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Product Description
Andrew Roberts
'A superb work of both scholarship and literature. Dwyer leaves the reader pining for his second volume'
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Review
'This life of his hero in two volumes is the work that Dwyer was placed on earth to write ... We are clearly in the presence of what will be a monumental work ... meticulously researched and well-written first volume, which leaves the reader keenly anticipating the second' Andrew Roberts, Literary Review 'Remarkable ... a satisfying, psychologically convincing account of Napoleon's early years and ascent to power. Even-handed and authoritative, this fascinating and highly enjoyable book will be an eye opener even to those who think they know the subject well' Adam Zamoyski, Sunday Times 'Bonaparte's staggering ambition and penchant for blaming others for his mistakes are apparent throughout' Financial Times Summer Books 'An extraordinary story ... Dwyer has his own way of telling the story and this makes his book more than just a canter across familiar terrain ... an attractive addition to the literature on one of the most controversial figures in modern European history' Thomas Munch-Petersen, BBC History Magazine
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The first part of the title of this review is what I thought when I saw this book: Strewth! not another great big biography of the Emperor. It never seems to end, does it, and neither do these books. Now here's another one of them. This one by professor Dwyer, a full 600 pages. And that's only the first volume.
Still, I had to buy it, of course, to add to my growing collection of books on Napoleon and his era, and while I forked out the money and took it home I cursed the bonapartistic demon that controls my mind and makes my buy all those books.
You name it, I've got it and read it: Steven Englund (very good), J. M. Thompson (good), Georges Lefebvre (one of the best), Frank McLynn (quite good), Alan Schom ((boneybashing on a grand scale, boring after the first 200 pages), David Chandler (the "Campaigns", jolly good), John Elting (Grande Armee, very good) Adolphe Thiers (19th century hagiography), Jean Morvan (early 20th century books on Napoleon's army, absolutely unsurpassed) Jean Tulard, Thierry Lentz (the two foremost moders french napoleonic scholars, Johannes Willms (excellent, though as yet only in german) and many, many more.
I didn't really expect all that much of this book, being one of so many biographies. But professor Dwyer manages to tell Napoleon's life in an engaging, yet scholarly manner and provides quite a few new insights, angles and point of view. He has included much of the latest modern scholarship on the Emperor and thus produces a view on Napoleon with a different slant than most biographies which appeared in the last 25 years.
Well worth the money, well worth the effort and well worth the time. I will be looking out for the second volume.
Still, I had to buy it, of course, to add to my growing collection of books on Napoleon and his era, and while I forked out the money and took it home I cursed the bonapartistic demon that controls my mind and makes my buy all those books.
You name it, I've got it and read it: Steven Englund (very good), J. M. Thompson (good), Georges Lefebvre (one of the best), Frank McLynn (quite good), Alan Schom ((boneybashing on a grand scale, boring after the first 200 pages), David Chandler (the "Campaigns", jolly good), John Elting (Grande Armee, very good) Adolphe Thiers (19th century hagiography), Jean Morvan (early 20th century books on Napoleon's army, absolutely unsurpassed) Jean Tulard, Thierry Lentz (the two foremost moders french napoleonic scholars, Johannes Willms (excellent, though as yet only in german) and many, many more.
I didn't really expect all that much of this book, being one of so many biographies. But professor Dwyer manages to tell Napoleon's life in an engaging, yet scholarly manner and provides quite a few new insights, angles and point of view. He has included much of the latest modern scholarship on the Emperor and thus produces a view on Napoleon with a different slant than most biographies which appeared in the last 25 years.
Well worth the money, well worth the effort and well worth the time. I will be looking out for the second volume.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's tough for anyone to write a biography of Napoleon because so very many people have already done it before, making it hard to make a new book distinct and different. Philip Dwyer broadly succeeds in doing this, but his book remains only a partial success all the same.
Indeed, it was the most obviously 'new' thing Dwyer has to say about Napoleon that I found amongst the least interesting aspects of the book. Essentially, Dwyer portrays Napoleon as what today we would term a spin doctor par excellence. OK, fine, Napoleon did use art and newspapers and proclamations to portray himself in a particular, very favourable light, but then he was a political figure, so what do you expect? That's not meant as a general slur at politicians, rather as an observation that people in political life have always 'spun' things since time immemorial. Sure, Napoleon was particularly good at it, but one almost gets the impression from Dwyer's book that he practically invented the art of spin. This overstates the case and was, I felt, a rather weak pillar upon which to build a biography of the French emperor.
Fortunately, in spite of the above, there is much in Dwyer's book to commend it. He broadly manages to be fair and even-handed, although one does sense that, if pushed, Dwyer would put himself in the Bonaparte detractor camp. Some sections are very enjoyable, like the parts dealing with Bonaparte's relationship with Josephine or much of the section on the Egyptian expedition. The book is also easy to read and never becomes bogged down. That said, I felt the writing lacked real sparkle and excitement. Napoleon's life must be one of the most entertaining stories in history, yet Dwyer's account of it was a bit, well, flat. This is not a boring book by any means, but neither is it a real page turner and I can recall no sections that made the pulse race. Perhaps that's partly a personal taste issue, as much of the most exciting writing on Napoleon, I find, concerns his military exploits, and they are rather thinly covered in this book. Some readers will doubtless be glad of a Bonaparte biography that is light on war, but others, like myself, will wish Dwyer had spent a bit more time on Napoleon's early campaigns, especially those in Italy.
Overall, this is a worthy enough book and I certainly don't regret spending the time it took to read it, yet at the same time it left me feeling somewhat disappointed and unsatisfied. Hopefully the second volume of the biography will be more exciting.
