“Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant. Until that goal is attained I am invulnerable, unassailable. When Destiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a fly may suffice to destroy me.” Napoleon Bonaparte (from Napoleon: In His Own Words, 1916, edited by Jules Bertaut)
These words, attributed to Napoleon, reflect the belief he had in the power of an unknown force called Destiny. Personally, I’m inclined to view Destiny, if anything, as a combination of genes, circumstance and free will.
Coincidence, too, plays a role. While I don’t think Destiny drives me to write this novel about Napoleon, here are a couple of fun coincidences:
The chair on the left is in the Briars, Napoleon’s first residence on St Helena. The one on the right is in my library where I do most of my writing. I inherited it from my mother who bought it at auction, then recreated the original needlepoint cover.
I took the photo on the left of the rug in Napoleon’s dining room in Longwood House on St Helena. The photo on the right is a close-up of the similar Bokhara rug in my library at home.
I hope that my Destiny is not so tied to Napoleon’s that when I finish this book “a fly may suffice to destroy me!”