120:. A letter sealed with a large red seal, not to be opened until part way through the voyage, sentences the young man to death. The young man is shot on the cathead of the ship. His widow loses her reason and is cared for by the battalion commander, who resigns from the naval service to become a soldier and who takes her with him on his campaigns in a small cart pulled by a mule. Laurette dies three days after the commander is killed at the
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is an unusual, if not unique, book. In its endeavour to set forth a modern, sober ideal of the soldier of conscience it is far removed from the gung-ho attitude of most books on warfare and military life. Written with immense narrative subtlety and not a little contrivance, it has been insufficiently
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Vigny contrasts the glory days of soldiering – the colourfulness and excitement of the heat of battle – with what he calls “modern soldiering”: this is a less colourful and glorious but a more ethical calling. In 1830, he writes, “l’armée de l’Empire venait expirer dans le sein de l’armée naissante
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are the stories “Laurette ou le cachet rouge” (“Laurette, or the Red Seal”), “La Veillée de
Vincennes” (“Late-Night Conversation at Vincennes”) and “La Canne de jonc” (“The Malacca Cane”). These are accompanied by essays “On the General Characteristics of Armies”, “On Responsibility” and on other
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If the “grandeur” of warfare has disappeared, what then of its “servitude” or “submission”? Vigny seeks to reconcile the individual’s autonomy of conscience with the soldier’s submissiveness to military discipline. In “le naufrage universel des croyances”, which he sees as characteristic of the
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of 1830, and sixteen years after the killing of the boy soldier, Renaud is shot by a boy who bears an uncanny resemblance to the young
Russian. The principal frame-narrator finally takes up the story again, visiting Renaud on his deathbed and finding the street urchin grieving beside him.
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The
Malacca cane, which provides the title of the third story, symbolizes tranquil bourgeois living, in a world in which the concept of honour is still of paramount importance. Carried by Captain Renaud, it replaces the previous chivalric concept of honour, whose symbol was the sword.
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is difficult, if not impossible, to translate. One reasonable, but still inadequate, attempt at a translation would be “Glory and
Submission: Aspects of Military Life”. The book has been published with at least five English titles, the most recent being the 2013 release:
176:. The third defining moment comes five years later, in the attack on a Russian guardhouse, when he kills a fourteen-year-old Russian soldier. By way of epilogue a subordinate frame-narrator takes over, describing how, during the three “glorious days” of the
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The work records some of Vigny’s personal memories. More importantly, it is a record of his philosophy of military life and of life generally. It contains autobiographical elements, perhaps the most memorable of these being his account of the withdrawal of
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has written that the book is "An immortal depiction - gripping and vivid yet unsparingly unsentimental - of a generation forced to question as never before the place of war and the military values in modern life." In a 2013 article for the
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alors, et mûrie aujourd’hui”. However, in proposing his concept of a “religion of honour”, he does not resolve the contradiction between absolute obedience to orders that can result in killing and the autonomous integrity of the
112:(flashback) of the battalion commander, who in earlier life had been a naval captain. Laurette, a child-bride, accompanies her husband when, in the custody of the naval captain, the young man is sentenced to be deported to
327:, Mazower wrote that Vigny's work is still relevant, with Europe and to a lesser extent the U.S. currently facing decreased public support for the military, just as was the case in France after the Napoleonic wars.
32:, sometimes loosely based on episodes within Vigny’s own experience. It is also a threefold meditation on the nature of military life: with diminishing enthusiasm Vigny had been an Army officer from 1814 to 1827.
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Vigny himself abandoned “the almost barbaric profession of warfare” before the so-called advent of the new soldiering, or, as he puts it, before he recovered from his “illness known as military enthusiasm”.
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On killing the boy soldier in the attack on the
Russian guardhouse, Renaud asks himself: “What difference is there between myself and an assassin?” Overhearing the acrimonious conversation between
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the captain is preparing, somewhat reluctantly, to take up arms for the last time. Reminiscing with the frame-narrator, he recalls “three defining moments” in his life. The first is
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The frame-narrator, writing from the standpoint of 1832, describes how in July 1830 he had met up again with a brother officer, Captain Renaud. In defence of the government of
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privately exhibited by
Napoleon in his contemptuous treatment of the Pontiff. Yet Napoleon was a leader whom hundreds of thousands of soldiers followed with blind devotion.
308:, Vigny believed that warfare, annihilated by philosophy, commerce, and the marvels of modern technology, would gradually cease to be an instrument of political behaviour.
