Folk-Tales of Napoleon / Napoleonder from the Russian; The Napoleon of the People from the French of Honoré De Balzac

by Aleksandr Amfiteatrov; Honoré de Balzac

Produced by David Starner, Bill Walker and PG Distributed Proofreaders

FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON

NAPOLEONDER
From the Russian

THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE
From the French of Honoré de Balzac

Translated With Introduction By
GEORGE KENNAN

1902

CONTENTS

NAPOLEONDER THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE

INTRODUCTION

Most of the literature that has its origin in the life and career of a great man may be grouped and classified under two heads: history and biography. The part that relates to the man's actions, and to the influence that such actions have had in shaping the destinies of peoples and states, belongs in the one class; while the part that derives its interest mainly from the man's personality, and deals chiefly with the mental and moral characteristics of which his actions were the outcome, goes properly into the other. The value of the literature included in these two classes depends almost wholly upon truth; that is, upon the precise correspondence of the statements made with the real facts of the man's life and career. History is worse than useless if it does not accurately chronicle and describe events; and biography is valueless and misleading if it does not truly set forth individual character.