Napoleon of Another World!

Introduction

It is not easy to find men whose work has contributed to deeply modify not only their era, but also the course of history itself, acting as a watershed between before and after.

Napoleon Bonaparte manages to soar further, resulting in a figure who, more than two centuries after his death, still manages to raise discussions, with historians and humanity in general who are still divided on the judgment to be given to his work.

In the region where I live, the memory of Napoleon is more divisive than in other places: for some, he is the one whose passage swept away decadent and corrupt regimes, put an end to excessive ecclesiastical power and returned, to a people who had lived for centuries under a foreign domination, a bit of independence; for others he was a ruthless conqueror who put an end to centuries-old nations and plundered entire artistic heritages to make them his own personal war booty.

He was certainly a man aware of his own genius and of the importance that his figure was destined to have, both for his era and for those who would come after him.

Shortly before he died in exile on Saint Helena, he said about himself "I carried the fate of the world on my shoulders."

He was therefore an ambiguous individual, but endowed with a charisma and an ability to stir consciences with few peers in history. Although he had substantially overturned and crushed the ideals of the Revolution, and despite the fact that under his government France had experienced a period of unceasing turbulence and economic difficulty, on his march to Paris after fleeing the Island of Elba he was welcomed as a liberator by the same armies sent against him by King Louis XVIII.

Madame de Staël, one of his fiercest opponents, said of him that people actually didn't really love him; rather they settled for him, deeming him the lesser of two evils compared to what came before him.

But despite this, his merits and his contribution to the evolution of society are indisputable; he took over a wounded and prostrated France by the excesses of the Terror and managed to guide it in a short but brilliant period of domination, during which he brought the ideals of the Revolution around Europe. He promoted social equality and the end of dynastic privileges, instituted the rule of law which made all men - not women, unfortunately - equal before the law, favored merit and free access to any legal, administrative and military career – just think that more than half of the officers in his army were people of humble origins who had risen from the lower ranks –

This is also the origin of the paradox that his figure aroused among his opponents, who saw in him the very incarnation of the post-revolutionary government model virtually capable of shattering the foundations of the thrones of the major European powers, and did everything they could to stop him.

Seven coalitions were formed in the space of just over twenty years to attempt to stem his seemingly unstoppable march; he was among the few who succeeded with his mere presence to drive nations that had always been enemies, and which even after him would not have thought twice about making war on each other, to unite against him, nevertheless his military genius and his innovative tactics almost always allowed him to emerge victorious from all the campaigns he fought across Europe.

Since what you are about to read is a light novel, it does not claim to dwell excessively on historical considerations or moral judgments, nevertheless I wanted to make my protagonist as realistic as possible.

The Napoleon you will read about is the one you will expect to see. An ambiguous character, highly motivated, aware of his own uniqueness and cunning, that has seen everything he had fought for collapse before his eyes. In the mission entrusted to him he sees a way to prove to the world, but above all to himself, what he would have been capable of if he had pondered some of the choices that had led him to ruin more wisely.

Perhaps a more mature and less proud, but certainly not humbler Napoleon, aware of the questionable choices that a man of power often has to make, and of how all great social changes are destined to inevitably pass through conflicts, mourning and sacrifices, even personal ones .

Enjoy the reading.