We received the following press release. --RL WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA is a unique depiction of Napoleon’s terrible campaign in Russia in 1812 and a handsome, large-format illustrated record of Napoleon’s invasion. The book combines the sketches of Faber du Faur, a talented artist and front-line soldier serving in III Corps, with the 93 dramatic colour paintings he subsequently produced from the initial drawings. These plates are now presented complete, in full colour and in an attractive and lavish format. Faber du Faur’s moving and frank memoirs, edited and translated by Jonathan North, accompany the plates, describe the scenes depicted and act as a commentary upon the sweeping tide of events. The result is a penetrating insight into life for Napoleon’s soldiers and what Napoleonic warfare actually looked like; and the book is a remarkably complete evocation of the 1812 disaster. WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA presents the visual history of this famous campaign and forms an exceptional record of the trials and tribulations wrought by one of military history’s greatest catastrophes. Faber du Faur, in the original Preface to his memoirs, says it all: “Those who took part in the campaign will find in these pages a reminder of both the glorious and the terrible days of 1812; those who only know of the campaign from what they have read will now find all their reading brought to life. To some, this book will call to mind the events of the campaign and glorious feats of arms; to others it will reveal the terrible consequences of a disaster - one that, perhaps, they had the good fortune to escape. This book places before you something which no one could describe in words alone; looking through it, you will accompany the Grande Armée to the Niemen; you will see our marches and camps; you will pass through such towns as Polotsk, Vitebsk, Smolensk, Viasma and Gjatsk; you will find yourself on the battlefields of Ostrovno, Krasnoi, Smolensk, Valutina-Gora and Borodino; you will gaze at the gilded domes and roofs of Moscow and watch the fire take hold; you will abandon Moscow with the army and head in the direction of Kaluga; then you will turn back to the old Moscow-Smolensk road and, witness to endless sacrifice, you will cross the snowy plains of Russia, pass through Krasnoi and Smolensk and arrive at the Beresina; you will cross the river and, passing through Vilna and Ponari, will finally regain the banks of the Niemen at Kovno.” An outstanding feature of WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA will be the 93 colour plates, but the book will also present Faber du Faur’s memoirs.His recollections serve as a commentary to the plates but also, in their own right, give an idea of what it was like to experience 1812 first-hand. Here, for example, is the German lieutenant’s description of the night following the storming of Smolensk in August 1812: “There was continual skirmishing but it seemed as though the fighting was dying down particularly as the various fires, which had broken out here and there, had made such progress as to render movement in the streets virtually impossible. We could not tell whether or not the fire had been started by the Russians themselves, to impede our progress or destroy provisions hoarded in the town, or whether it had been caused by the fighting. Or perhaps it was a combination of these two factors? Whatever the cause, it remains a mystery to this day. Meanwhile, as these scenes were being played out on the right bank, the masses of the Grande Armée were gathering on the left bank, forming up on the heights above the town. To the strains of martial music they began filing down towards the Borysthene, in preparation for the crossing of that river the very next day. It was an imposing scene complete with impressive music; the firing of Russian artillery which, positioned on the heights opposite, sought to hit our massed ranks; the groan of our own artillery firing in reply and attempting to silence the Russian guns. All this, on a beautiful summer’s evening, in the delightful, rolling countryside around Smolensk, branded our souls with a magic which is impossible to describe and which will live forever in the minds of all who were present at the scene. The rumble of cannon fire gradually died away and fighting had virtually ceased. The conflagration had come between the two opposing armies and had made itself the master of the battlefield. A cannon fired the final shot of 18 August and the fighting was over. A profound silence descended, a silence broken by the roar of flames devouring houses. Our troops had gathered and were resting after the day’s ordeals. Even so our hearts cried out for a good number of troops who had quitted the campfires that morning never to return. Many fell by the river, having fallen in the assault of the bridgehead or in the street-fighting. Those that died quickly probably died well. If, wounded, they lay in the streets at the mercy of a roaring inferno they would surely be consumed by that merciless fire. At 10 o’clock we were gathered in that part of the town untouched by the fire, the reflection of which was dancing on the surface of the river and off the surface of the Tartar walls and towers. The whole area was lit up but the scene was of but short duration. Even before midnight the fire abated and the most beautiful, the richest part of Smolensk, which had been such an imposing sight that morning, now lay smouldering, flaming cinders amongst smoking rubble. What horrors met our eyes as we passed through the ruins of the St Petersburg suburb the next day, where the fire had run its awful course. We marched through rubble and piles of ashes, over smoking ruins and hundreds of shrivelled corpses. We despaired at the sight of shakos and helmets, which the flames had not been able to consume, and at the charred corpses - all that remained of our brothers-in-arms and countrymen who thus had died, consumed by the fire after having fallen, grievously wounded, in the street-fighting the day before.” The plates, sketches and text make WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA a remarkably complete, and compelling, account of the 1812 campaign. The book is beautiful and also serves as a wonderful historical record of the most infamous event of the Napoleonic era. WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA will be available in August, priced £40, from Greenhill Books, Park House, 1 Russell Gardens, London NW11 9NN (Tel 020 8458 6314, e-mail sales@greenhillbooks.com). In the USA the book will be available from Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-6921 (Tel 800 732 3669, e-mail sales@stackpolebooks.com) priced $80.00. WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA has 208 pages and includes 93 colour plates and 35 sketches in colour and black and white. The book is landscape format (10.5 x 13.5 inches, 266 x 336mm) and has coloured endpapers and head-and-tail bands. For a selection of plates and sketches visit the Greenhill website (www.greenhillbooks.com), clicking on ‘extracts’ then ‘WITH NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA’. This is the second very special volume published by Greenhill on the Napoleonic Wars; the first was the bestselling Napoleon’s Elite Cavalry. In 2002 Greenhill will publish WELLINGTON’S ARMY, another large-format, illustrated book. Back to 3rd Quarter 2001 List of News Items Back to Master List of News Items Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Coalition Web, Inc. 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