Napoleonic Literature Greenhill [INLINE] Books _________________________________________________________________ [INLINE] 1812: NAPOLEON IN MOSCOW by Paul Britten Austin 9 x 6 in. (240 x 159 mm). 272 pages. 22 halftones, 2 maps. ISBN 1-85367-195-9. U.K. Price £19.50. U.S. Price $40.00. Napoleon's Grande Armée waits at the gates of Moscow, preparing to enter in triumphal procession. But it finds a city abandoned by its inhabitants - save only the men who emerge to fan the flames as incendiary fuzes hidden throughout the empty buildings of Moscow set the city alight. For three days Moscow burns, while looters dodge the fires to plunder and pillage. And so begins 1812: Napoleon in Moscow, Paul Britten Austin's atmospheric 'word-film' presented through the testimony of more than 100 of the people who witnessed the took part in the campaign. A large proportion of these close-up accounts have never been seen in English before. After the fires die down the army settles in the ruins of Moscow. For five weeks Napoleon waits at the Kremlin, expecting 'his brother the Tsar' in St. Petersburg to capitulate and make peace, while in fact the Russian army is gathering its strength. At the same time Murat's cavalry, the advance guard, is encamped in dreadful conditions three days' march away at Winkowo, where it is being starved to death. When Napoleon eventually realizes the futility of his plans and prepares to leave Moscow, the advance guard is surprised by a Russian attack and tumbles head over heels out of its position. The most astounding exodus in modern times ensues. Trailing thousands of wagons and carriages laden with all the stupendous loot of Moscow, the Grande Armée moves slowly south in an attempt to outflank the Russian General Kutusov. At Malo-Jaroslavetz, 100 kilometers from Moscow, it runs headlong into ten of Kutuzov's divisions, and its 'conquest of the world' comes to an end with the shock of Napoleon himself narrowly escaping capture by Cossacks. 1812: Napoleon in Moscow follows on from the brilliant 1812: The March on Moscow, which brought Napoleon's army across Europe to the great city. Paul Britten Austin recreates this next phase of the epic campaign with characteristic verve, and an astonishing sense of immediacy from the words of the participants themselves. Paul Britten Austin went to sea as a cabin boy in the British merchant marine, graduating to Radio Officer and serving in tankers and liberty ships. In 1947 he recovered his childhood home in Paris, but moved to Sweden, where he married the Swedish novelist Margareta Bergman, sister of the film director. For nearly a decade he was in charge of English-language broadcasts from Radio Sweden; thereafter, from 1957 to 1969, of the Swedish government tourist office in London. He has written a score of books on various subjects, both in English and in Swedish, including a classic biography of the eighteenth century Swedish poet Carl Michael Bellman. He has also translated many other Swedish classics and he has been awarded a Swedish knighthood of the Order of the North Star and an honorary D.Litt. In 1989 he contributed the article on Marshal Oudinot to David Chandler's anthology Napoleon's Marshals. _________________________________________________________________ (If you surfed directly to this page, please go to the Napoleonic Literature Home Page to see the wealth of information that's available on this website.)