Battles & Books

In a statement attributed to Bernard of Chartres by John of Salisbury in 1159, it was postulated that the modern man was just a "dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants", due to which he could see farther than them. Jonathan Swift took this idea & propounded a satire called "The Battle of the Books." Here the Ancients (giants) were Virgil, Cicero, Homer & Aristotle. Later writers were considered the Moderns. Even in those days, Swift was "politically correct" in concealing the result of the battle, by saying that the last pages of the report were missing!

If the foregoing is the battle 'of' books", the following deals with the battles 'in' books! Interestingly, Napoleon is involved in the wars described in both books.

The first is Tolstoy's "War & Peace" where the battle of Borodino is analysed in excruciating detail. Though Napoleon won it & proceeded to take Moscow, it was a pyrrhic victory as the French were defeated by the "scorched earth" policy of General Kutuzov & the harsh Russian winter. Tolstoy views Napoleon with critical Russian eyes, downplaying his military genius.

Napoleon gets a more favourable treatment in the second book considered, which is the Frenchman Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables." A whole chapter is dedicated to Waterloo, because the baddie Thenardier is robbing corpses after the battle. Here also Napoleon was defeated but by a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington, in spite of having more artillery. As the result cannot be whitewashed, the patriotic Hugo presents individual acts of bravery by the French.