Napoleon - Andrew Roberts

Napoleon

By Andrew Roberts

  • Release Date: 2014-11-04
  • Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Score: 4
4
From 243 Ratings

Description

The definitive biography of the great soldier-statesman by the acclaimed author of Churchill and The Last King of America—winner of the LA Times Book prize, finalist for the Plutarch prize, winner of the Fondation Napoleon prize and a New York Times bestseller

“A thrilling tale of military and political genius… Roberts is an uncommonly gifted writer.” —The Washington Post

Austerlitz, Borodino, Waterloo: his battles are among the greatest in history, but Napoleon Bonaparte was far more than a military genius and astute leader of men. Like George Washington and his own hero Julius Caesar, he was one of the greatest soldier-statesmen of all times.

Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon’s thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine. Like Churchill, he understood the strategic importance of telling his own story, and his memoirs, dictated from exile on St. Helena, became the single bestselling book of the nineteenth century.

An award-winning historian, Roberts traveled to fifty-three of Napoleon’s sixty battle sites, discovered crucial new documents in archives, and even made the long trip by boat to St. Helena. He is as acute in his understanding of politics as he is of military history. Here at last is a biography worthy of its subject: magisterial, insightful, beautifully written, by one of our foremost historians.

Reviews

  • Character Overload

    3
    By Miroreca
    The book had way too many characters mentioned to keep up with who was who. I was able to follow a few notables but everybody else just ran together.
  • Must read for any Napoleon enthusiast

    5
    By archilny
    This is the best, most accurate, and most comprehensive biography of Napoleon ever written. The author is very fair, thorough, and balanced in describing the events and in depicting Napoleon’s character; there is a lot of detail of Napoleon’s strengths and of his weaknesses/negative qualities. The illustrations in the end of the book are also great.
  • I have to look up five words per page!

    3
    By KRAZYEYE
    I am only at the beginning of this book so my review may change. Like I said in the title, I am looking up a lot of words, some there are no definitions for! I have read a decent amount in my life, I feel like I am just learning to read with how much I am referencing the dictionary.
  • Five Stars

    5
    By Lukester2012
    Best biography concerning Napoleon and amongst the best biographies written in a decade. The work is a jewel, beautifully written, in form and substance.
  • Three dollars MORE than the hard cover!

    1
    By k2films
    I was ready to buy this and prefer using the iBooks store but this price is ridiculous. It's $4.50 more than another popular online bookstore's version and even more expensive than the hardcover version. How can a digital download be more expensive than its hardcover edition? Apple, you need to sharpen your pencil on these prices. The iBooks experience used to be appreciably better than your competitors but it's not worth paying such a premium.

Comments