English summary: Two hundred years ago, in the night of 20 to 21 April 1808, Louis-Napoleon-the future Napoleon III-was born. The life and legacy of this French emperor still puzzle us: worshipped by some and despised by others, he managed the impossible: to become both the first President of the French Republic and its last monarch. This uncompromising and historically accurate book reveals the multiple facets of this "unloved" figure who propelled France into the modern age from the perspective of the various ...
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English summary: Two hundred years ago, in the night of 20 to 21 April 1808, Louis-Napoleon-the future Napoleon III-was born. The life and legacy of this French emperor still puzzle us: worshipped by some and despised by others, he managed the impossible: to become both the first President of the French Republic and its last monarch. This uncompromising and historically accurate book reveals the multiple facets of this "unloved" figure who propelled France into the modern age from the perspective of the various reconstructions offered by historians. This book is not a biography; its aim is to enable readers to reflect upon the career of a personality who divided the French people and still stirs debate among historians in their attempts to interpret who this "great man" really was. French description: Dans la nuit du 20 au 21 avril 1808, naissait Louis-Napoleon, futur Napoleon III. De cet homme au destin crepusculaire, la posterite a fait un symbole equivoque, associe a la fois a l'emergence de la France moderne, au coup d'Etat contre la Republique et au desastre de 1870. Qualifie a son epoque de petit par le grand Victor Hugo, le souverain n'a pas reussi a gagner les c&oeligurs de ses compatriotes malgre les tentatives de rehabilitation, il appartient a la cohorte des mal-aimes de l'Histoire.C'est oublier que Napoleon III est a l'origine de nombre d'entreprises qui ont modifie durablement non seulement la France, mais le monde: sans lui le projet du canal de Suez, l'unite italienne n'auraient pu aboutir. Sans lui la Roumanie n'existerait peut-etre pas. Sans lui enfin, Paris ne serait pas Paris.Sans complaisance et sans volonte de forcer l'histoire pour lui donner un sens, Lucia Boia revele les multiples facettes de notre dernier empereur, reveur indecis et parfois visionnaire, en les mettant en perspective avec les differentes reconstitutions proposees par les historiens et interroge la notion de grand homme .
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Add this copy of Napoleon III: Le Mal-Aime (Romans, Essais, Poesie, to cart. $103.00, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2008 by Les Belles Lettres.