Napoleon's Master: A Life of Prince Talleyrand - Hardcover

Lawday, David

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9780224073660: Napoleon's Master: A Life of Prince Talleyrand

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224073664 ISBN 13: 9780224073660

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2006

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Lawday explores in detail Talleyrand’s perverse relationship with Napoleon, whom he fought with flattery, courtesy and an alarmingly straight face. Quite as much as the Duke of Wellington, it was this club-footed genius of French diplomacy who defeated the great conqueror and delivered France and all Europe from the Emperor’s follies.

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Book Description:

Born into an aristocratic (though not particularly prosperous) family, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was to become one of the great politicians of all time. His early career in politics was marked with turmoil: an ardent monarchist, Talleyrand fled from France during the revolution of 1792, first to England and then to the United States. It was not until his return to France after the dust had settled in 1796 that his star would begin to rise in earnest. First, he was appointed Foreign Minister. In this position, he aligned himself with the charismatic general who would become Emperor of France: Napoleon Bonaparte. In the course of the next three decades, Talleyrand would prove himself perhaps the most adept politician of all time: his political pliability allowed him to survive the fall of Bonaparte and the consequent second Bourbon restoration. He was in the shadow of power in Europe through more upheaval than perhaps any other man of his generation.

About the Author:

David Lawday is a native of London, educated there and at Oxford. He is a writer and journalist who was a correspondent for twenty years with The Economist, now based in Paris where his son and daughter grew up and where he lives with his French wife.

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