Napoleon

by Vincent Cronin

Book Overview

A biography of Napoleon, which attempts to explain the history of this great man in personal terms.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006375219
• ISBN13: 9780006375210
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

The Best Single Volume about Napoleon's Life

Simply put, Vincent Cronin's Napoleon is the best biography of Napoleon I have ever read. As a student of Napoleonic history, I have read many biographies of the great man, but none has struck home like this one. Cronin presents Napoleon as the man he was, not the myth, not the legend, not the "Anti-Christ." Napoleon's fascinating life from birth to death reads like a novel. It is hard to put down. Unlike other authors, Cronin does not appear to take sides. He presents Napoleon's accomplishments as well as his faults. If you were to chose one biography of Napoleon, this should be the one!

"What a great novel my life is!"

Napoleon is reported to have said this, and it is true. In this magnificent biography of the Corsican, Cronin has written the life of Napoleon from the inside: who the man really was. It is not only circunscribed to battles and politics, but especially the intimate life and anecdotes of Napoleon. It changed my vision about this man. The information and research are exhaustive, yet the book reads like a novel. That is the true art of biography. Napoleon has been one of the most controversial characters in History, and deservedly so. Cronin does not take sides, but he clearly rejects the portrait of Napoleon as an overambitious monster, always trying to get more and more territories for France. Undoubtedly, ambition was the driving force for this man, but we have to consider that he was constantly harassed by other powers who feared that his influence would destroy the old European regimes. Undoubtedly, his coronation as Emperor was a big disappointment to all those who believed he would be the leader of Republicanism. Beethoven, for instance, dedicated his Third Symphony to him, but after the coronation he erased the dedicatory, writing instead: "To the memory of a great man". However, we have to judge historical figures by the standards of their times, not ours.All in all, this is probably the best biography of Napoleon. At least it is the best among the three or four I have read. It is a shame that it is out of print.

Gripping

I got this book at a second hand stall in Thailand, because there was nothing better there (all romances etc.) and I was unable to put it down! It's fascinating, and the characters are so vibrant and real that you can almost smell them. There is a lot of talk in the introduction about how Napolean is treated as a villain in England, and how this book runs counter to that. I have never been exposed to that bias, so it didn't affect me. What was interesting, though, was how Napolean's early success set him up for his later, spectacular defeats. The book covers the events from Napolean's birth to his death, and even if you end up not entirely in sympathy with his actions during his life, you still can maintain sympathy for him as a person, and for France at that crazy time in its history. The best thing about this book, though, is its readability. You can swap it for some popular adventure/romance/light reading novel, and actually learn something without your brain hurting at all.

Even a Napoleon Hater will learn to appreciate Napoleon...

This book paints an incredibly accurate account of Napoleon's life from a close and intimate angle. Whilst it is obvious the author is no Napoleon-hater, he does not make up anecdotes to manipulate the reader (as many Napoleon-haters do in their biographies). However, this book is no good for people who are interested in the military aspects of Napoleon. This book is more concentrated on the personal side of Napoleon. Although it mentions basic battle plans and overall strategy, that is not the purpose of the book. If you are truly interested in his army, I suggest you read "Napoleon and his Marshalls" and the Greenwood Military volume on The Napoleonic Wars.

Excellent, absorbing reading

Having been raised under a British-biased educational system, I can confirm the many prejudices we are prey to on the subject of Napoleon. (Insidiously, these are actually not so much taught as absorbed during childhood through popular myth, fable, hearsay and caricature.). Nonetheless, emboldened by the reputation of the author, whose books on the Italian renaissance were the best I had ever read, I decided to give old "Nap" a second chance and a careful hearing.Was I impressed? Put it this way: the following week I drove 1,000 miles to Paris to pay my belated respects and express my admiration at his tomb in the Invalides.Excellent, absorbing reading.