L'aventure napoleonienne
Sir: Norman Stone (Books, 11 August) talks about Napoleon as 'Pierre Gaxotte's Action-Francaise Great Leader'. The truth is that L'Action Francaise, and one of its thinkers, Pierre Gaxotte, never held Napo-
leon in great esteem. They saw in him the man who had reinforced political and administrative power, thus killing all the local privileges and statutes which Maurras cherished so much.
Perhaps Gaxotte's judgment is not as harsh as that of Jacques Bainville (`il eat mieux valu qu'il n'eat pas existe), but it is clear, from the central chapters of his Histoire des Francais, and from the last pages of La Revolution Francaise, that his opinion is altogether negative.
Jacques Soustelle, who recently suc- ceeded Pierre Gaxotte in the Academie Francaise, referred to this particular point in his maiden speech, saying that 'sa [Gaxotte's] severite demeure sans faille quand it evoque l'aventure napoleonienne. Elle le choque precisement dans la mesure oft elle est une aventure qui prolongue la tourmente revolutionnaire.'
Joaquin Torrente
Almagro 46, 28010 Madrid, Spain
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