"
And the way they rattled it off sounded like his name turned round. No
wonder the Southerner glared.
How this moody and unpopular schoolboy grew from childhood without
intimate friends--without being understood--into a masterful leader of
men is one of the strange puzzles of history. It totally upsets that
other paradox, "The child is father of the man," for there was little
to indicate in the child Bonaparte, the man Napoleon.
He was not even born on the land with which his name is forever
associated, France. He first saw the light of day upon the isle of
Corsica, a rocky point in the blue waters of the Mediterranean, some
fifty miles west of Italy. By treaty, this island passed from Genoese
into French control in 1769; and it will always be a disputed question
as to which flag Napoleon was born under. He always claimed the date
of August 15, 1769, as his natal day, which would make him nominally of
French birth. But the boy Napoleon spoke Italian.
Charles Bonaparte, the future Emperor's father, was not a remarkable
man, although he stood well in his home town of Ajaccio. He practised
law, and must have worked early and late trying to provide for his
large family. His wife, Letitia, a woman of great personal beauty and
force of character, was the mother of thirteen children, Napoleon being
the fourth.
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