You won't come away from this energetic biography thinking much of the French emperor either as a man or as a general. Historian Alan Schom depicts Napoleon (1769-1821) as a cold-hearted manipulator: Schom's blistering accounts of the 1798-99 Egyptian campaign and the disastrous 1812 retreat from Russia show the French army decimated due to its leader's failure to inform himself about the lands he was invading or to properly plan for provisioning his troops. The fun of this book comes from vigorous prose that vividly evokes Bonaparte's titanic personality and the colorful band of schemers surrounding him.


From Library Journal
Until now, there has been no comprehensive, one-volume biography on Napoleon. This book ably fills that gap. Napoleonic scholar Schom (One Hundred Days, Atheneum, 1992) has written an objective account, describing the strengths and weaknesses of his complex subject and his tremendous impact on Europe. Unique to this book are the insightful discussions of Napoleon's relationships with his family, wives, mistresses, and other luminaries of the day and his little-known friendship with a leading French mathematician, Gaspard Monge. The author contends that Napoleon was a paranoiac psychopath, and he uses numerous examples of kidnappings, murders, lies, and wars brought on by the Corsican to illustrate his case. He was also sadistic in his persecution of various individuals, from a simple German bookseller to his own brother Lucien. A wonderful biography; highly recommended.?David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Robert Gildea
I should come clean and confess that I have always admired Napoleon.... Schom's account is a revival of the black legend that was propagated by Napoleon's enemies from the moment he took power. They saw Napoleon as a warmonger, usurper and military dictator.... Napoleon-lovers will be uncomfortable with this book, Napoleon-haters will embrace it.


From Kirkus Reviews
A biography so negative, it even casts doubt on Napoleon's military genius. Historian Schom (Trafalgar, 1990, etc.) breaks no new ground in portraying the man who rose from the impoverished Corsican aristocracy to become emperor of France as a brutal, selfish manipulator who dreamed only of glory and cared little for other people. But even previous biographers who didn't think much of Bonaparte as a human being or a ruler usually conceded that he had no equal on the battlefield. Schom is at pains to refute this notion, beginning with a blistering account of the Egyptian campaign of 179899, during which the French army was decimated due to its general's failure to inform himself about the land he was invading or to properly plan for provisioning his troops, flaws that would have even more tragic consequences in Russia in 1812. The evaluation is so hostile, it's a little hard to understand how Egypt made Napoleon popular enough to sweep into power in November 1799--let alone how he managed to lead the French army triumphantly across most of Europe over the next 13 years. Despite his assertion that he covers ``every aspect of [Napoleon's] life and character,'' Schom severely scants the monarch's sweeping political and social initiatives within France; not even the enduring Napoleonic Code gets much attention. This is old-fashioned narrative history, primarily concerned with personal intrigue among the elite and detailed accounts of battles, and lacking consideration of their broader context. On that limited basis, it's entertaining: vivaciously and rather sloppily written, effectively if not definitively researched (notes refer mostly to published sources rather than archives), with vivid character sketches of all the Bonapartes, the agreeable and promiscuous Josephine, cynical foreign minister Talleyrand, and other key figures. More suitable for those looking for the proverbial ``good read'' than anyone seeking deeper insights into a crucial transitional moment--and man--in French history. (32 pages b&w photos, 20 maps, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
"Polished, scholarly, and successful."


John Maxwell Hamilton
Subject: Your Amazon.com Order From: orders@amazon.com "A badly needed comprehensive, one-volume life .[NAPOLEON] does a magnificent job of covering the full sweep..."


Gregor Dallas, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Schom has a lively style.....His technique....is very effective....[NAPOLEON] is a timely book."


David Chandler, author of THE CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON
"This biography by Alan Schom will shake the Napoleonic clientele--and for good reasons, too."


Bob Trimble, Dallas Morning News
"Napoleon has fascinated mankind for two centuries, and Mr. Schom's book is just as fascinating."



"Ambitious.readable, even gossipy."


Joseph Losos, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Powerful."


Book Description
Finalist, Los Angeles Times book prize biography named one of Library Journal's best books of 1997 Praise for Napoleon Bonaparte


