Mémoires Du Maréchal Marmont, Duc De Raguse (5/9)

Marshal Auguste Marmont served Napoleon for two decades before betraying him in 1814. These memoirs, written in exile and with the benefit (or curse) of hindsight, are theaccount of a man who witnessed the empire's greatest triumphs and its most catastrophic unraveling.This volume captures the aftermath of the Russian catastrophe: the desperate reorganization of asemi-demoralized army along the Rhine, the formation of the Army of the Mein, and thecampaigns of 1813-1814 that would decide Europe's fate. Marmont writes not as ahagiographer but as a survivor taking stock, injuries festering, glory fading, watching the militarymachine he'd helped build strain under impossible demands. The Battle of Lutzen, the march toward Leipzig, the political machinations of the_final months all receive his gimlet eye. This is primary source history at its most intimate and complicated: the view from inside Napoleon's inner circle as the lights go out.