A life of Napoleon (edição 1977)

I read Stendhal after I read Bourienne, the three volumes. Of course, the level of intimacy of Napoleon's private secretary does not exist here, but it is replaced by a great writer's insights: Napoleon had not read Montesquieu's thirty volumes of L'Esprit des lois, nor Dictionaire of Bayle, nor l'Esprit of Helvetius. Stendahl observes, "When Napoleon needed wise ideas on governing France, he had to invent them"(328). Also, Napoleon despised delay in action, so all retarding discussion seemed to him bad. M. Joly went to interview Napoleon for his history of Corsica, and he found Bonaparte in his tent almost completely bare, his only furniture an uncurtained bed, two chairs and a table by the window covered with papers and books. His brother Louis had a mattress on the ground in an adjoining room (332).
Stendhal describes Napoleon returning from Corsica at age twenty-four, having found his family in poverty. His personal qualities included: Knowledge of his own strengths; habits incapable of distraction; the capacity of being profoundly moved by a touching word, or an intimation, a presage; and, hatred of foreigners. ( )