Napoleon Bonaparte, putting an end to the devastating political mistakes of the revolution and taking the head of state to consign to oblivion the Board, encouraged the establishment of a society that would permanently mark the birth of the twentieth century. During the Consulate and the Empire, the arts, technology and culture flourished and the elites created a world of luxury and frivolity where they dominated the little people. Memories, stories, newspapers, pamphlets and libels keep evidence of the story of the quarter century that is among the most extraordinary in the history of France. Anecdotes and projections, memories and mind games are there to remind one how, looking at history through the wrong end of the telescope, the powerful elite of this world sometimes prove to be shabby human beings.