Research Catalog
The retreat
- Title
- The retreat / Patrick Rambaud ; translated from the French by William Hobson.
- Author
- Rambaud, Patrick.
- Publication
- London : Picador, 2004.
Items in the Library & Off-site
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Use in library | PQ2678.A455 I513 2004b | Off-site |
Details
- Description
- 323 pages : 1 illustration; 23 cm
- Summary
- "In midsummer 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia with the largest army yet assembled in European history. In September, that same Grand Army, exhausted, famished and reduced to a third of its size, finally arrived at the gates of Moscow. There before it at last ranged - a vision of luxury and magnificence, with its many palaces and the glinting cupolas of hundreds of churches. As it poised to enter the holy city, French military glory seemed a certainty." "However, Moscow stood silent, inert. No one was abroad in its streets, apart from foreigners and the inmates of its prisons and mental asylums; the inhabitants had already left in great convoys, taking with them all the provisions and as many necessities as they could, even the fire engines. For the next five weeks, the occupying forces found themselves in a strange, suspended state, conquerors of a ruined city. A semblance of normality prevailed - Napoleon's staff jockeyed for position, a French theatrical troupe that happened to be in Moscow gave performances in the Kremlin, Stendhal dreamt of the fire of Rome, Napoleon deluded himself into thinking it would be only a matter of time before Tsar Alexander sued for peace - but all the while winter was drawing closer."--BOOK JACKET.
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Historical fiction.
- Fiction.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-323).
- Language (note)
- Translated from the French.
- ISBN
- 0330489003
- 9780330489003
- OCLC
- ocm52946460
- 52946460
- SCSB-9448877
- Owning Institutions
- Princeton University Library