“To fight you”, “The Rainbird”, “The Fissure”… Our reading choices

THE MORNING LIST

The books of the week invite you to rub shoulders with Camille Desmoulins under the Terror, with Joseph Andras, or to decipher the art of intelligence under the First Empire, with Gérald Arboit. Like diving into an ecological fable by Robbie Arnott, the poetic song of Nane Beauregard or the new thriller by Peter May. Or, to discover the essays of the great Cuban writer Leonardo Padura.

NARRATIVE. “To Fight You” by Joseph Andras

1793. While the young Republic is threatened by Vendée secession, the Terror is unleashed in Paris. A newspaper then appeared: signed by the hand of Camille Desmoulins, The Old Cordelier implores leniency with regard to the suspects, and proposes the constitution of a clemency committee. But, very quickly, the deputy is accused of working for the interests of the monarchy. An accusation that preludes bloody betrayals, and ends up leading to the guillotine the most ardent republicans, including Robespierre and Desmoulins himself.

Carried by a nervous style, Joseph Andras, who does not wish to invent anything, “or only, if necessary, the color of the birds”, captures, in his story, the first sighs of a Republic in the grip of fratricidal struggles. He paints a moving portrait of Camille Desmoulins and sheds new light on the figures of Danton and Robespierre, to repeat with virtuosity the internal quarrels of the Committee of Public Safety which, despite the barbaric conflicts of which it was the theater, worked in the hope of seeing the ideal of freedom and equality dear to the spirit of the Enlightenment. Eloise Duval

STORY. “Napoleon and intelligence”, by Gérald Arboit

Historians have been plowing the Napoleonic field for so long that one might think that no archive has escaped them. Mistake. Gérald Arboit projects on the Empire the methods of “intelligence studies” developed in Anglo-Saxon universities, which consist in studying the institutions, individuals and operations contributing to the information of decision-makers. Far from there “golden legend” of an omniscient Emperor thanks to Fouché’s police and his spies, or “black legend” of an omnipresent police force, the author shows the persistence of the Ancien Régime: there will be no service devoted full-time to information on the enemies of the government before 1870.

The diplomats in post provide information on the outside, the gendarmerie, the police and the administration on the interior, plus a few rare “intelligence contractors” remunerated. This does not prevent the regime from setting up sophisticated operations but does not protect it from the equivalent intrigues of Vienna or London, nor from reversals of opinion and alliances, which will lead to its downfall. Antoine Reverchon

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