The Battle (novel)
Encyclopedia
The Battle is a historical novel
by the French author Patrick Rambaud
that was first published in 1997. The English translation by Will Hobson appeared in 2000. The book describes the 1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling
between the French Empire
under Napoleon and the Austrian Empire
. The action in the novel follows closely historical observations and descriptions as seen from the French perspective. La Bataille is the first book of a trilogy
by Rambaud about the decline of Napoleon, describing his first personal defeat in a European battle; the other two books cover Napoleon’s defeat in Russia in The Retreat
and his banishment at Elba
in Napoleon’s Exile.
In the War of the Fifth Coalition
Austria and Great Britain sought to reduce French dominance on the continent. Napoleon, however, succeeded militarily in Southern Germany and entered Vienna
on May 13, 1809. The main Austrian army under
Archduke Charles
retreated to the eastern shore of the Danube
. Napoleon chose to cross the Danube south of Vienna at the Lobau
island. He directed the construction of a pontoon bridge
to cross to the eastern side where he occupied the villages of Aspern
and Essling
(today part of Vienna).
On May 21–22, 1809 Austrian forces attacked the French foothold and beat them back. Their success was in part due to their ability to break the bridge and disrupt Napoleon’s attempts to bring reinforcements across the river. The two-day battle was very costly with over 40,000 fatalities. It was the first personal defeat of Napoleon in a European battlefield. He recovered, however, and was able to beat the Austrian army at Wagram
in July and subsequently dictated his conditions at Treaty of Schönbrunn
.
". Historical notes are attached.
The narration picks up the action in Vienna on May 16, 1809 and introduces colonel Louis-François Lejeune, a professional soldier and officer of the General Staff; he and Napoleon are the pivotal characters of the novel. As a liaison officer, Lejeune has access to Napoleon and his entourage. Napoleon is shown "as a foul-mouthed, callous bully, driven by vanity and detested even by his closest comrades." The book describes Napoleon's preparations for the battle, his hasty and ultimately disastrous decision to build a pontoon bridge
across the raging Danube, and his often tense relationship with his subordinates, among them André Masséna
, Pierre Daru, Jean-Baptiste Bessières
, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Jean Boudet
, Jean-Baptiste Marbot, and the fatally wounded Jean Lannes
. The two-day battle is described in gory detail, including the mass murder of hundreds of prisoners. Lejeune’s friend is Henry Beyle, later known as Stendhal
, who, afflicted with syphilis
, remains in Vienna as an observer; they both have a common love interest in Anna Krauss, an Austrian woman.
who in the 1830s made notes and preparations for a novel La Bataille in which he intended to describe the Battle of Aspern-Essling. He visited the battlefield in 1835. Balzac wrote to his future wife that he wanted to depict the battle with "all the horrors and all the beauties" so that the reader felt himself to be present in it. The work was never completed. Rambaud suggests that Balzac was interested in this particular battle as here the "nature of war" changed. Not only did the battle damage Napoleon's prestige, but afterwards nationalistic movements started to develop all over Europe. The Battle of Aspern-Essling gives a glimpse of the senseless horrors and slaughters of wars to come.
Paradis and the brutal cuirassier
Fayonne are contrasting representative characters, and Anna Krauss, the love interest of Lejeune and Beyle, is a fictional person; also, the friendship between Lejeune and Stendhal is an artistic device. Friedrich Staps
attempted to kill Napoleon not in May but on October 12, 1809.
—and that the love affair was "weak". Anna Mundow found the novel "astonishing" with excellent distillation of the historical events, while Jeff Waggoner complained that the novel was short on characterization.
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
by the French author Patrick Rambaud
Patrick Rambaud
Patrick Rambaud is a French writer.-Life:With Michel-Antoine Burnier, he wrote forty pastiches, .They wrote Le Journalisme sans peine ....
that was first published in 1997. The English translation by Will Hobson appeared in 2000. The book describes the 1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling
Battle of Aspern-Essling
In the Battle of Aspern-Essling , Napoleon attempted a forced crossing of the Danube near Vienna, but the French and their allies were driven back by the Austrians under Archduke Charles...
between the French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
under Napoleon and the Austrian Empire
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
. The action in the novel follows closely historical observations and descriptions as seen from the French perspective. La Bataille is the first book of a trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
by Rambaud about the decline of Napoleon, describing his first personal defeat in a European battle; the other two books cover Napoleon’s defeat in Russia in The Retreat
The Retreat (novel)
The Retreat is a historic novel by the French author Patrick Rambaud that was first published in 2000. The English translation by Will Hobson appeared in 2004....
and his banishment at Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
in Napoleon’s Exile.
Historical background
War of the Fifth Coalition
The War of the Fifth Coalition, fought in the year 1809, pitted a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria. Major engagements between France and Austria, the main participants, unfolded over much of Central Europe from April to July, with...
Austria and Great Britain sought to reduce French dominance on the continent. Napoleon, however, succeeded militarily in Southern Germany and entered Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
on May 13, 1809. The main Austrian army under
Archduke Charles
Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen was an Austrian field-marshal, the third son of emperor Leopold II and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain...
retreated to the eastern shore of the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
. Napoleon chose to cross the Danube south of Vienna at the Lobau
Lobau
The Lobau is a Vienna floodplain on the northern side of the Danube and partly in Großenzersdorf, Lower Austria. It has been part of the Danube-Auen National Park since 1996 and has been a protected area since 1978. It is used as a recreational area and is known as a site of nudism. There is...
island. He directed the construction of a pontoon bridge
Pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
to cross to the eastern side where he occupied the villages of Aspern
Aspern
Aspern is part of Donaustadt, the 22nd district of Vienna.In 1904, the formerly independent village was incorporated into Vienna as part of the 21st district, Floridsdorf. Only in 1946 did it become part of the newly created 22nd district, Donaustadt. The area is known because of the Battle of...
and Essling
Essling
Essling is part of Donaustadt, the 22nd district of Vienna.The area is known because of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, which was fought nearby on May 21 and May 22, 1809....
