Napoleon: The Man Behind The Myth

'Napoleon is an out-and-out masterpiece and a joy to read' Sir Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad
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_x000D_ A landmark new biography that presents _x000D_ the man behind the many myths. The first writer in English to go back to_x000D_ the original European sources, Adam Zamoyski's portrait of Napoleon is _x000D_ historical biography at its finest.
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_x000D_ Napoleon inspires passionately held and _x000D_ often conflicting visions. Was he a god-like genius, Romantic avatar, _x000D_ megalomaniac monster, compulsive warmonger or just a nasty little _x000D_ dictator?
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_x000D_ While he displayed elements of these _x000D_ traits at certain times, Napoleon was none of these things. He was a man_x000D_ and, as Adam Zamoyski presents him in this landmark biography, a rather_x000D_ ordinary one at that. He exhibited some extraordinary qualities during _x000D_ some phases of his life but it is hard to credit genius to a general who_x000D_ presided over the worst (and self-inflicted) disaster in military _x000D_ history and who single-handedly destroyed the great enterprise he and _x000D_ others had toiled so hard to construct. A brilliant tactician, he was no_x000D_ strategist.
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_x000D_ But nor was Napoleon an evil monster. He _x000D_ could be selfish and violent but there is no evidence of him wishing to _x000D_ inflict suffering gratuitously. His motives were mostly praiseworthy and_x000D_ his ambition no greater than that of contemporaries such as Alexander I_x000D_ of Russia, Wellington, Nelson and many more. What made his ambition _x000D_ exceptional was the scope it was accorded by circumstance.
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_x000D_ Adam Zamoyski strips away the lacquer of _x000D_ prejudice and places Napoleon the man within the context of his times. _x000D_ In the 1790s, a young Napoleon entered a world at war, a bitter struggle_x000D_ for supremacy and survival with leaders motivated by a quest for power _x000D_ and by self-interest. He did not start this war but it dominated his _x000D_ life and continued, with one brief interruption, until his final defeat _x000D_ in 1815.
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_x000D_ Based on primary sources in many European _x000D_ languages, and beautifully illustrated with portraits done only from _x000D_ life, this magnificent book examines how Napoleone Buonaparte, the boy _x000D_ from Corsica, became 'Napoleon'; how he achieved what he did, and how it_x000D_ came about that he undid it. It does not justify or condemn but seeks _x000D_ instead to understand Napoleon's extraordinary trajectory.