The prize for the winners on the podium and the anthology extended to the best works: the first literary competition ”The pen of Napoleon” was announced by the organizers Efrem Bovo (Marengo temporary manager) and Massimo Taggiasco (director Alessandria24) to the crowd of Alexandrian school leaders.
”Monday, May 5, 2024 – said Efrem Bovo – will take place the award ceremony: the day was also chosen to evoke the ode dedicated by the poet Alessandro Manzoni to Emperor Napoleon”.
”Soon – said the lawyer Taggiasco – will be released the call to participate in the competition promoted to bring the last generations to writing and epic history linked to the site of Marengo”.
The gloss ‘Santa Elena, small island’, written by the boy Napoleon strengthens the aphorism ‘The man of letters is who knows and makes a profession of knowledge’ expressed by the poet Alberto Savinio (Athens, 25 August 1891 – Rome, 5 May 1952). The idea of new literary challenge ‘The pen of Napoleon’ for students aged <14-20> enrolled in the schools of Italy runs on the tightrope of the leader running through the writing. Bonaparte wrote the pamphlet ‘Le souper de Beaucaire’ (1793) and then the novel ‘Clisson et Eugénie’ (1795). The will to write also emerges from the proclamation to the soldiers returned from the decisive debacle at Waterloo ‘If I have allowed myself to survive it is to serve your glory. I will write the great things we have accomplished together”. The memorial, requested by the Emperor of the French exile on the island of Santa Elena and prevented by illness, written by Count Emmanuel de Las Cases exalts the hidden desire of Bonaparte inclined to barter the triumph of Arcole, Austerlitz, Wagram, for eternal literary work. The topicality of Napoleon flows on the novel ‘Clisson et Eugénie’: the phrase ‘Miserable man, when you move away from the circle of nature, elevated above your peers, with the soul in the grip of illusion, effervescence, apprehension, deaf to the beauty and insensitive to the pleasures of nature” also provides liaison to today and the unarmed battle undertaken at the cultural pole of Marengo to induce the population to promote virtuous practices to protect the ecosystem and, thus, improve the prerogative of life. Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation ‘Laudate Deum’ (4 October 2023) suggests intercontinental cooperation to alleviate the climate crisis.