Defeat: Napoleon's Russian Campaign

By Philippe-Paul de Ségur, Philippe-Paul SeÌgur, Count Phillippe-Paul De Segur

Book Overview

In the summer of 1812 Napoleon gathered his fearsome Grande Armee, more than half a million strong, on the banks of the Niemen River. He was about to undertake the most daring of all his many campaigns- the invasion of Russia. Meeting only sporadic opposition and defeating it easily along the way, the huge army moved forward, advancing ineluctably on Moscow through the long hot days of summer. On September 14, Napoleon entered the Russian capital, fully anticipating the Czar's surrender. Instead he encountered an eerily deserted city-and silence. The French army sacked the city, and by October, with Moscow in ruins and his supply lines overextended, and with the Russian winter upon him, Napoleon had no choice but to turn back. One of the greatest military debacles of all time had only just begun. In this famous memoir, Philippe-Paul de Segur, a young aide-de-camp to Napoleon, tells the story of the unfolding disaster with the keen eye of a crack reporter and an astute grasp of human character. His book, a fundamental inspiration for Tolstoy's War and Peace , is a masterpiece of military history that teaches an all-too-timely lesson about imperial hubris and its risks.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590172825
• ISBN13: 9781590172827
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The View of Someone Who was There

The life of Philippe de Segur was most amazing. First attracted to the cavalry during a parade in 1800, he joined the French Army. He was to serve (somewhat intermittantly) for the next forty-eight years. He served throughout the years of Napoleon. Mustered out after Waterloo, he was recalled in 1830 advancing to the rank of Lt. General until permanent retirement in 1848. During his life he published several books, of which these Memoirs present a personal insight into Napoleon's personality and character from the view of an insider. This volume of memoirs cover from 1800 to 1812. In it he begins as a private in the army and finishes as a general of a brigade on the march to Russia where 500,000 men started out and only 20,000 lived to return. While the broad outlines of Napoleon's life and battles are well known, here is an inside, intimate view from someone who was there.