The tacking between contradictory polarities also explains Napoleon's
ambiguous political persona. He was deeply committed to the anti
monarchism and the anticlericalism of the French Revolution, yet had a
visceral attraction for the hierarchical order of the ancien regime. Harsh
critics said Napoleon was so keen to get to Corsica on leave in 1791
because he had worked out that his career prospects were better there.
Naturally there is a lot of truth in this, but it is also probable that
Napoleon felt paralysed by the contradictory political impulses afflicting
him in France in 1791 and wanted to escape to Corsica to 'solve' the
dilemma.
Overlaying Corsican culture with the values and ideology of Rousseau
and the Enlightenment was bound to create confusions and contradic
tions. Some point to the conflict between Napoleon's shameless
indulgence of the Bonaparte family and his claim to represent modernity
and reason, and conclude that the extreme irrationality noted above was
the Corsican legacy, with France contributing the Revolutionary cult of
reason. But the contradictions in Napoleon's thought and behaviour
persisted long after he had jettisoned Corsica and all its works, so it may
be that Napoleon's 't raditional' manifestations - the hatred of anarchy,
the fear of the mob, the strong family feeling - simply meant that his
heart was with the ancien regime even if his brain was with the Revolution.
The deepest obstacle to Napoleon as a man of the Revolution always
remained his profound pessimism about human perfectibility and his
conviction that human beings were fundamentally worthless.
The final aspect of the young Napoleon worth dwelling on is a
continuing uncertainty about sexual identity. This part of the early
record is particularly murky. In 1789, at Auxonne, Napoleon is said to
have asked for the hand in marriage of one Manesca Pillet, stepdaughter
of a wealthy timber merchant. Since Napoleon had no worthwhile
prospects at this time and his suit was unlikely to be entertained by a
wealthy bourgeois family, it may be that if such an overture was made, it
was made, unconsciously at least, so that it would be rejected and
Napoleon could continue to regard himself as a perfect Ishmael.
Another puzzling liaison from these early years is the friendship he
allegedly struck up with a Corsican sculptor nine years his senior, Joseph
Ceracchi by name. Certain students of Napoleon, Belloc among them,
have hinted that the relationship was homosexual, and that the young
Bonaparte was therefore fundamentally bisexual in orientation. All we
know for certain is that Ceracchi tried to renew the acquaintance when
Napoleon was famous, that he was rebuffed, turned against his old friend
and was eventually executed for conspiracy in 1802. However, it seems
marcin
(Marcin)
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