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Laurel
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Did Napoléon Bonaparte ask his wife Josephine "notnot to bath"bathe for several days in a letter before his arrival?

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EpicBroccoli
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According to British historian Andrew Roberts, Napoléon Bonaparte wrote a letter to his wife Joséphine, in which he wrote "to her, ‘don’t wash for three days’" to spice up their reunion. This seems to be a common story also found in many other sources such as blogs and this popular science book on the biochemistry of attraction.

Some sources seem to be skeptical about the authenticity of this request and call it an urban legend. In an episode from the BBC show QI, it is claimed that "Napoleon did not say many of things we attribute to him to Josephine. There is no evidence that he told Josephine not to wash. The earliest source for this quote is 1981"

According to this neurobiology paper, the source might be "de Tourtier-Bonazzi C, Tulard J. 1981 Napoléon. Lettres d’amour à Joséphine", which is probably the source from 1981 mentioned in the QI script. According to this Quora answer, the passage might possibly be found on page 155 of the book, although the contributor on Quora does not claim to have checked the book. The authors of the neurobiology paper also only claim that the quote is "attributed" to the respective book, and seem not to have read it themselves.

The 1981 book, simply judging by its cover, does not strike me as fiction or apocryphal, thus I am skeptical about its dismissal by the BBC show "QI". One of its authors was a historian at the Sorbonne.

According to British historian Andrew Roberts, Napoléon Bonaparte wrote a letter to his wife Joséphine, in which he wrote "to her, ‘don’t wash for three days’" to spice up their reunion. This seems to be a common story also found in many other sources such as blogs and this popular science book on the biochemistry of attraction.

Some sources seem to be skeptical about the authenticity of this request and call it an urban legend. In an episode from the BBC show QI, it is claimed that "Napoleon did not say many of things we attribute to him to Josephine. There is no evidence that he told Josephine not to wash. The earliest source for this quote is 1981"

According to this neurobiology paper, the source might be "de Tourtier-Bonazzi C, Tulard J. 1981 Napoléon. Lettres d’amour à Joséphine", which is probably the source from 1981 mentioned in the QI script. According to this Quora answer, the passage might possibly be found on page 155 of the book, although the contributor on Quora does not claim to have checked the book. The authors of the neurobiology paper also only claim that the quote is "attributed" to the respective book, and seem not to have read it themselves.

According to British historian Andrew Roberts, Napoléon Bonaparte wrote a letter to his wife Joséphine, in which he wrote "to her, ‘don’t wash for three days’" to spice up their reunion. This seems to be a common story also found in many other sources such as blogs and this popular science book on the biochemistry of attraction.

Some sources seem to be skeptical about the authenticity of this request and call it an urban legend. In an episode from the BBC show QI, it is claimed that "Napoleon did not say many of things we attribute to him to Josephine. There is no evidence that he told Josephine not to wash. The earliest source for this quote is 1981"

According to this neurobiology paper, the source might be "de Tourtier-Bonazzi C, Tulard J. 1981 Napoléon. Lettres d’amour à Joséphine", which is probably the source from 1981 mentioned in the QI script. According to this Quora answer, the passage might possibly be found on page 155 of the book, although the contributor on Quora does not claim to have checked the book. The authors of the neurobiology paper also only claim that the quote is "attributed" to the respective book, and seem not to have read it themselves.

The 1981 book, simply judging by its cover, does not strike me as fiction or apocryphal, thus I am skeptical about its dismissal by the BBC show "QI". One of its authors was a historian at the Sorbonne.

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EpicBroccoli
EpicBroccoli
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Did Napoléon Bonaparte ask his wife Josephine "not to bath" for several days in a letter before his arrival?

According to British historian Andrew Roberts, Napoléon Bonaparte wrote a letter to his wife Joséphine, in which he wrote "to her, ‘don’t wash for three days’" to spice up their reunion. This seems to be a common story also found in many other sources such as blogs and this popular science book on the biochemistry of attraction.

Some sources seem to be skeptical about the authenticity of this request and call it an urban legend. In an episode from the BBC show QI, it is claimed that "Napoleon did not say many of things we attribute to him to Josephine. There is no evidence that he told Josephine not to wash. The earliest source for this quote is 1981"

According to this neurobiology paper, the source might be "de Tourtier-Bonazzi C, Tulard J. 1981 Napoléon. Lettres d’amour à Joséphine", which is probably the source from 1981 mentioned in the QI script. According to this Quora answer, the passage might possibly be found on page 155 of the book, although the contributor on Quora does not claim to have checked the book. The authors of the neurobiology paper also only claim that the quote is "attributed" to the respective book, and seem not to have read it themselves.