Talleyrand and Madame de Stael are important characters in
Napoleon's story. Biographies of Talleyrand include Jean Orieux,
Talleyrand (Paris 1970); G. Lacour-Gayet, Talleyrand, 4 vols (Paris
1934); A. Duff Cooper, Talleyrand (1932). These can be supplemented by
his Memoires, ed. de Broglie (1892) and the Correspondance, ed. Pallain
(Paris 1891). To a large extent all existing biographies have been eclipsed
by the exhaustive three-volume life by Michel Poniatowski, of which the
relevant volume for these years is Talleyrand et le Directoire (Paris 1982).
Germaine de Stael has also attracted biographers, as with Christopher ].
Herold, Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Staiil (NY 1958); Henri
Guillemin, Madame de Staiil, Benjamin Constant et Napoleon (Paris 1959).
The continuing saga of Josephine is best followed in the works of the
memoir writers, especially Abrantes, Remusat, Miot de Melito, Mar
mont, Barras, Bourrienne and Antoine Arnault, Memoires d'un Sexagen
aire (Paris 1833). The classic work for Napoleon's invasion schemes is the
multi-volume work by E. Desbrieres, Projets et Tentatives de debarquement
aux fles britanniques, 17 93-I8os (Paris 1912 ). This can be supplemented
on the British side by Norman Longmate, Island Fortress. The Defence of
Great Britain I60J-I 945 (1991). Hoche is dealt with in Albert Sorel,
Bonaparte et Hoche en 1797 (Paris 1897). Hoche's one-time comrade
Wolfe Tone has also attracted many biographies of which the most recent
is Marianne Elliott, WolfeTone (1989).CHAPTER NINENobody can write about Napoleon's time in Egypt without consulting the
massive study by C. de la Jonquiere, L 'expedition de l'Egypte, 5 vols (Paris
I90o-- 1907). Indispensable too is Jean-Joel Bregeon, L 'Egypte fran(aise au
jour le jour, 179 8-I8oi (Paris 1991). The Egyptian adventure is so
compelling by its mixture of the rational and the irrational that it has
always been a favourite subject for historians. So, among a host of
volumes one might mention Jean Thiry, Bonaparte en Egypte (Paris 1973);
].C. Herold, Bonaparte in Egypt (1963); Michael Barthorp, Napoleon's
Egyptian Campaigns, 179 8-I80I (1978); ]. Bainville, Bonaparte en Egypte
(Paris 1936); F. Charles-Roux, Bonaparte: Governor of Egypt (1937).
On Napoleon's 'Oriental complex' the following are indispensable:
Jacques Benoist-Mechin, Bonaparte en Egypte et le reve inassouvi (Paris
1966); G. Spillman, Napoleon et !'Islam (1969); Henri d'Estre, Bonaparte,
le mirage oriental, L 'Egypte (Paris 1946 ); Pierre V endryes, De Ia probabilite
en histoire, l'exemple de !'expedition d'Egypte (Paris 1952); also the classic
study by Emile Bourgeois in Manuel de politique etrangere, vol. 2 (Paris