poliphilo

"I don't like people who betray revolutions," said my friend.

But revolutions are always betrayed, They have to be. One can't be forever demolishing Bastilles. Sooner or later someone has to get a grip.

And rebuild the shattered society with whatever tools and materials are to hand.

And Napoleon was less inadequate than anyone else I can think of who undertook a similar task. Less inadequate than Lenin or Stalin or Hitler or Mao or Pol Pot or (my friend's example) Daniel Ortega.

For all his awesomeness and awfulness there remained something touchingly human about him. When all the glory is cleared away and he has nothing left to do but dig flower beds in his garden on St Helena- the personality the emerges is attractive-- humourous, thoughtful, kind, purposeful.

Besides which, his story is such a terrific story....