Napoleon

On a cold December day in 1840 Parisians turned out in force to watch as the body of Napoleon was solemnly carried on a riverboat from Courbevoie on its final journey to the Invalides. The return of their long-dead Emperor's corpse from the Island of St Helena was a moment that Paris had eagerly awaited, though many feared that the memories stirred would serve to further destabilize a country that had struggled for order and direction since he had been sent into exile. In this book, Alan Forrest, tells the remarkable story of how the son of a Corsican attorney became the most powerful man in Europe, a man whose charisma and legacy endured after his lonely death many thousands of miles from the country whose fate had become so entwined with his own. Along the way, Alan Forrest also cuts away the many layers of myth and counter myth that have grown up around Napoleon, a man who mixed history and legend promiscuously and, drawing on original research and his own distinguished background in French history, demonstrates that Napoleon was as much a product of his times as their creator.

ISBN 184916410X   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9781849164108 (What's this?)   Pages 352 Publisher Quercus Publishing Plc   Published in London Imprint Quercus Publishing Plc   Height (mm) 234 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 153 Publication date 27 Oct 2011   Academic level General DEWEY 944.05092

Introduction. Paris, 1840. Corsican Beginnings. Son of the Revolution. Bonaparte in Italy. Lure of the Orient. First Consul. From Consulate to Empire. Quest for Glory. A Vision of Civil Society. The Reinvention of Monarchy. From the Peninsula to Leipzig. The Hundred Days. Years of Exile. Life after Death. Notes. Bibliography. Acknowledgements. Index.

'A book of supreme competence and reflection' Daily Express. 'A valuable and entertaining addition to the vast and still burgeoning Napoleonic oeuvre' Literary Review. 'The biographer of Napoleon faces a daunting task: separating legend from reality, making sense of his contradictory legacy, and (most difficult of all) identifying a common thread in a character so obviously driven by conflicting impulses. Alan Forrest squarely confronts these challenges, and his Napoleon is a creditable addition to the literature' Times Literary Supplement.

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