| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"stoney" |
| Date: |
24 Feb 2006 06:22:41 PM |
| Object: |
Napoleon's letter of despair to Josephine |
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18203844%255E29677,00.html
Napoleon's letter of despair to Josephine
John Follain
February 20, 2006
A NEWLY discovered letter from an anguished young Napoleon in which he
both praises and attacks his wife Josephine shortly after their
marriage, accusing her of infidelity and of tearing his heart apart
"with a thousand knives", is to be auctioned next month.
Dated June 8, 1796, the letter was sent from Milan to Paris at the
beginning of Napoleon's Italian campaign. It was found by a Moscow woman
who approached the Russian national history museum last year. She said
her father had brought it to Moscow from Europe after World WarII.
The two-page letter begins with Napoleon reproaching his wife -- whom he
had married on March 9 -- for not joining him in Milan despite repeated
appeals and for not writing to him. "My soul had been ready for joy but
now it is filled with pain," Napoleon writes.
"It seems to me that you have made your choice and you know who to turn
to to replace me ... I am not using the word treachery because you have
never loved."
Josephine's love for him, Napoleon writes, had been nothing more than a
whim whereas his soul had been dreaming of her even before she was born.
He has adored everything in her -- "including the escapades that took
place 15 days before our wedding", he notes archly.
But then he reproaches her again: "And you, you haven't held my portrait
in your hand for six months and that has not gone unnoticed by me."
Later he writes: "Cruel. Why have you forced me to believe in a feeling
you did not have?"
Napoleon concludes by wishing Josephine farewell, telling her to stay in
Paris and not to write to him any more.
"A thousand knives are tearing my heart apart, do not sink them any
deeper. Goodbye my happiness, you have been everything to me that
existed on earth," the letter ends.
Experts consulted by the state history museum estimated its value at
$33,800. The museum offered to buy the letter for that amount, but the
owner turned to an auction house which will sell it in Moscow on March
4, with bids starting at $67,000.
Vladimir Voronkov, the expert handling the sale, said the letter was one
of the first examples of trouble brewing between the newlyweds.
"Napoleon wants Josephine to come to him in Milan and he doesn't
understand why she doesn't obey," he said.
A month before the letter was written, Josephine began an affair with
Hippolyte Charles, a soldier. Napoleon divorced her 13 years later.
The Sunday Times
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
.
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