Excerpt from The Memoirs of Baron De Marbot, Vol. 1 of 2: Late Lieutenant-General in the French Army
This English version of what is in some respects the most interesting book that has appeared in France - or for that matter in either country - for a generation must be taken for what it is, namely, an attempt to convey some of the interest of this work to English readers who do not read French fluently. Owing to circumstances not necessary to specify here, the work was entrusted to a translator whose principal qualifications were a fair knowledge of French, and just enough acquaintance with French military terms to be aware that brigadier does not mean a brigadier, nor marechal de camp a field-marshal. Further, the different conditions of the book-market in England and France made it impossible to render the 1,200 and odd pages of the original in their entirety; and consequently the whole work, except the most exciting episodes, has had to be somewhat condensed, and several passages reduced to little more than abstracts. These last are indicated by brackets. The book has been less injured than some would be by this treatment - for 'style' was not General Marbot's forte. He tells his stories (and excellent stories they are) quite intelligibly, and with the most engaging good faith, but with a decided excess of relative clauses. On the other hand, it has been thought expedient to preserve, as far as possible, the colloquial turns of phrase which abound, and give the recital much of its freshness.
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