Mark Twain’s Short Story, ‘The Lost Napoleon’

On a boat cruising down a river in France, the famous author comes upon a ‘grand apparition.’

Bronze statue of Napoleon on horseback in the Place de la Légion d'Honneur in Montereau-Fault-Yonne, 1867, by Charles-Pierre-Victor Pajol. Public Domain

On a beautiful day with nothing special to do, it’s pleasant to lie on the grass and just stare at the clouds. Up in the sky, we might see a sheep, elephant, or some other wonderful cloud sculpture slowly moving by. Wondrous shapes have also been seen in other natural places, like faces in trees, figures in the water, or men in mountains.  

In his short story “The Lost Napoleon,“ Mark Twain (1835–1910) contemplates the many surprises that await one when seeing the world with a sense of wonder: ”We have all seen mountains that looked like whales, elephants, recumbent lions [...] but we did not discover them, somebody pointed them out to us, and in the same circumstances we have seen and enjoyed stately crags and summits known to the people thereabouts as ‘The Old Man’s Head,’ ‘The Elephant’s Head.’”

Down the Rhône

Twain made his own discovery on a river excursion down the Rhône River in France. For his river trip to Marseilles, he hired a boat, a courier, and a boatman to take him on a relaxing journey down the river. He describes the journey as days filled with hours of reading, writing, smoking, note-taking, snacking, and just lazing about. He and his small crew rowed down the river during the day, getting lunch from the locals who lived along the river. In the evening, they stopped at a village or house where Twain ate and slept. In the morning, they moved on.

His trip proved to be extraordinary when he came upon his discovery. Around the eighth day, Twain spotted a village where they could stay the night. There, from his boat, he saw it: A large mountain range and, in that range, a figure. Twain immediately turned to the courier and asked him, “Name it. Who is it?” The courier explained that it was Napoleon sleeping. To Twain, it was a “grand apparition.”

Twain realized that the figure he saw in his wonder-filled gaze “is not an unsentient artifice of nature, but the master of the world sentient and dreaming.” It was as perfect as the work of an accomplished sculptor.

Twain calls this specific mountainous figure “The Lost Napoleon” because he could later not remember where he saw it during his journey. This bothered him greatly as it was a most marvelous figure in stone. He said: “The Lost Napoleon is easily the most colossal and impressive statue in the world. ... It represents Napoleon himself and not another.”

He then considered the effect on the area if the Lost Napoleon were known: There’d be tourists, tourists, tourists—more than at Niagara or the Alps. “All the other famous natural curiosities of the globe would fall to a rank away below it. I think so still.” (An end note by Twain’s biographer gives the location of the stone emperor.)

Through this delightful account of his river trip and his wonderful discovery, Twain shows how wonder enriches our life. Wonder lets us see the secrets of nature that daily observations fail to spot.

Twain’s story embodies G.K. Chesterton’s words: “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.” Though the landscape around us may seem boring, it is not. We just need the right outlook to see the special wonders in it.

As we journey by boat, plane, car, or on foot, we should look around with wonder-filled eyes. Only then will we see magic in the world and, maybe, men in mountains.

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