Battle of Austerlitz

It barely makes a mark on the novel's narrative, I would say.

And the Battle of Austerlitz as well, we don't see that directly.

It's replayed in memory by the dying Napoleon right at the end of his life.

So you get these events presented out of sequence and often dreams, fantasies, premonitions rather than straight narrative history.

At the age of twelve his imagination, stimulated by the perpetual exercise of his faculties, had developed to a point which permitted him to have such precise concepts of things, which he knew only from reading about them, that the image stamped on his mind could not have been clearer if he had actually seen them, whether this was by a process of analogy or that he was gifted with a sort of second sight by which he could command all nature.

When I read the story of the battle of Austerlitz, he said to me one day, I saw every incident.

The roar of the cannon, the cries of the fighting men rang in my ears and made my inmost self quiver.

I could smell the powder.

Napoleon responds by turning east and attacking the problem that is actually reachable by road.

In December comes the Battle of Austerlitz, fought in what is now the Czech Republic.

Napoleon faces the armies of Austria and Russia and wins one of the most famous victories of his career.

The battle later becomes known as the Battle of the Three Emperors because Napoleon, the Austrian Emperor Francis, and the Russian Emperor Alexander are all involved.

De Morny mobilized support from his protege, General Jacques Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, who was recalled to Paris from North Africa and appointed as Minister of War.

The date was set for the 2nd of December, a symbolic date marking the anniversary of Napoleon's coronation as emperor in 1804 and his great victory over the Russians and Austrians at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805.

At 5:00 in the morning, Louis Napoleon's men occupied the National Assembly's premises at the Palais Bourbon.

Chief of Police Emil Maupas proceeded to arrest parliamentary deputies at their homes over the course of the morning, while a series of proclamations in the president's name were plastered throughout Paris announcing the dissolution of the assembly.

The problem is what he does with them.

He leaves Davout, who perhaps is his greatest battlefield commander, the man who did a double envelopment of a Prussian army twice his size at the Battle of Auschwitz.

He leaves him in Paris.

Very important jobs.

300 million Ridley Scott had to, to work on that.

He had Napoleon bombarding the pyramids, um, smash, uh, the, he, he puts the Battle of Austerlitz, the victory at Austerlitz, down to, um, putting cannonballs through the, um, ice and the, and the-

Mm

... uh, coalition forces just sort of falling into it and drowning.

Some historians would argue 1806, 1807, but, but certainly by 1805, you've got, uh, peak Napoleon.

Peak Napoleon.

And peak Napoleon really is the Battle of Austerlitz, isn't it?

Yes.

Any door, the right support.

our ambassador purposely dropped the handkerchief in front of him and stood looking at Markov probably expecting Markov to pick it up for him and how Markov immediately dropped his own beside it and picked it up without touching Bonaparte's delightful said Bolkonsky but I have come to you prince as a petitioner on behalf of this young man you see but before Prince Andrew could finish an aide-de-camp came in to summon Dolgorukov to the emperor oh what a nuisance said Dolgorukov getting up hurriedly and pressing the hands of Prince Andrew and Boris you know I should be very glad to do all in my power both for you and for this dear young man again he pressed the hand of the latter with an expression of good-natured sincere and animated levity but you see another time Boris was excited by the thought of being so close to the higher powers as he felt himself to be at that moment he was conscious that here he was in contact with the springs that set in motion the enormous movements of the mass of which in his regiment he felt himself a tiny obedient and insignificant atom they followed Prince Dolgorukov out into the corridor and met coming out of the door of the emperor's room by which Dolgorukov had entered a short man in civilian clothes with a clever face and sharply projecting jaw which without spoiling his face gave him a peculiar vivacity and shiftiness of expression this short man nodded to Dolgorukov as an intimate friend and stared at Prince Andrew with cool intensity walking straight toward him and evidently expecting him to bow or to step out of his way Prince Andrew did neither a look of animosity appeared on his face and the other turned away and went down the side of the corridor who was that asked Boris he is one of the most remarkable but to me most unpleasant of men the minister of foreign affairs Prince Adam Czartoryski it is such men as he who decide the fate of nations added Bolkonsky with a sigh he could not suppress as they passed out of the palace next day the army began its campaign and up to the very battle of Austerlitz Boris was unable to see either Prince Andrew or Dolgorukov again and remained for a while with the Ismailov regiment end of chapter nine recording by Eva Harnik Pontevedra Florida

War and Peace, Book 3, Chapter 10, read for LibriVox.org by Mark O'Neill.

At dawn on the 16th of November, Denisov's squadron, in which Nicholas Rostov served, and which was in Prince Bagration's detachment, moved from the place where it had spent the night, advancing into action as arranged, and after going behind other columns for about two-thirds of a mile, was stopped on the high road.

And Rostov got up and went wandering among the campfires, dreaming of what happiness it would be to die, not in saving the emperor's life—he did not even dare to dream of that—but simply to die before his eyes.

He really was in love with the Tsar, and the glory of the Russian arms and the hope of future triumph.

And he was not the only man to experience that feeling during those memorable days preceding the Battle of Austerlitz.

Nine-tenths of the men in the Russian army were then in love, though less ecstatically, with their Tsar and the glory of the Russian arms.