Eugeniy Tarle: Napoléon and other Napoleonica

Abstract

The article “E. V. Tarle, his “Napoleon” and the rest of Napoleonics” is dedicated to the time and circumstances that prompted the historian, future academician, E. V. Tarle, in addition to research in the field of socio-economic history, to turn to the biographical genre of the history of France and Europe in the late 18th – early 19th centuries. The article reveals the details of the emergence of interest in the biography of the famous diplomat of the Napoleonic era Ch.-M. de Talleyrand-Périgord through the preparation of the scientific edition of his memoirs in Russian. After this, in the series “Lives of Remarkable People” in 1939, the historian published a book about Talleyrand, which is considered one of the best biographies of this diplomat. In addition, the article is devoted to the details of the writing of one of E. V. Tarle’s main and best works, “Napoleon,” which he also prepared for the series “LRP” and published in 1936. The article also examines Tarle’s participation in new editions of “Napoleon”, as well as in the projects that interested the historian because they were all, in one way or another, connected with the era of the First Empire in France, which attracted his attention. The article also tells about the attitude of French experts to Tarle’s books and the translations of his books into French.