Indeed, it was the most obviously 'new' thing Dwyer has to say about Napoleon that I found amongst the least interesting aspects of the book. Essentially, Dwyer portrays Napoleon as what today we would term a spin doctor par excellence. OK, fine, Napoleon did use art and newspapers and proclamations to portray himself in a particular, very favourable light, but then he was a political figure, so what do you expect? That's not meant as a general slur at politicians, rather as an observation that people in political life have always 'spun' things since time immemorial. Sure, Napoleon was particularly good at it, but one almost gets the impression from Dwyer's book that he practically invented the art of spin. This overstates the case and was, I felt, a rather weak pillar upon which to build a biography of the French emperor.
Fortunately, in spite of the above, there is much in Dwyer's book to commend it. He broadly manages to be fair and even-handed, although one does sense that, if pushed, Dwyer would put himself in the Bonaparte detractor camp. Some sections are very enjoyable, like the parts dealing with Bonaparte's relationship with Josephine or much of the section on the Egyptian expedition. The book is also easy to read and never becomes bogged down. That said, I felt the writing lacked real sparkle and excitement. Napoleon's life must be one of the most entertaining stories in history, yet Dwyer's account of it was a bit, well, flat. This is not a boring book by any means, but neither is it a real page turner and I can recall no sections that made the pulse race. Perhaps that's partly a personal taste issue, as much of the most exciting writing on Napoleon, I find, concerns his military exploits, and they are rather thinly covered in this book. Some readers will doubtless be glad of a Bonaparte biography that is light on war, but others, like myself, will wish Dwyer had spent a bit more time on Napoleon's early campaigns, especially those in Italy.
Overall, this is a worthy enough book and I certainly don't regret spending the time it took to read it, yet at the same time it left me feeling somewhat disappointed and unsatisfied. Hopefully the second volume of the biography will be more exciting.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the course of this fine biography that charts Bonaparte's rise from Corsica to Consul of France, one particularly distressing anecdote stands out: Following Bonaparte's capture of Jaffa in 1799 the French troops engaged in a murderous sacking of the town, during which the soldiers kidnapped a large number of women and girls. They were "taken to the French camp and raped. Bonaparte, hearing of this, ordered that all women were to be led into the hospital courtyard by midday on pain of a severe punishment... it was believed that they would be sent back to the ruins of the town where they would find refuge. However a company of chasseurs was assembled to execute them" (p418).
This is very much a political, rather than a military biography of Bonaparte. The author's interest is focused upon the exercise of power and particularly how Bonaparte parlayed his reputation for military success, often self authored and shamelessly exaggerated, into political power. But while there is little discussion of the battles there is a close consideration of Bonaparte's role as a general-in-chief, how he organised, or failed to organise his logistics, and his policies towards conquered peoples. The disorganisation of Bonaparte's march on Cairo pre-figures his failures in his Russian campaign, and the brutality displayed to the Arab populations of Egypt and Syria anticipates the brutality of Europe's 19th century "scramble for Africa", and indeed 20th and 21st century Western atrocities in the Middle East.
In considering all of this the author is at pains to emphasise that in terms of ruthlessness Bonaparte was little different from the other commanders of the era, whether British, Austrian or Russian. Yet, while this is undoubtedly true as British policy in Ireland in 1798, for example, confirms, there is something frightening about a man who could make a cold-blooded choice to slaughter those defenceless Palestinian women at Jaffa. Whatever greatness Bonaparte may ultimately have achieved it is dimmed beyond measure when one contemplates it in relation to the terror of those poor women's last moments.
The book is a triumph in showing Bonaparte's path to power paralleled by his precipitous moral decline and the growth of his egotism. It is an engrossing and chilling piece of work.
This is very much a political, rather than a military biography of Bonaparte. The author's interest is focused upon the exercise of power and particularly how Bonaparte parlayed his reputation for military success, often self authored and shamelessly exaggerated, into political power. But while there is little discussion of the battles there is a close consideration of Bonaparte's role as a general-in-chief, how he organised, or failed to organise his logistics, and his policies towards conquered peoples. The disorganisation of Bonaparte's march on Cairo pre-figures his failures in his Russian campaign, and the brutality displayed to the Arab populations of Egypt and Syria anticipates the brutality of Europe's 19th century "scramble for Africa", and indeed 20th and 21st century Western atrocities in the Middle East.
In considering all of this the author is at pains to emphasise that in terms of ruthlessness Bonaparte was little different from the other commanders of the era, whether British, Austrian or Russian. Yet, while this is undoubtedly true as British policy in Ireland in 1798, for example, confirms, there is something frightening about a man who could make a cold-blooded choice to slaughter those defenceless Palestinian women at Jaffa. Whatever greatness Bonaparte may ultimately have achieved it is dimmed beyond measure when one contemplates it in relation to the terror of those poor women's last moments.
The book is a triumph in showing Bonaparte's path to power paralleled by his precipitous moral decline and the growth of his egotism. It is an engrossing and chilling piece of work.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
How to write your own history...
This is the first biography of Napoleon (to my knowledge) that describes how Napoleon managed to force his own story to posterity. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Edwin Camerlynck
An immensely impressive study of Napoleon's formative years
Before reading this book, I had no idea how little I knew about Napoleon Bonaparte. As such, I found Philip Dwyer's study of Napoleon's rise to power wholly fascinating. Read more
Published on 16 July 2009 by Daniel Jolley
Easy Path
History books are often said to read easily, to be almost like a thriller. In my experience, and I read a lot of history and other books, the book doesn't always match the blurb. Read more
Published on 11 Feb 2009 by A. Cochrane
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