Decades of Darkness #94b: If I Could Turn Back Time
Decades of Darkness #94b: If I Could Turn Back Time
“Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.”
-- Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)
* * *
Extract from: The Encyclopaedia Recidivus (3rd edition)
Editor-in-chief Lord Percy Kelvin III
(c) 1949 New Cambridge University Press
Sydney, Kingdom of Australia
Used with permission.
Gothic Novel
The gothic novel is a former British literary genre, characterised by dark, terrifying and often gloomy settings and themes. Among the more common tropes are horror, mystery and suspense, doomed or cursed protagonists, especially inherited curses, rot and decay, insanity, and the supernatural, particularly ghosts and other haunted buildings.
The genre flourished in two major periods, the classic Gothic period and a briefer Gothic revival. The classic period lasted from the publication of Horace Walpole’s “The Castle of Otranto” in 1764, the first Gothic novel, through the genre’s popularisation by Ann Radcliffe, the quintessential Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” in 1818, until the decline of the literary form during the 1830s and 1840s.
The Gothic novel experienced a renaissance during the late 1880s and 1890s, usually credited to the experience of the Second Napoleonic Wars. The revival developed the familiar themes of gloom and melodrama, but included a greater focus on the supernatural, with tales of ghosts, zombies and vampyres becoming more widespread. Novels of the revival period also shifted the focus from medieval, rural settings such as graveyards to contemporary urban landscapes. The most prominent Gothic revival novels were Mervyn James’s “Diary of a Sinner” (1889), and Alice Peake’s two classics “Lord of the Night” (1893), the defining vampyre novel, and “Beneath Our Feet” (1897), featuring the first modern depiction of a thrall [1].
In the twentieth century, the Gothic literary genre was largely absorbed into the burgeoning field of science fantasy, where its supernatural themes and terror became accepted convention for the darker novels. Some of the works of Ernst Grillparzer have been considered as Gothic novels, although they were independently conceived, and later pseudo-Gothic authors incorporated some of his themes into their work.
* * *
Excerpts from: “From Grotte Chauvet to Grosse Chapman: 30,000 Years of Painting”
(c) 1948 by Anthony Pollock, Jr.
Turteltaub Publishing: Jerusalem, Kingdom of Palestine
France during the late nineteenth century saw the early days of Le Fleuraison, the Flowering, the artistic, musical and literary revival which arose in republican Paris once the conservatism of the Bonapartist days was overthrown. The revival produced many cultural masterpieces, such as the famed operas as “The Emperor Icarus”, composed before Napoleon IV’s death and proclaiming him a vainglorious fool, and “The Days of Blood”, dedicated to the memory of the Battle of Roulers, and released after Napoleon IV’s passing, and which compared him to Hannibal.
But perhaps no movement depicts the Flowering as aptly as Momentism. Formed as a private school of Parisian painters in 1880, in protest against the conservatism of the Academy of Fine Arts, Momentism remained a fringe movement until after the Second Napoleonic Wars. As people sought new meaning and changes in a France stripped of its backward-looking heritage under the Bonapartes, the Momentists rose in prominence. The Academy of Fine Arts and a more conservative generation of art critics continued to deride them, but their works became increasingly popular with the art-viewing public.
Momentism was originally distrusted by the establishment, and later beloved by the masses, because it violated the familiar traditions of painting, both in subject and in style. Most previous art had used historical settings, with depictions of contemporary life being rare at best. Artists were encouraged to show ideal beauty, rather than natural settings. The Academy of Fine Arts particularly demanded the use of sombre, conservative colours in paintings. The Momentists, led by Claude Leroy and Liliane Deneuve, broke all of these rules. Their paintings focused on transitory natural beauty in modern settings, especially the interplay of light in all its forms. Their paintings are easy recognisable, even today, by their use of short brush strokes, unmixed colours and smooth blending to depict an overall impression rather than details...
* * *
1 January 1890
Bonn, Grand Duchy of Nassau
German Reich
Karl Rudden surreptitiously tried to smoke a cigarette as the long wedding music droned on and on from inside the cathedral. He was here only because one did not turn down an invitation to a royal wedding, with the bond about to be formed between the Grand Duchy of Nassau and the Grand Duchy of Hesse and the Rhine. But he was more interested in finishing the cigarette, rolled from finest American tobacco. He found these ‘little cigars’ much more convenient than the full version, and had thought so ever since his cousin brought the technique home with him from the Spanish war [2].
Rudden dutifully listened to the recital of Bach’s ‘Wedding Catanta’ as he finished the cigarette, but he had no great interest in it. His main interest was in the bar-musette music from France which had started to reach into the Reich, but no aristocrat would play that here. The main whispered concerns inside had been on what this marriage might mean for the future of both states.
“Nothing, that’s what,” Rudden murmured, although he would never have answered that inside. All the marriages and personal unions between the minor German states from Schleswig-Holstein to Zurich could have simplified Germany’s internal borders if the government were of a mind to, but it never had in half a century of the Reich. Too many nobles had too much interest in their status in the government, particularly in their representation in the Diet [3]. They wouldn’t change that... just as they wouldn’t change the style of music they had for a royal wedding to something created in the nineteenth century.
