Tsirkuse süda - Juha Vakkuri

An exceptionally imaginative work, *The Battle* captures the brutality and heroism of one of the 19th century’s greatest conflicts: the Battle of Essling.
The battle began on May 16, 1809, when Napoleon’s forces confronted the Austro-Hungarian armies at Essling, near Vienna. A struggle ensued that soon descended into a slaughter—a vortex of terror in which more than 40,000 men were killed in the span of just a few days. This battle marked the beginning of an era of massive carnage that would come to characterize Napoleon’s military campaigns.
Honoré de Balzac had intended to write a novel about this battle; he conducted extensive research and even visited the site of the conflict. His goal was to plunge the reader into the very heart of the battlefield—into all its beauty and horror. Unfortunately, his attention was divided among several other projects, and he never progressed beyond the research phase. Now, a century and a half after his death, Patrick Rambaud has examined the classic author’s notes and written the very novel that Balzac had longed to create.