144:, Princesse de Lamballe, paints her portrait. Following this is the frame-narrator’s own story of the explosion, on 17 August 1815, at the powder-magazine at the fort of
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The frame-narrator, writing from the standpoint of 1819, recounts the
Adjutant Mathurin’s story of his youthful (anachronistic) friendship with the future playwright
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The frame-narrator, writing from the standpoint of 1815, recounts events that occurred in 1797. This story told in the first person has as its frame
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in 1804, which he happened to overhear as the
Emperor’s page. The second comes when he is taken prisoner in 1809 by Admiral
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was dying within the bosom of the new army which was then being born, and which is now fully developed today”.
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229:. In the modern world military service has become a matter of mere routine. It pained Vigny to accompany
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249:), he hopes for a religion of honour that will establish the civic virtues of personal responsibility,
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210:, is aware that the concept of honour is vanishing from the modern world, as too is the supremacy of
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152:. The story conveys a charming if rose-tinted impression of French eighteenth-century court life.
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For Vigny and his contemporaries the age of glorious military valour is past. He follows
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and of his young future wife
Pierrette’s introduction in 1778 to the court of
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Servitude et grandeur militaires, book 2, chapter 1, “Sur la responsabilité”.
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This encounter has elements of
Bonaparte’s later meeting with the Pope, at
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410:“La Canne de jonc”, chapter 10: “the universal shipwreck of beliefs”.
28:, published in 1835. Difficult to categorize, it is not a novel but a
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60:(Garde Royale), he rode with the retreating royal party as far as
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in March 1815, when, as a very young second lieutenant in the
365:, translated by Roger Gard, London, Penguin Classics: 1996.
353:, translated by Humphrey Hare, London, Cresset Press: 1953.
269:, Renaud had been profoundly disillusioned by the despotic
148:. The Adjutant’s death in this explosion is related in the
486:"The west needs a replacement for the warrior spirit"
253:, self-abnegation and unselfish regard for others.
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428:“La Canne de jonc”, chapter 10: “the army of the
359:, translated by Marguerite Barnett, O.U.P.: 1964.
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237:, rather than have the glory of confronting
174:Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood
562:Cultural depictions of Charles X of France
281:which embodies the demands of conscience.
79:was not one of Vigny’s personal memories.
225:in this respect. It is an aspect of his
557:Cultural depictions of Marie Antoinette
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547:Cultural depictions of Louis XVIII
363:The Servitude and Grandeur of Arms
337:Lights and Shades of Military Life
245:modern era (and especially of the
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235:United Kingdom of the Netherlands
67:The even more memorable scene of
312:Servitude et grandeur militaires
190:Servitude et grandeur militaires
89:Servitude et grandeur militaires
37:Servitude et grandeur militaires
21:Servitude et grandeur militaires
552:Cultural depictions of Napoleon
459:“La Canne de jonc”, chapter 10.
469:The Warriror's Life on Penguin
441:“La Canne de jonc”, chapter 4.
419:“La Canne de jonc”, chapter 8.
388:“La Canne de jonc”, chapter 2.
343:, edited by Major-General Sir
292:Unable to foresee the wars of
142:Princess Marie Louise of Savoy
1:
196:Vigny’s philosophical outlook
96:“Laurette ou le cachet rouge”
567:Books about military history
517:1835 short story collections
24:is a book in three parts by
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233:on his withdrawal to the
128:“La Veillée de Vincennes”
140:, Queen of France, when
16:Book by Alfred de Vigny
357:The Military Condition
351:The Military Necessity
279:categorical imperative
30:short story collection
231:Louis XVIII of France
102:Louis XVIII of France
50:Louis XVIII of France
376:Notes and references
345:Charles James Napier
537:Fiction set in 1830
532:Fiction set in 1815
527:Fiction set in 1797
522:Fiction set in 1778
491:The Financial Times
430:First French Empire
216:Bourbon Restoration
162:Charles X of France
134:Michel-Jean Sedaine
87:The three parts of
369:The Warrior's Life
241:’s invading army.
168:’s encounter with
156:“La Canne de jonc”
122:Battle of Waterloo
108:; it encloses the
92:related subjects.
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302:World War I
227:Romanticism
511:Categories
496:2013-09-09
318:Historian
263:Napoleon I
257:Conclusion
239:Napoleon I
166:Napoleon I
69:Napoleon I
315:studied.
271:amoralism
146:Vincennes
401:in 1813.
251:stoicism
223:Stendhal
212:religion
62:BĂ©thune
300:, nor
186:récits
110:récit
106:Ghent
54:Ghent
304:and
296:and
265:and
204:in
75:at
52:to
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