“Like all men,” Napoleon Bonaparte once observed, “he desired happiness, yet found only glory.” This reflection appears not in a formal treatise but in the romance Clisson and Eugénie, a brief tale the future emperor drafted at twenty-six. Often linked to his own liaison with Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary, the narrative follows the doomed bond between a revolutionary French soldier and a woman he encounters in a public bath. With a mere seventeen pages, it reads more as a curiosity in a remarkable life than a substantial literary work.

“Their eyes met. Their hearts fused,” Napoleon wrote about Clisson and Eugénie’s meeting, adding that she “was like a piece by Paisiello, capable of transporting and elevating only those souls born to appreciate it, while ordinary people remained unmoved.” In this telling, Clisson—who stands in for Napoleon—recognizes Eugénie’s exceptional nature, yet their romance is marred by fate. War pulls Clisson away, and during his absence Eugénie is drawn to a friend of his. Upon learning of her betrayal, Clisson leads a reckless charge and falls in battle.

The novella did not reach English readers until 1972, and the current edition raises a cautious claim that it might provoke readers to wish Napoleon had written more fiction. The piece remains a marginal note in a life defined by empire and battle, a glimpse into the personal myths that swirled around a man who changed history.