The French have a certain respect and reverence for intellectuals which is quite new to me. That people can be labelled “Intellectuals” as if it were a career choice is surprising.
Quite recently I watched one of these Intellectuals in conversation on the television and being treated with great respect by the interviewer. It occured to me that, if I were ever to pretend to start understanding the French I should perhaps read some words of wisdom from one of their sages. The man in question was Jean d’Ormesson, here is a section of his discription on wikipedia:
“Jean d’Ormesson was born in Paris in 1925. His father was André Lefèvre, Marquis of Ormesson, French ambassador to Brazil. Wladimir d’Ormesson (1888–1973), ambassador to the Vatican, was his uncle.
He was admitted to the École normale supérieure and passed the philosophy agrégation. He later became Secretary-General of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies at UNESCO and the director of the French newspaper Le Figaro from 1974 to 1979.
On October 18, 1973, he was elected a member of the Académie française, taking seat 12, following the death of Jules Romains. On the death of Claude Lévi-Strauss on October 30, 2009, he became the Dean of the Académie, its longest-serving member. He is also a Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. In 2010, he was awarded the Ovid Prize,Romania, in recognition of his body of work and he is Commander of the Order of the Southern Cross of Brazil.”
Well our friend Jean was certainly no slouch when it came to intellectual achievements and seemed a good place to start.
I trawled through the books of his which which had been translated and which I hoped were short (and cheap) enough for my digestion. The one I plumped for was from 2013 and called “The Conversation”. It was an imaginary conversation between Napoleon and his second consul, a man called Cambaceres, who came from our neck of the woods the Herault.
It is set in the winter of 1803-1804. It is subtitled “The night Napoleon changed the world”
I picked it up this afternoon at 1.00 and finished it one hour later.
It turned out to be a total page turner and I loved every word.
It describes when one of the most brilliant leaders of all time, a totally self made man got entrapped with his own ambition which ultimately led to his downfall.
Here is a piece when he begins to show his true colours, having described how he will conquer all of Europe- Russia and England included- he says:
“My dreams go further than the borders of Europe. I will march on Damascus and Aleppo, I will liberate Syria, I will chase the English from the Levant and threaten them in India. I will overturn the Turk Empire and take Constantinople…..and found a great new Empire thet will secure my place in history”
Brilliant stuff ! And of course it does make you think that he same Napoleon, had he been able to control his own lust for personal power, could well have achieved all of this.