Napoleon (LIVES) - Hardcover

Johnson, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297607375 ISBN 13: 9780297607373

Publisher: Orion, 2002

Synopsis

This concise biography is written with great wit and panache, but also has a serious purpose: to make us face up to the moral bankruptcy of Napoleon¿s dictatorship. Johnson tells the whole story: his astonishing gift for figures and calculation, his mastery of cannon; his audacious, hyperactive and aggressive generalship and his simple battle tactics; his complete control of propaganda and the success of the cultural presentation of the Empire; the Code Napoleon; his failure as an international statesman, as Europe grew to hate him; his marshals and ministers; his wives, mistresses, personal style and working methods; the British blockade and the Continental System; the mistakes in Spain and Russia. The escape from Elba, the events leading up to Waterloo and the battle itself, which gets a full treatment, is particularly riveting.

About this title

Product Description:

In this concise, astringent and wonderfully readable biography of Nepoleon Bonaparte, Paul Johnson tells the story of his life and legacy, often surprising us with unexpected details and vivid insights.

Review:

Reviews for Paul's excellent short biography of Napoleon are coming in thickan faxt 'A coherent discussion of the topic of Napoleon in history. In this book you are overhearing an acute mind rehearsing a selection of the best evidence.'Robert Giddings, TRIBUNE 'This biography serves as an invaluable meansof quickly getting up to speed on the life and times of one of history's most influential men, ultimately what makes it most attractive is the unsentimental and unromantic assessments.'Shane Coleman, THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE 'It is lucidly written, and enlivened by personal details and well-chosen quotations.'William Doyle, THE TLS 'A thoughtful and incisive essay.'Frank McLynn, THE INDEPENDENT 'Written with his customary verve and certainty, Johnson's book is therefore a moral as well as a narrative work.'Andrew Roberts, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'It's hard to imagine so erudite, fluent and refreshing a writer as PaulJohnson ever producing a dull book and he certainly has not done so in this latest contribution to the vast literature on Napoleon.'Conrad Black, THE DAILY TELEGRAPH OPEN BOOK (BBC Radio 4) reviewed the book on 14 July and there wa

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0297607375
• ISBN 13: 9780297607373
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208