- Paperback: 480 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (6 Dec 1990)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006375219
- ISBN-13: 978-0006375210
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
251,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #56 in Books > History > Europe > France > French Revolution
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A biography of Napoleon, which attempts to explain the history of this great man in personal terms.
From the Back Cover
'I wanted to find a Napoleon I could picture as a living, breathing man.'
Vincent Cronin superbly realises his objective in this, probably the finest of all modern biographies of Napoleon. It is generally accepted as the author's masterpiece.
"To present Napoleon plausibly as the classical hero of his own imagining takes nerve, originality, prodigious powers of research and a true historical imagination. Vincent Cronin displays all these qualities."
MICHAEL FOOT, 'Evenung Standard'
"Mr Cronin is not only very calm and cool, he is lucid, writes plainly and well, and organises his huge amount of raw material capably… A book of great interest."
NIGEL DENNIS, 'Sunday Telegraph,'
"It was high time that a skilful writer came to grips with this classical figure of a great man, and it is satisfactory to see how Mr Cronin has seized the opportunity to write an excellent book."
ECONOMIST
"A masterly book which tells this magnificent story with deceptive ease… Here is a fine portrait of a famous man and a cool, elegant narrative of a prodigious destiny."
BIRMINGHAM POST
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had found (a previous edition of) this book when I was 13 in my school library. I have no idea what made me read it ... I thought I was a Communist back then. I suppose I read it to find reasons to dislike Napoleon. Instead the book persuaded me, nay seduced me, to respect and admire this great man of European History. Without appearing to be obviosly doing so, Cronin destroys the monstrous prejudice that Napoleon suffers in Britain and countries with a measure of British influence (as is my country, Malta). Apart from being a huge work of research with mountains of first hand sources, this is a splendidly easy to read biography and an invitation to people who thought Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin fall in the same category to take a closer look.
40 of 42 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Napoleon is said to have generated more books on him than the number of days of his life. Yet, it is often difficult to find one short book that gives an account of all the facets, human, political, and military, of this historical figure. Cronin's book has succeeded to do so. But one warning: reading it will be an invite for reading more about Napoleon... Napoleon's era was the beginning of modern political Europe, the change from old regime to people's regimes. Also the beginning of new warfare. In Europe, nothing will ever be as before after the french revolution and the rise of Napoleon. So be prepared to be addicted as History, for once, is better than Fiction. As Napoleon said it himself "what an adventure my life has been!". You will not be disappointed by reading Cronin's book.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As Cronin says at the outset, he wants to give us Napoleon the man more than the general or emperor. And he succeeds impressively. Napoleon's campaigns and battles are well documented elsewhere (most notably in Chandler's epic text). Here Cronin gives us the battleplan not at Jena or Austerlitz, but inside the mind of the man who was Napoleon.
This is a superb text. By the end of it one feels that he almost knew and dined with Cronin's Napoleon personally. The biography is emotional and sensitive. The sense of intimacy achieved is chilling. I felt almost at his bedside in St. Helena at that painful end.
Here is a rare successful portrait of the human being behind a legend.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Kaleidoscope History: paints a very pretty picture... Just don't...
This book is marred beyond repair by the naked partiality of its author. An unashamed apologist for the power-hungry Bonaparte, Cronin applies distortion after distortion, leaving... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Astyanax
Napoleon - Revolutionary Statesman with a small penis
It is the small details that make this book so attractive- Napoleon was "God's messenger and friend of the Prophet" to the Muslims in Egypt, yet also very human - obsessed with... Read more
Published 22 months ago by wildbeeste
An excellent study of Napoleon the man.
This is the best biography of Napoleon that I have come across. Cronin gives tremendous insight into the personality and character of the French Emperor, portraying him as a human... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2009 by G. Robertson
Very readable history
Having just visited the island of St Helena and spent time at Napoleon's Grave and at Longwood and The Briars where he spent his last years in exile, I was very interested to read... Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2009 by S. Kite
A legend comes to life
Two statements made by Napoleon during the course of his remarkable, almost legendary life seem neatly to sum him up. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2008 by Four Violets
Read it
This book provides an interesting view of the man himself and, as a biography, is amazingly well written. Read more
Published on 27 Sep 2006 by I. Short
A biography that reads like a novel
This is an excellent biography of Napoleon. It is written in such a way that you feel as if you're reading a novel, rather than a dry biography, this a good thing as it makes it... Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2006 by Spider Monkey
Inside the mind of the Emperor
A good biography gives the reader the impression that the author is totally unbiased about the subject, and recounts the story from a purely objective point of view. Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2003 by FAISAL HAQ
A Great Read
5 out of 5 for readability, 1 out of 5 for impartiality. So I give it an average mark of 3.
The book is a pleasure to read, but it quickly becomes apparent that the... Read more
The book is a pleasure to read, but it quickly becomes apparent that the... Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2003 by Andrew J. Lamberth
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