Napoleon: A Biography

SOURCES

CHAPTER ONE

The most fundamental work for Napoleon's early life is F. Masson & G.
Piaggi, Napoleon Inconnu, papiers inedits I76<;t-I79 3 (Paris 1895), a
priceless collection of primary sources. This can now be supplemented by
the brilliant monograph by Dorothy Carrington, Napoleon's Parents
(1988), based on an exhaustive trawl through Corsican sources. H.
Larrey, Madame Mere (Paris 1892) contains invaluable recollections by
Letizia. Joseph Bonaparte, Memoires et correspondance politique et militaire
du roi Joseph, ed. A. du Casse, 10 vols (Paris 1855) has to be approached
with circumspection in general but can be relied on in the main for the
early years. The memoirs of Antommarchi, Montholon and others from
the St Helena period are examples of Napoleon the mythmaker at work
but yield nuggets for the early life when used with caution and buttressed
by other sources. See especially Fran�Yois Antommarchi, Memoires du
docteur F. Antommarchi, ou les derniers moments de Napoleon, 2 vols (Paris
1825)
Of the secondary works, A. Chuquet, LaJeunesse de Napoleon (Paris
1897-99) is outstanding. Also worth taking on board are T. Nasica,
Memoires sur l'enfonce et Iajeunesse de Napoleon (Paris 1852), P. Bartel, La
Jeunesse Inedite de Napoleon (Paris I954), A. Decaux, Napoleon's Mother
(1962), J.B. Marcaggi, La Genese de Napoleon (I902), M. Mirtil, Napoleon
d'Ajaccio (I947) C. lung, Bonaparte et son temps I76<;t-I799, 3 vols
(I 88o-8 I), though all of these contain serious errors.
On Corsica two important contemporary sources are J.J. Rousseau, Du
Contrat Social (1762) and James Boswell, An Account of Corsica, the
Journal of a Tour to that Island and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli (I768). Cf.
also Frederick Pottle, James Boswell, The Earlier Years (1966). G. Feydel,
Memoires et Coutumes des Gorses (1799) is good on the vendetta. Daily life
is well summed up in Paul Arrighi, La vie quotidienne en Corse au I 8' siecle
(Paris I970). For Paoli and the complex politics of eighteenth-century
Corsica, Dorothy Carrington, Sources de l'Histoire de Ia Corse au Public