Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt

Mirage:
Napoleon's Scientists
and the Unveiling of Egypt

Nina Burleigh – who is an author and a journalist – has written a book about Napoleon and Egypt. It covers the French invasion of Egypt (1798-1801), but only as a sideshow, because the main topic of her book is the story of the 151 scientists, scholars and students who were recruited for this expedition.

The official name of this group was ”The Commission on Arts and Sciences attached to the Army of the East.” In French they were called ”corps de savants” or simply ”les savants,” meaning ”the learned ones.” Most of them did not know the destination when they volunteered to go.

The invasion of Egypt was a disaster. The fleet was defeated by the British, and the soldiers were defeated by several forces (Arabs, Turks and the British) and, to a large degree, by the hot climate and some deadly diseases. Napoleon himself did not stay on for the whole campaign. In August 1799, after little more than one year in the area, he sailed back to France, leaving most of his army and most of ”les savants” to fend for themselves for another two years.

The main part of the book is divided into 12 chapters. Nine of them present a scholar or a group of scholars. The chapter headings make you believe the structure of the book is thematic. It is, but it is also chronological. Every chapter has a subheading which indicates the time frame.

Chapter 5 presents the engineers, the time frame is fall and winter 1798-1799. Chapter 6 presents the doctors, the time frame is spring and summer 1799. But the engineers and the doctors were present for the whole expedition, not just for a season or two.

Chapter 7 presents a mathematician, the time frame is summer and fall 1799. But in this chapter the story continues until June 1800 when the French general Kléber was assassinated in Cairo. The subheading with the time frame is misleading.

Chapter 8 presents an artist, Dominique-Vivant Denon, the time frame is fall and winter 1799-1800. But Denon left Egypt with Napoleon in August 1799. Again, the subheading with the time frame is misleading.

Apparently, the author could not decide on her approach: thematic or chronological, so she decided to have both at the same time. This is unfortunate. The sections about the scholars should have been separated from the chronological account.

I have to mention a few other things that bother me: mistakes, omissions and unneccessary repetitions:

Mistakes

** On page 118, she explains how a doctor had changed his aristocratic name Des Genettes to the more democratic Desgenettes. But later, on page 136, she uses the old name: Des Genettes.

** On page 180, she says: ”For hundreds of centuries, Philae had represented a major milestone for travelers in Egypt.” I think this time frame is way too long. She must mean ”For many centuries…”

** On page 232, the doctor appears again: ”When he got back to Egypt, Napoleon awarded him the rank of baronet…” But Desgenettes never returned to Egypt. She must mean ”When he got back from Egypt…”

Omissions

The bibliography is quite extensive, it includes some works published only in French. But a few recent items are missing:

# 1: John Cole, Napoleon’s Egypt

# 2: Paul Strathern, Napoleon in Egypt

# 3: Irene Bierman, Napoleon in Egypt

Items # 1 and # 2 were published in 2007. Maybe they are to new to be included in her list. But item # 3 was published in 2003. This item could - and should - have been included in her list.

Unnecessary repetitions
The author likes to repeat herself:

# 1. Two times Denon is described as ”lace-cuffed.” Pages 1 & 170.

# 2. Two times we hear that Denon’s book about his travels in Egypt ”was translated into Italian, English, Spanish and German, and became the first best-seller of the nineteenth century.” Pages 184 & 233.

”Les savants” were busy from the beginning to the end, taking notes and making drawings, although they had to work under very difficult conditions:

 

(1) all the equipment that they had brought from Europe was lost at sea just before landing in Alexandria.

 

(2) Egypt was not a land of peace; the scholars had to work under military protection which the soldiers did not always want to provide.

 

(3) Many scholars were afflicted by serious diseases like dysentery and an eye disorder known as ophthalmia.

Napoleon’s plan to conquer Egypt and turn it into a French colony was an impossible dream, a mirage, hence the title of the book. The French soldiers first experienced this phenomenon in July 1798 when they were marching through the desert from Alexandria to Cairo. In the distance they could see an oasis with palm trees and water. But when they got closer, there was nothing. It was a mirage, an optical illusion.

The military campaign was a disaster, but for the world of science, education and historical knowledge it produced two important results:

(1) In 1799, some French soldiers found the Rosetta stone which turned out to be the key to understanding the Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1801, the British took possession of the stone, and thus it ended up in the British Museum in London, but it was a French scholar - Jean-François Champollion - who eventually cracked the code of the hieroglyphs, as Burleigh explains in chapter 11.

(2) The French scholars wrote a book that was based on notes and drawings made during their stay in Egypt. This magnificent book – The Description of Egypt - was published in 24 volumes from 1802 to 1828, and it was the most comprehensive work ever published about this country, as Burleigh explains in chapter 12.

The French invasion of Egypt is an incredible and fascinating story. Nina Burleigh’s book about ”les savants” and their stay in this country is interesting and easy to read. But for reasons explained above, I can only give it four out of five stars.

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Nina Burleigh,

Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt,

hardcover 2007, paperback 2008, 286 pages

 

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