MEMOIRS OF SERGEANT BOURGOGNE
(1812-1813)
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION, FROM THE
FRENCH ORIGINAL EDITED BY
PAUL COTTIN
AND
MAURICE HÉNAULT
With a Frontispiece. 8vo, cloth. Price 6s.
The Review of Reviews.—"All imaginative pictures drawn by authors in an attempt to depict war as it really is sink into insignificance beside this actual record of a soldier's daily experience in the rearguard of the Army of Moscow. The Peace Societies could desire no more effective literature, and, if they are wise, will do all they can to promote the sale of this book."
The Times.—"A vivid narrative of Napoleon's ill-starred Russian campaign as viewed from the ranks. Bourgogne was a shrewd soldier, imbued with the national worship of Napoleon, experienced in the wars of the Empire, and endowed with a rare narrative power. The dramatic and tragic incidents with which his pages abound are full of attraction."
The Pall Mall Gazette.—"Bourgogne is, so to speak, the small-change for De Ségur—the vernacular of that classic. The Brigadier-General on the Staff tells you what the retreat from Moscow looked like. The Sergeant of the Guard was in a position to tell you what it felt like. Moreover, the Sergeant happens to be an impressionist of the convincing sort. He not only makes you see what he saw, but he perfectly persuades you that he saw it. So it is that the true inwardness of the ghastly débacle is shown up to you with a new vividness by the ingenuous sidelights this literary non-com. has cast upon it."
The Morning Post.—"These Memoirs are well written, full of interest, and abound in dramatic situations. They have, moreover, the recommendation of being admirably rendered into English, and read almost like an English work."
Literature.—"Ségur tells the story of the disastrous retreat from the officer's point of view. Now we have the narrative of the soldier in the ranks. Ségur was a man of culture. Bourgogne was not always sure of his spelling. Yet the sergeant's story is the more vivid of the two. He was no littérateur, yet his book, for intensity of feeling, minuteness of description, even lucidity of style, will vie with any romance of war."
The Illustrated London News.—"No adventure-story ever written approaches in interest the appalling account of the retreat from Moscow given by Sergeant Bourgogne in his Memoirs. Poe himself could not invent horrors more ghastly, nor describe them more graphically."
The Daily Chronicle.—"Verily this is a human document of the most terrible and engrossing kind we ever remember to have come across. The annals of war are rich in tales of disaster and suffering, but in none so dreadful as this story of the retreat of Napoleon's Grand Army from Moscow. Sergeant Bourgogne has left us a record, of the campaign from the point of view of the common soldier which must rank as an unconscious masterpiece of naïve and touching war-chronicling and characterisation. His narrative bears the hall-mark of veracity and vivid realism. No romancer could possibly have served up such a gruesome dish of military horrors as has now been placed before us by Sergeant Bourgogne. Even Nansen in his 'Farthest North' pales in interest before the frosts, the snows, and the cruel winds of this non-commissioned Xenophon of the Imperial Guard. We can heartily recommend this book as one of the most appalling, and at times pathetic, pictures of the horrors of war that was ever penned."
London: WM. HEINEMANN, 21 Bedford St., W.C.
[Transcriber's Notes]
The Table of Contents was generated for this file.
Obvious errors of punctuation and diacritics repaired.
Hyphen added: head-gear (p. 49).
Hyphen removed: headquarters (p. 31).
P. 17: "de" changed to "des" (Maréchal des Logis Chef).
P. 37: "to" added (told us to go to the Paymaster's).
P. 47: "arn't" changed to "aren't" (socks aren't regulation).
P. 89: "be" changed to "he" ("Now look here, old man," said he).
P. 110: "talking" changed to "taking" (taking off his hat).
P. 144-5: duplicate syllable at page boundary removed (hollering).
P. 171: "your're" changed to "you're" (you're holding there).
P. 202: duplicate "that" deleted (tell me that you have come here).
Ad for "The Queen's Service": "olium meminisse" changed to "olim meminisse".