About the Author
Alan Schom is a Fellow at the Hoover Institution and has lectured on French History at Oxford University. He lives in California and France.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Schom's one-volume life of Napoleon includes all facets of Napoleon's incredible career, from his childhood in Corsica to his death in exile on the island of St. Helena. It follows his many military campaigns and describes the great battles he won and lost from northern Italy to Egypt, Spain, Prussia, Austria, Poland, and Russia, to his final defeat at Waterloo. It illuminates his extensive political and structural reorganization of the French government; explores his relationships with his wives -- the legendary Josephine and her replacement, Marie-Louise -- and some of his mistresses; and chronicles his feuds with his tempestuous family and both loyal and mutinous officials. Key aides, ministers, generals, and naval commanders -- from Talleyrand and Police Minister Fouche to Marshals Ney, Davout, and Lannes, Admiral Villeneuve, and many more -- are fully portrayed and given their due. International rivalries and diplomatic negotiations are also thoroughly covered, and Napoleon's many opponents and enemies -- including Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Emperor Franz I of Austria, Czar Alexander I of Russia, and Field Marshals Kutuzov, Blucher, and the Duke of Wellington -- are brought vividly to life. There are intriguing fresh insights here, too; among them an examination of Napoleon's little-known friendship with a leading mathematician and savant, and of the cause of his death on St. Helena. Unique in Napoleonic literature, even that by French authors, is Schom's candor about Napoleon's character flaws. Nor does he gloss over the awful misery and destruction that Napoleon's endless, often needless wars of conquest wreaked on the peoples of Europe, his indifference to the medical needs of his own soldiers, or the surprisingly frequent examples of his poor planning and intelligence-gathering.

FROM THE CRITICS

Robert Gildea - The New York Times Book Review

A rip-roaring yarn...a vast dramatis personae of emperors and princesses, marshals and bishops, mistresses and murderers....Napoleon does, as it claims, present the whole Napoleon, the public and the private face....Schom has a lively style, and a neat turn of phrase, and his book reads well.

Robert Gildea

A rip-roaring yarn...a vast dramatis personae of emperors and princesses, marshals and bishops, mistresses and murderers....Napoleon does, as it claims, present the whole Napoleon, the public and the private face....Schom has a lively style, and a neat turn of phrase, and his book reads well. -- The New York Times Book Review

Adam Gopnik - The New Yorker

Polished, scholarly, and successful.

Dan Wick - Washington Post Book World

Meticulously researched... Schom presents a rounded portrait not only of Napoleon but also of the principal figures in his extraordinary life... and brilliantly presents Napoleon's life while appropriately deflating his legend.

Kirkus Reviews

A biography so negative, it even casts doubt on Napoleon's military genius. Historian Schom breaks no new ground in portraying the man who rose from the impoverished Corsican aristocracy to become emperor of France as a brutal, selfish manipulator who dreamed only of glory and cared little for other people. But even previous biographers who didn't think much of Bonaparte as a human being or a ruler usually conceded that he had no equal on the battlefield. Schom is at pains to refute this notion, beginning with a blistering account of the Egyptian campaign of 1798-99, during which the French army was decimated due to its general's failure to inform himself about the land he was invading or to properly plan for provisioning his troops, flaws that would have even more tragic consequences in Russia in 1812. The evaluation is so hostile, it's a little hard to understand how Egypt made Napoleon popular enough to sweep into power in November 1799—let alone how he managed to lead the French army triumphantly across most of Europe over the next 13 years. Despite his assertion that he covers 'every aspect of [Napoleon's] life and character,' Schom severely scants the monarch's sweeping political and social initiatives within France; not even the enduring Napoleonic Code gets much attention. This is old-fashioned narrative history, primarily concerned with personal intrigue among the elite and detailed accounts of battles, and lacking consideration of their broader context. On that limited basis, it's entertaining: vivaciously and rather sloppily written, effectively if not definitively researched (notes refer mostly to published sources rather than archives), with vivid charactersketches of all the Bonapartes, the agreeable and promiscuous Josephine, cynical foreign minister Talleyrand, and other key figures. More suitable for those looking for the proverbial 'good read' than anyone seeking deeper insights into a crucial transitional moment—and man—in French history.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

"Superb. Mr. Schom has achieved every historian's dream; using exemplary scholarship to write a page-turning best seller."  — HarperCollins

"Schom has a lively style.....His technique....is very effective....[NAPOLEON] is a timely book."  — HarperCollins

"A badly needed comprehensive, one-volume life .[NAPOLEON] does a magnificent job of covering the full sweep of Napoleon's career."  — HarperCollins

"A rip-roaring yarn...a vast dramatis personae of emperors and princesses, marshals and bishops, mistresses and murderers....NAPOLEON does, as it claims, present the whole Napoleon, the public and the private face....Schom has a lively style, and a neat turn of phrase, and his book reads well."  — HarperCollins

"Polished, scholarly, and successful."  — HarperCollins

"Meticulously researched...Schom presents a rounded portrait not only of Napoleon but also of the principal figures in his extraordinary life...and brilliantly presents Napoleon's life while appropriately deflating his legend."  — HarperCollins

"A darkly nuanced biography.....In many ways, Schom's strengths as a historian match those of his protagonist....Schom reveals a tactical mastery of the events of Napoleon's life, calling to mind the emperor's grasp of terrain. His book is bold in scope, and ...his salvos are devastating."  — HarperCollins

"Vigorously researched and often brilliantly written.[an] ultimately balanced, no-nonsense portrait that has the benefit of 20th-century science."  — HarperCollins