The Retreat

In midsummer 1812, Napoleon crossed over the river Niemen into Russia with the largest army hitherto assembled in European history. In September, the Grand Army, exhausted, famished, and reduced to a third of its initial size, finally reached Moscow, but the famed holy city was empty. Fires were burning and only inmates loosed from prisons and asylums roamed the streets. Citizens had already evacuated in great convoys, taking with them all the provisions and as many belongings as they could transport, including 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 normalcy prevailed - Napoleon's staff jockeyed for position; a stranded French theatrical troupe performed in the Kremlin; Stendhal, a foot soldier in the Army, recalled Nero's fire in Rome, and as winter drew near Napoleon waited for Tsar Alexander to return and sue for peace.
Filled with horrific human suffering and almost indescribably scenes of carnage, The Retreat is a vivid and memorable depiction of the Russian campaign, and an unblinking look at the capacity of those in extreme adversity, and of what men, when called upon, can survive.

Starred Review. Second in Rambaud's Napoleonic trilogy, this installment chronicles the emperor's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. The book opens as the imperial army, having lost three-quarters of its men on the icy, disease-ravaged march from France, approaches the gates of Moscow, where Napoleon imagines he will rest for the winter, hosted by the conquered czar. Instead, he finds a city emptied of people, food and soldiers—a cold and desolate hell. As in his previous novel, The Battle, Rambaud chooses a few characters to tell the story. Young Sebastian Roque sees nothing romantic about warfare; Captain d'Herbigny, on the other hand, adores military pomp and wishes only for a heroic return to Normandy. Napoleon himself has lost sight of reality, and declares, "This winter we will levy fresh contingents to reinforce us and then we will march on St. Petersburg... or India." But there are no fresh contingents coming nor any food to feed the men who remain. They have no choice but to return to France, facing cold, starvation and disease. Rambaud has a knack for wry pathos that keeps the book from bogging down in horror—a hungry d'Herbigny ties his loose pants up with strings of looted pearls. As one of the most famous military debacles in history, Napoleon's awful march to and from Moscow is riveting, and Rambaud brings a keen immediacy to the harrowing events.
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