Austerlitz: The Story of a Battle by Claude Manceron

Austerlitz: The Story of a Battle Reviews

• 
  Elliot

  Austerlitz by Claude Manceron is a lively, dramatic narrative history which relates the story of Napoleon’s 1805 campaign and, in particular, its climatic conclusion at the battle of Austerlitz on December 2nd. What distinguishes this book from other histories of this campaign is the author’s style of narrative. Manceron writes as though he is telling a story. He does this by developing the historical personalities, bringing them to life through his selection and sequence of scenes and by delving into the dialogue, thoughts, and feelings of some of the principal figures.
  
  Though this style makes the book quite engaging and easy to read, it also makes the reader doubt the accuracy of that personal detail and dialogue. There were more than a few instances where I read through a passage of dialogue and thought ‘there is no way that was actually spoken—it is too convenient in terms of the story Manceron is writing.’ In the bibliography, Manceron writes that he consulted a number of memoirs from these historical figures, and as such it seems likely that most of the dialogue featured in the book was taken from those sources. However, there are no citations in the text and thus no way to determine what source he was using for a particular conversation. As a result, I treated the dialogue with a good deal of skepticism, considering much of it true in spirit, if not in actuality. Nevertheless, I still think this book is valuable. In my opinion, Manceron gave a balanced and reliable account of the campaign, though it should be considered that he used many more French sources than Allied sources.
  
  The strength of this book is its clarity. While not too much time is spent on the political situation between France and the rest of Europe, I think it was sufficient enough to inform the reader. Then, once the story of the campaign starts, it was quite an easy matter to follow Manceron as he details the march to Ulm and Mack’s capitulation there, the push through Austria to Vienna and then onwards into Moravia, the leadup to the battle, and then the battle itself.
  
  There are eight simple “sketch maps” distributed throughout the text in addition to the more detailed maps featured on the end boards. These seemed to be sufficient enough and were clear to interpret. There are also a number of black and white plates featuring some famous historical paintings and portraits of many of the important characters involved in the campaign.
  
  Another positive aspect of this book is the translation by George Unwin. It seems to have captured the spirit and style of the original French text. I did, however, catch one error in the text. On page 113, in reference to the battle of Trafalgar, the HMS Victory is referred to as a frigate! Whether it was an original error or a result of translation, I do not know (but you would think such a detail would have been noticed by the British publisher!).
  
  In summary, Claude Manceron’s Austerlitz: The Story of a Battle is a dramatic account of Napoleon’s famous 1805 campaign. While I had concerns with the veracity of some minor details, it is a clear and balanced narrative history. I think this book would appeal to someone who has not previously read any books about the Napoleonic era but would like to start. Even if it gives a slightly over-romantic impression of the era, it will introduce the reader to many of the important figures and events from that period with a vigorous and engaging writing style.
• 
  Heinz Reinhardt

  This was a far different book than the one I was expecting, in a good way, that is.
  Translated from the French into English, with a very well done translation that can make or break a good book, this was an incredibly readable, if not entirely scholarly, look at the War of the Third Coalition. Although Claude Manceron is indeed quite French, he is not a Bonapartist, nor a Republican over much, but an honest, largely unbiased observer, which is what a historian should be. (Admittedly, I was expecting a bit of Bonapartism going into this one, silly American expectations and all).
  Manceron tells that epic tale well, giving a good political and diplomatic background into the how and the why of the Wars beginnings, before doing an excellent job describing Napoleon’s and the Allies disparate plans, before going into the details of how they panned out (or catastrophically failed as the case may be). The one, admittedly glaring, critique of this work is that Mr. Manceron deigned the use of footnotes.
  While he uses excellent sources, listed in his bibliography, he fails to cite them throughout the text. This issue would be more egregious were it not for the fact that some of the stories he relates are related numerous times elsewhere, in properly sourced monographs. The real problem is when it seems that the author may, or may not, have fabricated conversations or pieces of them for dramatic effect. Though the plethora of memoirs and diaries in his bibliography asserts that, likely, he drew from those, just couldn't be bothered to source them.
  Despite that this was a wonderfully written work, and you can tell it's French by the passion which imbues the pages. I have noticed that American historians tend to saddle the line between Gallic passion, and more Anglo-Germanic precision. My own view is that the French pour their heart into their writings, the British save theirs for sarcasm and witty analysis, the Americans for bravado, and the Germans, well the Germans are the engineers of the bunch, so they're about what you're expecting. Good, but very mechanical.
  (Russians are an odd mix of French and German, if that makes any sense at all...)
  The scenes of the Battle of Austerlitz itself are some of the best written on the Battle, and this is nearly a 60 year old book. Manceron's description of the climactic Cavalry duel between the French and Russian Imperial Guard horse made for genuinely exciting reading.
  Despite his penchant for refusing to cite sources, Manceron had written a very good work on the campaign and battle that, I think, would serve as an excellent introduction to the topic as he never goes into extreme detail, and his analysis is secondary to the narrative flow. It's just too bad that the book hasn't been reprinted in English in over a generation, and only available in France, currently.
  Still, if you can find an old used copy as I did, well worth it.
  Highly recommended.