Published by: The Brain Trust
2023 Softcover
Pages 202
ISBN: 9798867676032
The publisher’s Notes
Raymond Keene OBE is uniquely placed to write up the interaction between those two titans of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Napoleon Bonaparte and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The former was the most powerful statesman and warrior the world had ever witnessed, up to that time; the latter was the epitome of European culture, with his Faust epic considered the greatest creation of German literature. Both loved the game of chess.
The author is a chess Grandmaster, former British and EU Champion, who majored in French and German literature, language and culture, while studying at Trinity College Cambridge, where he shared lodgings for a year with the future King Charles III. At Trinity, Ray’s special topic was the life and works of Goethe.
Ray has included his new performing version translation of Goethe’s Faust and propounds here the theory that Faust and Napoleon share many traits in common. Goethe described Napoleon as demonic, but Goethe went one better and his greatest work shares the stage equally between a Napoleonic Faust and a real demon, Mephistopheles, surging directly from the pit of Hell.
This book is an essay on inspiration. How two great geniuses – Napoleon and Goethe – recognised and inspired each other, how great minds of the past influenced them and how these lessons can be adapted and incorporated to enrich the readers’ own endeavours in life.
“Goethe possessed unparalleled wisdom and a profound understanding of human nature.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“Bonaparte, the greatest man of action ever known to human records.”
Sir Winston Churchill
Contents
Acknowledgements
Timelines of Napoleon and Goethe
Quotes about Napoleon and Goethe
Foreword by Professor Marek Kasperski
Napoleon and Goethe: The touchstone of genius
Introduction by Raymond Keene OBE
Chapter 1 The Art of Warfare
Chapter 2 Napoleon’s
Master Mind Group
Alexander
the Great
Hannibal
Julius Caesar
Chapter 3 The Value of Speed
Chapter 4 Battlefield Strategy and the Game of Chess
Chapter 5 Napoleon the Chess Player
Chapter 6 Napoleon and Alekhine
Chapter 7 Goethe’s Faust
Chapter 8 Goethe’s Faust: A Performing Version translated by Raymond Keen OBE
About the author
Bibliography and further reading
My overview
The book is published in softback and hardback. The front cover looks rather
impressive in black and green/gold with images of Napoleon and Goethe. It is
printed on good quality paper with a decent sized and readable font and the
images of art and the chess diagrams throughout complement the text nicely.
I had no idea what these two famous people had in common, or how they were even associated with one another. That’s where my educational journey began. The two actually met and – to my interest - they both loved chess. Both were leading experts in their chosen profession in military and literature and both like to win and be the best at what they did.
I do note that there was a book written in 2008 by one Gustav-Seibt entitled Goethe and Napoleon: A Historical Encounter and there is certainly a German edition of this out there, but I have no idea if there is any chess in it. Almost certainly not. The two are unrelated.
The first part of the book examines Napoleon, and the Second Goethe with the performing version of Faust according to the author’s translation. He has written ‘Goethe’s Faust, an abridged version’ in 2020 published by Filament Publishing Limited, but this is the performing version and I note that whilst some images are understandably and necessarily the same there are some lovely new ones here placed in different areas of the text. Julian Simpole’s illustrations are superb.
This book reveals insights into two famous people, how they were as individuals and indeed how the pair were linked. There is more on Napoleon than Goethe. Both men were born twenty years apart, Napoleon in 1749 and Goethe in 1769, and they met in 1808 at Erfurt and Weimar. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall at that defining moment.
Just a note on the foreword written by Professor Marek Kasperski. The Napoleonic General, Jan Hendryk Dąbrowski was his mother’s distant but direct relative! His name is known in Paris as ‘Dombrowsky’ and it appears on the Arc de Triomphe, which is very interesting. Of course – the professor has a special interest in this work, then.
So – diving straight in and the author shares his knowledge of Napoleon, and in addition to all of the well-known battles etc. he tells us about his ‘Master Mind Group.’
What on earth is that?
