Napoleon wrote a romance novel.

Eugénie Bernardine-Desireé Clary
Credit: © The Print Collector—Heritage Images/Alamy
Author Michael Nordine
June 17, 2026

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“Like all men,” Napoleon Bonaparte once wrote, “he desired happiness, but he had found only glory.” That observation comes not from a journal entry or an essay on military strategy but from Clisson and Eugénie, a romance novella the future emperor wrote at age 26. 

Said to have been inspired by Napoleon’s own relationship with Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary, the story details the doomed romance between a revolutionary French soldier and a woman he meets at a public bath. At just 17 pages, it’s less a major literary work than an interesting footnote in a fascinating life.

“Their eyes met. Their hearts fused,” Napoleon wrote of Clisson and Eugénie’s meet-cute, adding that she “was like a piece by Paisiello which transports and elevates only those souls born to appreciate it, leaving ordinary people unaffected.” Only Clisson — a stand-in for Napoleon — is wise enough to see what makes Eugénie so special, though the protagonists’ star-crossed love affair ends tragically. Clisson eventually returns to war, during which time Eugénie is seduced by one of his friends; after learning of her infidelity, Clisson leads a suicidal charge and dies in battle. 

The novella wasn’t translated into English until 1972, but the current edition claims — perhaps dubiously — that it “makes the reader regret that Napoleon Bonaparte did not write more fiction.”

By the Numbers

Did you know?

Napoleon could have been a hand model.

Along with his military prowess and writing ability, Napoleon’s hands are said to have been among his proudest features. “His hand was the fattest and prettiest in the world,” wrote Betsy Balcombe, who befriended the exiled emperor during his time on St. Helena, “his knuckles dimpled like those of a baby, his fingers taper and beautifully formed, and his nails perfect.” Indeed, Napoleon was reportedly quite vain about his hands, which his valet Louis Étienne Saint-Denis claimed “were of the most perfect model; they resembled the beautiful hands of a woman.”

According to Saint-Denis, Napoleon wore gloves only when he went horseback riding, and even then often kept the garments in his pockets — all the better to show off his hands, apparently. Even his longtime adversary Germaine de Staël wrote, “I recollect once being told … that Bonaparte’s nails  were perfectly well made. Another time a courtier exclaimed, ‘The first consul’s hand is beautiful!’”

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