Defeat: Napoleon's Russian Campaign

(Paperback, Main)

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Philippe-Paul de Segur was an aide-de-camp to Napoleon, privy to the councils of the emperor's inner circle. There he witnessed the debates surrounding the decision to invade Russia in the summer of 1812. The emperor's generals opposed the venture, and even Napoleon entered on it against his better judgment. Nonetheless, Napoleon found the undertaking too tempting to resist. Segur describes the subsequent campaign with a reporter's eye both for the big story and for the telling detail: we witness the march through the long hot days of the summer; the supply lines growing more stretched with every effortless victory; the Grande Armee suffering unanticipated losses; the taking and sacking of Moscow, and its abandonment; the disastrous winter retreat that destroyed Napoleon's army and insured his downfall. Segur's account is to this day one of the greatest military disasters of all time and a masterpiece of military history, providing a vivid and unmistakable lesson about imperial hubris and its risks.

Reviews

"This is War and Peace without the peace and the love interest, and therefore a fraction of the length. But it was Tolstoy's major source: the History of Napoleon and the Grande Arme in 1812, the diaries of Bonaparte's aide de camp, Philippe-Paul, Comte de Sgur, was first published in 1824. Defeat is a reissue of the 1958 translation by the late David Townsend, with an introduction by the journalist and historian Mark Danner...His account of the march on Moscow is a work of reflection and justification as well as narrative, but it still conveys the horror." --London Times

Count de Sgurs famed diary of Napoleons Russian campaign is not just another book about Bonaparte; it is the main source of a thousand schoolbooks, cartoons, legends, sermons and second thoughts for would-be conquerorsSgur wonderfully evokes the opening scenes of the disastrous war[he] was a war chronicler ranking with Herodotus and Bernal Daz. Time magazine

The influence of the work now made available in a new translation, was felt for many years. The giants of literature used it as a source book and as an inspirationIt is still the most vivid account of that apocalyptic disasterits appeal is eternal. The New York Times (June 22, 1958)

The book is valuablea most entertaining and interesting work. The New York Times (June 5th, 1895)

Sgur served throughout the Napoleonic era as an aide-de-camp to the Emperor, becoming a brigadier on the eve of the Russian campaign. His memoirs remain the classic account of the destruction of the Grand Army. Parameters, The US Army War College Quarterly

Military History Appeal: One of the most celebrated debacles in all military history, it is the subject of a brilliant eye-witness accountextremely well writtenFilled with exact observation and filled also with the grief and horror Sgur had personally experienced, it is one of the enduring classics of war memoirs. Its narrative of battles and routs, starvation and panic, is outstanding. Its close-up view of Napoleon vacillating and apprehensive, blundering into defeat, is fascinating. The New York Times (July 25, 1958)

Author Bio

Philippe-Paul de Segur (1780-1873) enlisted in the French cavalry in 1800 and served in many important campaigns and diplomatic missions with Napoleon. During his retirement he wrote the History of the Expedition to Russia Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812, which ran through many editions and was translated into several languages. Mark Danner has written about foreign affairs and American politics for more than two decades. He was for many years a staff writer at The New Yorker and contributes frequently to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications. He teaches at the University of California at Berkeley and at Bard College in New York.