J. Christopher Herold vigorously tells the story of the fierce Madame de Stael, revealing her courageous opposition to Napoleon, her whirlwind affairs with the great intellectuals of her day, and her idealistic rebellion against all that was cynical, tyrannical, and passionless.Germaine de Stael's father was Jacques Necker, the finance minister to Louis XVI, and her mother ran an influecntial literary-political salon in Paris. Always precocious, at nineteen Germaine married the Swedish ambassador to France, Eric Magnus Baron de Stael-Holstein, and in 1785 took over her mother's salon with...
J. Christopher Herold vigorously tells the story of the fierce Madame de Stael, revealing her courageous opposition to Napoleon, her whirlwind affairs...
The French expedition to Egypt, which Bonaparte launched in 1798, was one of the most exciting, harrowing, futile, and yet most fruitful adventures in modern times. Although the expedition was doomed, and almost everyone in it had only one wish-to go home-the impact of the three years of French occupation left a lasting mark on Egypt. The book is crowded with dramatic episodes. We see the French, without supplies, crossing the desert in midsummer and, without a rest, fighting the Battle of the Pyramids. We witness the glories and horrors of the Battle of the Nile, the uprising of Cairo, the...
The French expedition to Egypt, which Bonaparte launched in 1798, was one of the most exciting, harrowing, futile, and yet most fruitful adventures in...