Soldier, artist, engineer, designer, writer, courtier
This is a book by and about an exceptional and talented man, Lejeune epitomised
the ideals of the age of revolutions and became an incomparable chronicler, in both words and pictures, of the reality of the Napoleonic era. In the fi rst volume of his memoirs we meet a young artist charmed by Marie Antoinette in the gardens at Versailles. Such is the pace of this narrative that within pages we experience with Lejeune the Terror in Paris, the slaughter of the Swiss Guards and her execution on the guillotine. His time in the army follows, with campaigns in Holland and Italy - battles such as Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau and Friedland are graphically described. Designing uniforms for Napoleon is followed by war in the Peninsula where his participation at the siege of Saragossa inspired a lyrically written account of appalling intensity. The war with Austria follows, and once more Lejeune shows us what a bloody place a Napoleonic battlefield was.