Napoleon Bonaparte: An Intimate Biography. |
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Napoleon Bonaparte: An Intimate Biography.
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by Vincent. Cronin
Sales Rank: 373879
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$17.00
At Amazon
on 4-15-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover
Published by: William Morrow March 1972
ISBN 10 Number: 0688001009
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0688001001
Reader Reviews
This is undoubtedly the best biography available on Napoleon. It centers around Napoleon as a person and Emperor, and concerns itself less with his military achievements. His rather humble beginnings on Corsica, his education in the military school at Brienne, and his feeling for, and after his father's death from stomach cancer (which would later kill him), his taking over has head of the family is thoroughly and thoughtfully brought into focus. These are the character building years for Napoleon, and though something of a loner in school, as well as a serious student, it demonstrates thoroughly how he had the wherewithall to achievve what he did in life. Contrary to most biographies, the author concentrates on what Napoleon was like as a man and a person. He talks of his personality, friends, what he did and didn't like in other people, and in his daily personal and professional relationships with those around him. The picture painted is quite different than the traditional 'Corsican Ogre' that has been passed down since the final defeat in 1815. Traditionally, as well as recently in some substandard biographies, Napoleon has been presented as a murderer, sadist, psychopath, friendless, a military dictator, looter, ruthless conqueror, and as a soldier, though talented, one who cared little for the lives of those soldiers who followed him the length and breadth of Europe. Cronin presents the very human, and humane, soldier and head of state, careful of the money he spent, always balancing his budgets (even in 1814 with the Empire crumbling around him, France had practically no national debt). Napoleon was careful of the lives of his men, ensuring the wounded were always taken care of after the fighting was over. The Consulate and early Empire are thoroughly covered, giving just due to the myriad and monumental civil achievements Napoleon accomplished during that period. In truth, Napoleon entirely remade France, based on the social gains of the Revolution, firmly, but fairly reestablishing law and order after the tumultuous upheavals of the Revolution. The book is thoroughly researched and sourced, much of it from primary source material that hadn't been used before. The author is sympathetic to his subject, and maybe it is about time a biobrapher is. Napoleon has been inaccurately vilified by too many authors with either an axe to grind or relying on suspicious source material. In one of the appendices, Cronin evaluates many of the period memoirs for authenticity and reliablility. It is a small gem in the larger crown of the book as a whole. This volume is highly recommended and it is one of the few in print that looks at Napoleon the man, and destroys the myth of Napoleon the 'Corsican Ogre.'
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Napoleon Bonaparte: An Intimate Biography.
Available from Amazon
Price: $17.00
Updated on 4-15-2008.
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