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte was a drama which captivated, inspired and occasionally revolted the artistic minds of all Europe. Byron wrote poetry about him, Beethoven dedicated and then undedicated a symphony to him. His personal charisma had at times mesmerised both the humble French infantryman and the Tsar of all the Russias himself. Long after his death, he came to represent a Promethean force — Napoleon was the power of individual will and energy over circumstance and the inertia of the world. The universe of the great novelist Balzac, in the 1830s and 1840s, was full of Napoleonic models. Vautrin was the Napoleon of crime, Nucingen the Napoleon of finance, while Balzac himself, in the scope of his creative energy, resembled a Napoleon of the pen.¹