Napoleon Bonaparte Part 1: Started from the Bottom | 44

Even The Royals

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.4 • 844 Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Napoleon Bonaparte is notorious for being a power-hungry, vertically-challenged French emperor who conquered, and then pissed off, much of Europe in the 19th century. But Napoleon wasn’t that short, wasn’t born in France, and actually wanted to be a writer. He was an upstart from Corsica who started out as a bullied outcast just looking for some respect. But he quickly learns that men like him aren’t just handed respect. They have to take it for themselves.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wonderie Plus subscribers can listen to Even the Royals early and ad-free right now.
0:04.1	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:08.0	A quick note about our show.
0:09.6	We do a lot of research for our stories, but we also aren't your high school history class,
0:14.2	so some details and scenes are dramatized.
0:17.1	And our language can be a little less than regal sometimes.
0:21.2	Pardon or French.
0:28.6	So, Brooke, what's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Napoleon?
0:35.0	Dynamite.
0:36.7	What the heck was Grandma doing at the sand dunes? Of course, of course.
0:40.4	All right. Well, pretend you're not. Bona part. There it is. Okay. And what do you think about?
0:46.2	Like, do you have any ideas, like images? Honestly, no. I know that like a Napoleon complex is a thing.
0:52.3	So I imagine he's a little guy. Okay, okay. Who talks tough.
0:56.3	Okay. Okay. Yeah. We all have some Napoleons in our lives. Oh, for sure. I am one. I'm like,
1:01.6	over here laughing. I'm like, I'm so little and I'm always such a like. Firecracker. Yeah. Menace. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You and
1:08.7	Napoleon. So he's notorious for being vertically challenged. But he actually was not that short. Oh. He's a French emperor. And he's also, weirdly, not originally from France. Okay. So like two things people think about him short and French. I feel like if I heard Napoleon, though, I would think Italian.
1:28.1	What if I said, Napoleon? Then what would you think? I would think Erecha needs to stop doing
1:32.5	French accents. Well, that's just ludicrous. So, Napoleon was actually from the Mediterranean
1:39.3	island of Corsica. Okay. And at about five foot six, he was actually slightly above average height for men in France at the time.
1:47.2	It was the British press who made up the lie that he was short as a way to insult him.
1:52.5	Wait, he was above average height?
1:54.4	For men in France.
	...

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