Waterloo

[justintree]

Hello,
I am curious as to the accuracy of Victor Hugo's portrayal of the Battle of Waterloo. I have read several summaries of the battle, and as usual his geographical descriptions are spot on, but Hugo goes into a lot of detail about certain things that I haven't been able to track down (such as the well filled with bodies, details about Napoleon's behaviour, and the like.)

The two events I am most curious about (and can find nothing on) are the charge of cavalry which has 1/3 of them plummet into an unseen ravine, and (although not specifically Waterloo-related) Napoleon, in hiding aboard a French ship, answers the query of another ship about the Emperor (not a very good second hand description, I'll admit, but hopefully those of you who have read the unabridged book know what I'm referring to).

[Gervais]

The popular opinion is that most of the details like the ones you mentioned were either fictional or used with a lot of artistic licence.

The "ravine" was there, but didn't cause damage:It was a partially sunken road: http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/s ... p?t=113378 (Yes, I know it's a forum, but it's like here; they know their stuff.)

I can't find the facts about the ship incident, sorry.

And you've probably seen all of these, but I'm going to use this as an oppurtunity for a link dump for Waterloo, if you don't mind.

Map of Hougomont, Then & Now: http://www.projecthougoumont.com/location_gb.html

Battle of Waterloo reenactment summary w/pics:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... rench.html

Eyewitness account of British soldier:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/waterloo.htm

[justintree]

Thanks, I figured it was probably embellished with artistic license, but you never know with these things until you dig around...

One problem with those reenactors: they are clearly enjoying themselves way too much for it to be an actual battle. Wish I could have been there enjoying myself too...

[Gervais]

Same. That looks so fun...

Some people may be interested on this: http://books.google.com/books?id=ciQxAQ ... oo&f=false

Haven't read it yet and haven't checked its acurracy, but it looks interesting.

[YoungStudentMarius]

Some people...heh. Gervais, you shouldn't do this to me, not when I have exams and projects; that book looks, very, very interesting...{immediately downloads and begins to read}
...Anyway, thank you. And sorry to randomly burst onto the thread here. But it's all just so ridiculously intriguing.

Here's another interesting-looking book on Waterloo, which I haven't read yet, either, but which has also been added to my list. https://play.google.com/store/books/details/George_Hooper_Waterloo_the_downfall_of_the_first_N?id=V0MBAAAAQAAJ#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDUwMSwiYm9vay1WME1CQUFBQVFBQUoiXQ.. It was published the same year as Les Mis, so I wonder if perhaps it would be easier to pick out some corresponding points between this book and Hugo's description.

[justintree]

I will check that out eventually...at the moment I still have about 800 pages left of The Brick to read, so it won't be right away...

Thanks for the enlightenment.

[Gervais]

Alright, I know we've already beaten this horse well into its grave, but interesting looks at Waterloo that were So Shiny they had to be shared: http://www.napoleon.org/en/reading_room ... asp#ancre4