Napoleon grew up with Bourrienne. When Napoleon needed a personal secretary, he hired Bourrienne. We saw in Meneval’s memoirs that one day Méneval had been summoned out of nowhere to replace Bourrienne.
If you know Napoleon, he had the greatest difficulty firing anyone who had been with him since his early days. Napoleon was Mr. Nostalgia times a 1,000.
When Napoleon found that Bourrienne had been up to his embezzling ways again, Napoleon said that Bourrienne lacked the sacred fire and that if he wanted to worship the golden calf - that was all he was going to get.
Bourrienne’s memoirs were ghostwritten and they were a byproduct of his financial problems. Most of the other memoirists, except the non credible valet Constant (who shared a publisher with Bourrienne), have complained profusely about what Bourrienne put his name to in his memoirs.
It’s also worth noting that Napoleon’s stepdaughter Hortense attempted to counsel him on how to forget about her when Bourrienne found himself madly in love with her.
What will we find in these memoirs?
The memoirs are available here.