Abstract FR:

Baron Eschasseriaux born of a family of Saintonge notables, devoted to the emperor, used to be a member of parliament for charente inferieure from 1849 to 1893. The twenty thick volumes of his "memoirs" come up to a novel and passionate narrative which revives the history of saintonge all through the nineteenth century. It also appears as necessary to the history of bonapartism. The author describes the most prominent periods of the French political history at the time of the second republic, the second empire and the early third republic. He helps us perceive the very hart of rural bonapartism. He his totally devoted to the electoral struggle. Eschasseriaux was one of the authors of the imperialist revival after sedan ("l'appel au peuple"). After the imperial prince's death in 1879, we can equally see boulangism rallying, then the fluctuation between supporting the very last plebiscites and rallying radicalism in the provinces.