Skip to main content

Napoleon, Ch. 21 Wagram

Extraordinary horseman--600 miles in six days to check on his army--leaving Spain and returning to Paris to put together a new army to put down Austria.

Enormous size of army:  230,000 troops called up to join nearly 500,000 troops.

Austria at war.  Tsar Alexander, supposed to be an ally of Napoleon, sends troops to fight Austria, but the troops make no effort to engage. Two casualties in the entire campaign! N. furious.

Some of the troops fighting the Austrians (Bavarians, for example) fought without a single French soldier in their company.  Tremendous belief in Napoleon as leader and as bringer of a more just society.

Napoleon, outside the walls of Vienna, looks up to see Viennese citizens looking down at him.  When they recognize him, they cheer.  Amazing--their country is at war with him.  The same thing happened at Brandenburg. Napoleon rode around to cheering for 30 minutes.

Crossing the Danube to fight the Austrians:  "Through intense planning & preparation, Napoleon got this enormous polyglot force, roughly the same number as attacked Normandy on D-Day, across one of Europe's largest rivers into enemy territory in a single night, with all its horses, cannon, wagons, supplies and ammunition, and without losing a single man. "

Able to sleep on a battlefield with 700 cannon firing--Austria defeated.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, continued 2/3rds

"To all humankind, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends, she was only a frequently passing thought." Angel Clare is a good character. He's "enlightened," in so many ways, but when Tess's confesses her "crime," he reverts to ancestral form . . . Tess's "confession" comes earlier than I expected, right after Angel reveals that he has had a bad moment with a woman. Tess points out the similarity in their transgressions, though his is the only true transgression, expecting forgiveness. She doesn't get it. She returns to her mother . . . realizes she can't stay with her. Thoughts to suicide. Unhappiness that divorce is not possible. Departs. Tragic in that the two, if Angel could just see clearly, would indeed be a great couple, each adding to the other.  Nature as a definite force involved in the tragedy.  It's not neutral--when things go bad, the very skies mock Tess. Tess as unaware of the power of her bea...

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin . . . finished

 Follows Sadie and Sam (Mazer) from childhood to mid-thirties when both are feeling old and a bit out of it in the gaming world.  Characters are well-rounded, develop throughout the novel in interesting way.  Plot is involved but sensible.  Not a single, "Oh, come on!" moment.  The book could have been faster paced. Odd, since the main topic is video games which are not for their speed of engagement and Gabrielle Zevin clearly knows her video games. Recommended by Michael Connelly in an interview.  He also has Bosch pick up the book in his novel, Resurrection Walk, as Bosch tails a possible witness to a crime as she moves through a bookstore. Sadie and Sam do not get together at the end, which is good.   Marx killed by homophobic nutcase who really wants to kill Sam, but Sam isn't there. Marx is father of Sadie's child.