His cigarette finished, Rudden scurried back inside to be seated before the bride arrived.
* * *
14 May 1887
Algiers, French Empire
Prince Charles Jean Louis Napoleon Bonaparte felt that he should have been celebrating his twenty-first birthday in the style befitting the future Emperor of France. The celebrations had been desultory so far, although there would be more tonight. In the meantime, people seemed more concerned with the news that the rebel government in Paris had sent their navy to blockade Algiers, including their two fearsome new battleships Republique and Democratie [4], which no imperial vessel could match. Or the oft-repeated rumour through the streets of Algiers, that soon there would be republican soldiers landing.
“Your Highness, your father commands your presence,” a servant murmured in Italian-accented French.
Charles nodded reluctantly, but followed quickly behind the servant. His father often showed humour, but when he gave a command, he expected it to be obeyed on the instant.
Sure enough, he found his father sitting alone on a chair, looking east over the bay. The servant mumbled a greeting, then left at the Emperor’s curt wave.
“If only this didn’t need to happen on your birthday,” the Emperor said.
“Father?”
“The Republic chose well, naming this day for their blockade,” the Emperor said, still looking out the window rather than at Charles. “And they will not stop while I am on the throne.”
His father’s tone let Charles understand. “You cannot abdicate, father. You are the true Emperor of France [5].”
“By tonight, I will not be,” the Emperor said. Now he turned to look at Charles. “You must go on, my son. I will never be allowed to seize power again... but you might.”
“We can still fight!” Charles said.
“To what point? We cannot win, for now. But someday you will have a chance, I am sure.”
“I don’t understand. If you give up now, why will I have a future opportunity?”
“Because I have two pieces of advice for you,” the Emperor said. “Democracy will always be weak, both the current republic and democracies everywhere. Democracies are short-sighted, divided, unable to focus, and change direction according to the ephemeral will of the people. They need a strong leader to guide them, and even then a strong leader can often be abandoned. When dealing with the Republic, you must chart a course for yourself to greatness, and adhere to it, wait only for a moment of democratic weakness, and you will have power.”
“And your other advice?” Charles said, having learned years ago when to cease arguing with his father.
“Beware the danger of your allies. France’s strength I knew, and Germany’s strength I knew, but Russia’s weakness I knew not. It is this which you must guard against. Know your enemy, and know yourself, but most of all know those who would be your ally. It is them you must guard against.”
Slowly, Charles nodded. “I will remember that, father.”
“Good.” The Emperor removed one of his rings, which he had worn since his feigned abdication in Paris. Charles had seen him fiddling with that ring several times before. “Now leave me. Enjoy the rest of your birthday as best you can.”
* * *
Taken from: “Words From The Ages: A Collection of Historically Significant French Documents”
(c) 1946 by Field Marshal Henri Pierre Gascoyne (ret.)
Revival Press: Adelaide, Australia
Introduction
Napoleon IV’s “Dernière lettre au Français” (Final Letter to the French) was found beside his body after he took poison on 14 May 1887. This document, and the relative safety in praising him after his death, led to the tale of Napoleon IV as a martyr.
To all citizens of France,
France is indivisible, her glory paramount, her citizens legendary. That this union of France should have been briefly separated wounded me grievously. A separation forced by foreign powers in momentary weakness for France, but which should have been peaceably reconciled. Willing was I to discuss this with the representatives of Paris, yet no discussions would they undertake. With battleship and cannon would they have sought to reunite France. Their goal I admire; their methods I deplore.
Yet for that I could have defeated them, I believe that never should Frenchmen fight Frenchmen. To have remained in this world would only have brought about that abomination. If I retired from Algiers, the Republic would have pursued me to the ends of the earth. Only my death could have prevented this tragedy of France fighting herself.
So this world I depart, there to greet, I hope, our risen Lord. Some have claimed this departure a mortal sin, but is it not also written that God is all-merciful? If a man should be damned for taking his own life, in what is claimed a violation of God’s will, would a doctor not also be damned for extending the days of a man’s life? It is, I believe, the heart of a man that God will judge, not his last action, and so I ask that He look into my heart and judge me as He will. Even if I am damned, still this price I would pay to spare uncounted thousands of my countrymen who would otherwise have perished.
Fare you well in your lives, citizens of France.
(Signed) Napoleon IV Bonaparte
* * *
“He found more triumph in death than he ever did in life.”
From: “The Life and Times of Napoleon IV”. By Prof. N. Leahy, Trinity College, University of Dublin (Liberty Press, Dublin, 1952)
* * *
[1] A thrall is essentially a rat which can shift to human form.
[2] i.e. from the Spanish front during the Second Napoleonic Wars.
[3] The Upper House of the German Diet receives representatives per state, and all of these representatives are noble. This means that reducing the number of states within Germany will weaken the merged state’s influence in the Upper House.
[4] These vessels are roughly equivalent to the OTL French Charles Martel class, although a little inferior in gunnery and armour.
[5] In fact, Napoleon IV has abdicated that title, calling himself only Emperor of Algeria, but his son isn’t that keen to accept that.
* * *
Thoughts?
Kaiser Wilhelm III
https://www.alternatehistory.com/decadesofdarkness/
http://decadesofdarkness.blogspot.com/