(today part of Vienna).
On May 21–22, 1809 Austrian forces attacked the French foothold and beat them back. Their success was in part due to their ability to break the bridge and disrupt Napoleon’s attempts to bring reinforcements across the river. The two-day battle was very costly with over 40,000 fatalities. It was the first personal defeat of Napoleon in a European battlefield. He recovered, however, and was able to beat the Austrian army at Wagram
Battle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram was the decisive military engagement of the War of the Fifth Coalition. It took place on the Marchfeld plain, on the north bank of the Danube. An important site of the battle was the village of Deutsch-Wagram, 10 kilometres northeast of Vienna, which would give its name to the...
in July and subsequently dictated his conditions at Treaty of Schönbrunn
Treaty of Schönbrunn
The Treaty of Schönbrunn , sometimes known as the Treaty of Vienna, was signed between France and Austria at the Schönbrunn Palace of Vienna on 14 October 1809. This treaty ended the Fifth Coalition during the Napoleonic Wars...
.
The book
The book has seven chapters, the first two cover the days prior to the battle, four chapters deal with the day and night of each of the two days of the battle, and the last one with the immediate aftermath of the "hecatombHecatomb
In Ancient Greece, a Hecatomb was a sacrifice to the gods of 100 cattle . Hecatombs were offered to Greek gods Apollo, Athena, and Hera, during special religious ceremonies....
". Historical notes are attached.
The narration picks up the action in Vienna on May 16, 1809 and introduces colonel Louis-François Lejeune, a professional soldier and officer of the General Staff; he and Napoleon are the pivotal characters of the novel. As a liaison officer, Lejeune has access to Napoleon and his entourage. Napoleon is shown "as a foul-mouthed, callous bully, driven by vanity and detested even by his closest comrades." The book describes Napoleon's preparations for the battle, his hasty and ultimately disastrous decision to build a pontoon bridge
Pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge or floating bridge is a bridge that floats on water and in which barge- or boat-like pontoons support the bridge deck and its dynamic loads. While pontoon bridges are usually temporary structures, some are used for long periods of time...
across the raging Danube, and his often tense relationship with his subordinates, among them André Masséna
André Masséna
André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
, Pierre Daru, Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières
Jean-Baptiste Bessières, 1st Duc d' Istria was a Marshal of France of the Napoleonic Era. His younger brother, Bertrand, followed in his footsteps and eventually became a Divisional General...
, Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Jean Boudet
Jean Boudet
Jean Boudet was a French général de division of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The campaigns in which he was involved include the Saint-Domingue expedition...
, Jean-Baptiste Marbot, and the fatally wounded Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, was a Marshal of France. He was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals. Napoleon once commented on Lannes: "I found him a pygmy and left him a giant"...
. The two-day battle is described in gory detail, including the mass murder of hundreds of prisoners. Lejeune’s friend is Henry Beyle, later known as Stendhal
Stendhal
Marie-Henri Beyle , better known by his pen name Stendhal, was a 19th-century French writer. Known for his acute analysis of his characters' psychology, he is considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism in his two novels Le Rouge et le Noir and La Chartreuse de Parme...
, who, afflicted with syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
, remains in Vienna as an observer; they both have a common love interest in Anna Krauss, an Austrian woman.
Balzac's "La Bataille"
The novel is based on a concept by Honoré de BalzacHonoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....
who in the 1830s made notes and preparations for a novel La Bataille in which he intended to describe the Battle of Aspern-Essling. He visited the battlefield in 1835. Balzac wrote to his future wife that he wanted to depict the battle with "all the horrors and all the beauties" so that the reader felt himself to be present in it. The work was never completed. Rambaud suggests that Balzac was interested in this particular battle as here the "nature of war" changed. Not only did the battle damage Napoleon's prestige, but afterwards nationalistic movements started to develop all over Europe. The Battle of Aspern-Essling gives a glimpse of the senseless horrors and slaughters of wars to come.
Historical accuracy
Rambaud studied French sources closely and follows the battle with accuracy. The main characters are based on real people with few exceptions. The gentle fusilierFusilier
Fusilier was originally the name of a soldier armed with a light flintlock musket called the fusil. The word was first used around 1680, and has later developed into a regimental designation.-History:...
Paradis and the brutal cuirassier
Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights...
Fayonne are contrasting representative characters, and Anna Krauss, the love interest of Lejeune and Beyle, is a fictional person; also, the friendship between Lejeune and Stendhal is an artistic device. Friedrich Staps
Friedrich Staps
Friedrich Staps was an attempted assassin on Napoleon during the negotiations at Schönbrunn.-Biography:He was a son of a pastor and became a merchant, working at Erfurt and Leipzig...
attempted to kill Napoleon not in May but on October 12, 1809.
Reception
It is generally acknowledged that the battle has been well researched and described vividly; the novel received prestigious awards. There is some critique that the viewpoint was strictly from the French side—although it could be argued that not knowing the other side is a realistic presentation of the fog of warFog of war
The fog of war is a term used to describe the uncertainty in situation awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign...
—and that the love affair was "weak". Anna Mundow found the novel "astonishing" with excellent distillation of the historical events, while Jeff Waggoner complained that the novel was short on characterization.