NAPOLEON The Path to Power 1769-1799

DWYER Philip

ISBN 10: 0747574901 / ISBN 13: 9780747574903

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. 9780747574903, 2007

About this Item

1st edn 1st printing. Tall 8vo. Original gilt lettered black cloth (VG), dustwrapper (VG in protective cover, not price clipped). Pp. 651, illus with coloured frontispiece and b&w illus and map (previous owner's neat inscription on front endpaper and blind-stamped monogram on rear endpaper). Seller Inventory # 184508

Bibliographic Details

Title: NAPOLEON The Path to Power 1769-1799

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2007. 9780747574903

Publication Date: 2007

Binding: Hardcover

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Napoleon Bonaparte's rise to power was neither inevitable nor smooth; it was full of mistakes, wrong turns and pitfalls. During his formative years his identity was constantly shifting, his character ambiguous and his intentions often ill-defined. As a young and inexperienced general he covered up his defeats and exaggerated his victories, never hesitating to blame others for his failures and failings. He was, however, highly ambitious, and it was this ruthless drive that advanced his career and his social status. This book examines the extraordinary evolution of Napoleon's character and the means by which at the age of thirty he became head of the most powerful country in Europe: from his Corsican origins to his French education, from his melancholy youth to his involvement in Corsican political faction-fighting during the Revolution, and from his flirtation with the radicals of the French Revolution to his first military campaigns in Italy and Egypt - and the political-military coup that brought him to power in 1799. Philip Dwyer's expansive study sheds new light on the darker aspects of Napoleon's character - his brooding obsessions and potential for violence - and also his passionate nature: his loves, his ability to inspire others and the capacity to realise his visionary ideas. One of the first truly modern politicians, Napoleon skilfully fashioned the image of himself that laid the foundation of the legend that endures to this day. Fresh, innovative and broad in scope, this outstanding biography mints anew one of the great figures of modern history.

About the Author:

Philip Dwyer studied in Perth (Australia), Berlin and Paris, where he was a student of France's pre-eminent Napoleonic scholar, Jean Tulard. He has published widely on the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, and Is the editor of Napoleon and Europe, the author of Talleyrand, and has co-edited Napoleon and His Empire: Europe, 1804-1814. He is currently Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and is working on the second volume of his biography of Napoleon. Napoleon:The Path to Power, 1769-1799 is also shortlisted for The Prime Minister's Literary Awards.