Well, the three big names that Napoleon cherished from history were Alexander the Great, Hannibal and Julius Caesar. These were three conquerors that he wished to emulate and all were a huge inspiration to him. Keene provides engrossing details about all three, to include their stellar endeavours which as everyone must know, were historically significant. Amongst many other successes, Alexander overthrew the Persian Empire, Hannibal took those famous elephants across the Alps and Caesar founded the Roman Empire. What more do you want? Incidentally, one of Alexander’s generals was called ‘Ptolemy’ which was the name of one of legendary astronomer Sir Patrick Moore’s cats, but I digress.
This is a book that discusses military strategy and chess, and indeed how closely the two are related. I have always been expounding this view on my own chess travels. Chess is fundamentally a war game, comprising of two armies - each with warriors that possess certain skill sets and a general (the king) that must utilise each unit to get the very best from them. The key is harmony, but there are many other elements to battle strategy, such as surprise! Speed is also critical in war – just as it is in chess and the author explains in chapter four how in his view, battlefield strategy and chess are related. The curious reader will be interested in the section outlining five key battles and Keene’s comparison with five games of chess. How on earth can this be done? Well it makes sense when you read it! The un-enlightened onlooker may be confused but it has intellectual weight, especially to chess players. Napoleon said ‘In war, morale is everything.’ and the same must be said about the royal game. Chess players will doubtless enjoy the games, with clear and understandable notes from a Grandmaster of chess. Play through the games on a proper chess board, as I did and enjoy them.
I have read many of Raymond Keene’s books and have commented before that he is an intellectual heavyweight, with a truly unique mind and a substantial cerebral carapace. You never know what new delights will face you with the turn of each page. When he discusses Napoleon the chess player, we learn that the French General wasn’t actually very good, and four apocryphal games are given that cannot in any way ever be substantiated.
In other parts I was very impressed at the depth that the author has gone to in order to inform us (for example) that many of the officers of the Duke of Cumberland, who was the victor against Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden, subscribed to André Danican Philidor’s 1749 book L’analyze des Échecs. Philidor was one of the world’s leading chess players at the time.
Why does the author include a chapter on Napoleon and Alekhine, a former World Chess Champion? Well, it’s kind of neat, actually. He weaves into the plot, a quote from Napoleon that struck a chord with Keene whilst he was abroad that reminded him of one of Alekhine’s games. Upon his return home, he located the said game and trust me, the finish to that contest from 1937 is absolutely sublime.
That’s Napoleon done then – dead and buried on 5th May 1821.
To Goethe, and there’s not as much detail about the man himself here as there is on Napoleon, but the point is to present the performing version of Faust which is there to enjoy again and again. Faust was Goethe’s life work and reflects his personality, trying to bring more light to the world. Keene expounds that Faust has character traits with Napoleon, and that neither were bothered about any moral dimension to their activities. Fair point!
It would be remiss of me not to state that Goethe may have said the greatest thing ever about chess in that it was ‘The touchstone of the intellect.’ That’s incredibly succinct, and very profound, although looking at some of my games, you wouldn’t think it. I had never read any Faust (thanks, school!) until the author introduced me to it in his previous work, but I absolutely love it. Faust is malevolent, full of himself, creative and cocky – I shouldn’t be at all surprised then if he was a decent chess player.
I enjoyed the book, and I found the work around Napoleon in particular to be an education, as it should be. It began with tales of a legendary General, and finished with God, Faust and the heavenly host ascending into the heavens, having emerged victorious against Mephistopheles as he is left gnashing his fangs somewhere below.
When I finish any book, in which I have invested time and usually money (gifts apart), I want to have derived intellectual value from it, and this was certainly the case here. Keene is clearly passionate about chess, German culture and language and he continues to push boundaries in terms of making remarkable connections between events and people in his own inimitable fashion. One does not have to always agree with the author but by being curious, keeping an open mind and considering possibilities the reader will benefit. Historians, thespians and chess fans alike should keep a copy on their bookshelves for discussion at social occasions.
I know I will.
