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Some years ago, while pursuing a course of study in the French language under the direction of the late Prof. Henri Larroque, who not long since met an untimely death, and whose learning and ability placed him in the foremost rank of teachers of languages, there was placed in the hands of the translator for critical study Alexandre Dumas’ Napoleon. The more he examined the work the better he was pleased with it, and the result was a complete translation of the book. It was not his intention that the work should be submitted to public reading, but, at the request of a large number of persons interested in Napoleonic literature, a complete translation of Dumas’ Napoleon appears for the first time in the English language. The work in the original is popular, has a large and continuous sale, and is considered to be an excellent specimen of modern French. It seems very strange that a work from the pen of an author of the character and reputation of Alexandre Dumas should have remained untranslated for so long a time.

Dumas appears to have written his Napoleon, which was originally a drama, under very peculiar circumstances. Percy Fitzgerald, in his Life and Adventures of Alexandre Dumas, says that Harel, the manager of the Odeon at Paris during the Revolution of 1830, requested Dumas to prepare a drama to be called Napoleon. Dumas did not proceed with the work at that time, but in 1831 Harel entrapped him into a handsomely furnished apartment, and told him he could not leave it until the drama had been completed. The piece was to begin with Toulon, and to end with “the five years’ agony at St. Helena.” In eight days it was finished. It had nine thousand lines and twenty-five tableaux; and was produced at the Odeon by Harel, an actor named Lemaitre taking the part of Napoleon. This drama, which was expected by Dumas to work up the hostile Bonapartist feeling which existed at that time, proved an absolute failure and was withdrawn.

According to Fitzgerald this drama was evidently rewritten in 1839. In his list of books, written by Dumas, the present Life of Napoleon is put down as having been written in 1868. The authority for this date is not given, but it is certainly a mistake, for Prof. Fasquelle, as early as 1855, published the work in French to be used as a second book in his course. It is uncertain just when this work was written, but it can be said with certainty that Dumas is its author, and that the serious charge which has so often been made against him of assumed authorship cannot be sustained in this instance.

The object of the translator has been from the outset to make the translation as nearly literal as possible. Much of the force and beauty of the French is lost by liberal translations. While they read smoothly and often give the author’s ideas in English, the translator thinks that a literal translation, where possible, of French idioms and expressions gives the reader a better insight into the meaning, though the language may not be as smooth and elegant as the polished English of the free translation.

This work is submitted to the public with the knowledge that its style will be the subject of criticism, but the translator trusts that those who read it may feel repaid.

The will of Napoleon, which Dumas attached to his work, is not included in this translation, because it is not in any way connected with the body of the work, and has been many times translated.

JOHN B. LARNER.

Washington, D. C.

October 1, 1894.