Malraux and Napoléon

André Malraux (1901–1976) was always fascinated by Napoleon, who is frequently cited in his work and his thinking. At the age of 29, Malraux wrote a ‘Life of Napoleon’, based on his quotations, which he had read extensively; this book met with a curious fate: it was never published during his lifetime. Yet in it we discover Malraux’s hero, a man of action, courage and the energy of a military leader, who possessed the genius for victory. In the presence of General de Gaulle too, in “Les Chênes qu’on abat…“, the General’s ‘brilliant friend’ evokes Napoleon’s ‘greatness’. Malraux has his own truth about Napoleon: it deserves to be known and analysed, for it may surprise us, as we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the writer’s death.

François Boulet, born in 1965, is a senior history teacher at the Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. He holds a PhD in contemporary history, having written a thesis entitled ‘The French Mountains 1940–1944: from mountain refuges to mountain maquis’. He is also the author of books on local history (La Montagne-refuge, La Tronche near Grenoble, Moissac, Saint-Germain-en-Laye) and has written several biographies (Otto von Habsburg, Pastor Marc Boegner, the parallel history of de Gaulle and Eisenhower).