So this blog is a little over two years old now! It started off as just a way for me to share some random bits and pieces about Murat for no real purpose other than just wanting to share my interest in him with others. But as I’ve gotten deeper into my research and numerous ongoing translation/research projects, my ideas for the direction of the blog have taken a slightly different turn, especially now that I’ve been feeling so much more motivated with it over the past few months.
When Murat first captured my interest three-ish years ago, I was dismayed to find so little English-language material available on him. Obviously he isn’t as well known as Napoleon (especially outside of France), and just in general there isn’t a whole lot of material in English on Napoleon’s marshals–which is sad, because they’re a fascinating bunch. My sole saving grace was having studied enough French in high school to be able to start tackling Murat’s correspondence, steadily brushing up my French as I went; without that foundation, I probably would’ve just resigned myself to what little was available in English and left it at that. Which would’ve left me with a very incomplete and unsatisfactory picture of Murat.
So my goal with this blog for the foreseeable future will be to steadily turn it into an archive of English-language materials on Murat–some of which already exist in English, but most of which I’ll be translating from French. I’m also going to be working on building some index pages to better organize my content here, in order to make things easier to find–a list of the memoirs I’ve posted excerpts from, and a list, by year, of the letters I’ve posted. (And if anyone has any suggestions for other things I might add, please let me know!)
I’ve still got a ton of material to work my way through, so I’m looking forward to continually expanding this blog into a thorough Murat archive.
Thanks to everyone who visits, and I hope you continue to enjoy the blog!
Project Murat 
You are so ambitious; this blog is very interesting and educational. Keep up the good work.
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Thank you!!
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You know I’m looking forward to every new pience you publish here, and I totally concur with Karen. Your work here is amazing; I’m so glad we met on FB!
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I’m glad we did too! I very much enjoy all of our discussions on Murat, Eugène, and other random Napoleonic subjects. And a lot of the stuff you share, especially the German translations, are entirely new to me, so I’m very grateful. ❤
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Congratulations on your second year!! Hereâs to many more!
Tom
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Thanks Tom! 🙂
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Sarah, I think your blog has been consistently a joy to read–full of true scholarship, excellent translations [I started from Ground Zero learning French before I tackled my dissertation], and a generally witty approach. Murat is truly a lucky man.
But then I’ve always thought women do a much better all-round job with the marshalate than men–we look deeper and see so much more.
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Thank you so much for the kind words, Maggie, they’re very much appreciated.
I’ve been attempting to start learning Italian from scratch so I can hopefully one day attempt to take on some of the Italian-language material on Murat, especially in regard to his reign in Naples, but I just can’t muster the energy to really focus on it at this point. It really is daunting learning a whole new language in hopes of being able to read 19th century writings down the line. I wish I’d developed this interest in Murat ten years ago or so, starting a brand new language in your twenties is a bit easier than in your mid-thirties.
I do think women in general tend to be more empathetic historians and take a much greater interest in the personalities, emotions, idiosyncrasies, complexities, flaws, and interpersonal relationships of the figures they study. I’m definitely more interested in those things–in fleshing out Murat, the man–than I am in a dry discourse on battle tactics that reduces the people involved to faceless chess pieces on a board.
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