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Napoleon wrote his memoirs shortly before his death in
1821 | |
The memoirs of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and a draft copy of
his unpublished will have been sold in Paris for more than 300,000 euros.
The 84-page memoir recounts his early military campaigns that brought
much of Europe under French rule.
The documents were written while he was in exile on the South Atlantic
island of St Helena, where he died in 1821.
They went under the hammer on Tuesday, days after the 200th anniversary
of his coronation as emperor.
The memoirs were sold to an unidentified Swiss buyer for 250,000 euros
(￡170,000, $340,000), Drouot auction house said.
The will was sold for 110,000 euros (￡75,000, $149,500) to a French
collector, the auction house said, without naming the buyer.
In it, Napoleon writes: "I am dying before my time, murdered by the
English oligarchy and their
hired assassin. The English people will not delay in avenging me."
The numerous corrections in the draft are said to show Napoleon's
indecision in drawing up his last wishes.
The will was only recently discovered, and is believed to have never
been published, an auctioneer told reporters.
The memoirs are said to contain remarkable day-to-day detail written in
a vivacious style as well as numerous corrections and spelling mistakes.
"The [memoirs] are extraordinary. He manages to remember what the
battle sites looked like, 20 years after the event," auctioneer Eric
Buffetaud said.
The memoirs were written in exile between 1817 and 1820 on St Helena,
where Napoleon was sent after his defeat by allied forces at the battle of
Waterloo in June 1815.
They were later published in 1823, two years after his
death.
(Agencies) |
法蘭西第一帝國皇帝拿破侖·波拿巴的回憶錄和一份從未公開發表過的遺囑草稿的副本在巴黎公開出售，最終以30多萬歐元的價格成交。
這疊84頁的回憶錄手稿記載了拿破侖早期的軍事活動，他成功地把歐洲許多地區都納入法國的統治之下。
這些手稿是拿破侖被流放到大西洋南部的圣赫勒那島時留下的，1821年，拿破侖死于島上。
星期二（12月7日），即拿破侖登基200周年紀念日幾天之后，這些手稿被公開拍賣。
據巴黎德魯奧拍賣行說，回憶錄被一位身份不詳的瑞士買主以25萬歐元（約合17萬英鎊/34萬美元）的價格買走。
拍賣行還說，拿破侖的遺囑以11萬歐元（約合7.5萬英鎊/14.95萬美元）的價格賣給了一位法國收藏家，但并未提到買主的名字。
拿破侖在遺囑里寫道：“我要在大限來臨之前提前離開人世了。我是被英國寡頭政治集團和他們雇傭的刺客謀殺的。英國人是不會推遲對我的復仇的。”
據說，草稿上有多處涂改，體現了拿破侖在草擬遺愿時有些舉棋不定。
一位拍賣商對記者說，這份遺囑是最近才發現的，肯定從未公開發表過。
據說，回憶錄中包括一些值得注意的日常細節，寫法生動活潑，還有不少修改痕跡和拼寫錯誤。
“它（回憶錄）非比尋常。在那些事情發生20年后，他成功地回憶起戰場當年的樣子。”拍賣商埃里克·巴夫托德說。
這些回憶錄手稿是他1817年到1820年在圣赫勒那島流放期間寫的。拿破侖在滑鐵盧一役中被反法聯軍擊敗，隨后于1815年6月被放逐到圣赫勒那島。
1823年，拿破侖去世兩年后，這些手稿被公開發表。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-12-10 10:23