Excerpt from Memoirs to Serve for the History of Napoleon I: From 1802 to 1815 The omelette, then, having been finished, somehow or other, there remained the important operation of tossing it. Napoleon wanted to do this himself; but he had thought himself cleverer than he was, and just as he was trying to toss the omelette there happened to him what happened to the great Condé, who accord ing to Gourville wished to' make an omelette at an inn, where he had stopped, and pitched it into the fire when trying to turn it. Napoleon did not succeed any better, and let the omelette fall on the ground. He was then obliged to confess his want Of experience, and left the Empress to go on with her cooking alone. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte is a biographical account based on years of intimate friendship and professional association of the author with Napoleon. Bourrienne, the author of this memoir met Bonaparte at the Military Academy at Brienne in Champagne when eight years old. His book gives a vivid, intimate, detailed account of his interactions with Napoleon and his mother, brothers and sisters, with his first wife Joséphine de Beauharnais and her children. His narrative is invigorated by many dialogues, not only of those in which he was a speaker but even of conversations that he only was told about by others. As an author, Bourrienne tired to put his friendship with Napoleon aside and to be balanced. He gives many examples of Napoleon's brilliance, his skill at governance, and his deft political maneuvers, while deploring his inexorable grabs for personal and familial power and wealth, his willingness to sacrifice French lives, and his abhorrence of a free press.

Excerpt from Memoirs to Serve for the History of Napoleon I, Vol. 2: From 1802 to 1815 General Clarke, who followed the Emperor in this campaign with me, was appointed governor of Vienna. He was entrusted with several missions abroad after this campaign, and his post as Secretary to the Cabinet remained as unoccupied as the second post. The assistance which it had been the Emperor's intention to give me was accordingly only an illusory one. Another year passed without any change being made in the work in the cabinet. I repeated my application to Napoleon to obtain an assistant. What I needed above all was to be relieved of the care of the papers which had to be classified after having been answered. The multiplicity of my occupations prevented me from keeping these papers in sufficiently good order to be able to find any draft of a letter or a despatch which the Emperor might want to see at a moment's notice. Napoleon avoided satisfying my request for some time longer, either by making promises which he did not keep, or on various pretexts. He used to urge me to get married, assuring me that he would arrange my work in such a manner that I should get some rest. Various matches were proposed to me by him and the Empress Josephine, including a lady who was one of her relations, and whom she obliged me to call upon at her house. But at that time I did not feel any vocation for marriage. Besides, I was determined that if I ever did make up my mind to get married I would choose my own wife. As a matter of fact, more than two years passed before I contracted the irrevocable bonds, the solemnity of which so impressed me. Seeing that the Emperor put off keeping his promise every day, I became discouraged and fell ill, as much from worry as from overwork. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.