MARTIN, BRIAN JOSEPH. Napoleonic Friendship: Military Fraternity, Intimacy, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century France. Durham: UP of New Hampshire, 2011. ISBN 978-158465 -956-3. Pp. xvii + 379. $39.95. This book examines the evolution of a military model of intimacy and affection between male soldiers in nineteenth-century France. The author draws on archival military memoirs and literary fiction to trace the development of homosocial ‘Napoleonic friendships’ in the Grande Armée that ultimately culminates with modernity’s gay soldier. In his introduction, Martin outlines various homoerotic theories of combat, from antiquity to modern days, citing in particular the work of nineteenth-century military theorists who placed an emphasis on physical and emotional intimacy among soldiers as a strategy for stronger, more cohesive armies. The revolutionary military reforms of 1789–99 made these relationships possible as they transformed recruitment and training practices and socialized soldiers as fraternal and devoted equals. In part one (of three), Martin identifies the three forms of Napoleonic friendship of the Grande Armée: “lateral relationships between soldiers of similar rank, compassionate relationships between leaders and their men, and devotional relationships between soldiers and their superiors” (49). Perhaps appropriately, Martin’s archival research strongly suggests that Napoleon himself engaged in this eponymous model of homoeroticism. While he does not go so far as to conclude that Napoleon participated in sexual relations with any of his officers, Martin’s astute reading of archival letters between the Emperor and one of his generals reveals an intimacy characterized by affection and seduction. In his next chapter, Martin turns to a genre whose interest lies in its slippage between history and fiction: the Napoleonic military memoir. Drawing on Philippe Lejeune’s work on autobiography, Martin considers the published memoirs of three of Napoleon’s officers and establishes a compelling link between these personal historical accounts of combat and friendship and the Napoleonic military fiction that he examines in part two. In this subsequent section devoted entirely to the battle at Waterloo in post-1815 Napoleonic fiction, Martin convincingly reads Stendhal’s Le rouge et le noir as an allegory for the Napoleonic military closet and Balzac’s recurring veteran pairs in La comédie humaine as the products of military ideologies that discouraged heterosexual contact and marriage. His discussion of Hugo’s military memory in Les misérables, however, seems to stray at times from the work’s larger themes and intentions. Part three examines Napoleonic friendship from the Restoration to the Second Empire (1815–70) in the works of Balzac, Maupassant, and Zola. In his continued discussion of La comédie humaine, Martin identifies an evolving model of the Napoleonic family during the Restoration and July Monarchy that centers on surrogate military fathers and sons. In his final chapter, Martin turns to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the anti-militarist fiction that materialized following France’s emasculating defeat. Perhaps of most interest in his discussion of Maupassant and Zola is the link that he establishes between the nineteenthcentury model of Napoleonic friendship and the homosexual soldier that surfaced alongside nationalistic discourses on masculinity. Indeed, in his conclusion, Martin argues that Proust’s Le temps retrouvé marked the emergence of the gay soldier in the French literary tradition. While the figure of Saint-Loup went on to influence the homoerotic works of writers such as Cocteau and Gide, Martin persuasively reminds us that the roots of this evolving homosexual military culture date back to the revolutionary days of the late eighteenth century. Reviews 577 One of the greatest strengths of Martin’s Napoleonic Friendship is that it reaches across multiple disciplines in history, literature, art, and gender studies. Perhaps of most interest to literary scholars is the fact that Martin also perceptively recognizes the intertextuality within these nineteenth-century memoirs and novels and situates them against a long tradition of French epic poems, epistolary novels, and pastoral romances. Though a bit repetitive at times, overall this timely study poignantly resonates with modern-day discussions regarding gays in the American military. University of Central Florida Sharon Larson O’DEA, MICHAEL, éd. Rousseau et les philosophes. SVEC 2010:12. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7294-1004-5...
Search from 250 M+ research papersSearch from 250 M+ research papers
Open Access
Aug 2, 2016
Cathy Quinn 
