Excellent review by VDH of Paul Johnson’s Napoleon in the Claremont Review
of Books.
Just two notes: (1) Among the catalog of Napoleon-worshipping
intellectuals, let not Puccini be forgotten. In the second act of Tosca,
when the news of Napoleon’s victory at Marengo comes through, Cavaradossi
cries out “Vittoria! Vittoria!” then launches into some allegro concitato
about: “Surge up, Liberty! crushing all tyranny…” (2) Napoleon was a
keen amateur mathematician, and there is a theory in geometry named after
him. On the sides of any triangle at all, construct three equilateral
triangles. The centers of these three equilateral triangles form another
equilateral triangle, sometimes called “the Napoleon triangle.”