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Napoleon the Great cover art

Napoleon the Great

Written by: Andrew Roberts
Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
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Publisher's Summary

Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives. In the space of just 20 years, from October 1795, when as a young artillery captain he cleared the streets of Paris of insurrectionists, to his final defeat at the (horribly mismanaged) battle of Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon transformed France and Europe.

After seizing power in a coup d'état, he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the revolution had descended. In a series of dazzling battles, he reinvented the art of warfare; in peace he completely remade the laws of France, modernised her systems of education and administration, and presided over a flourishing of the beautiful Empire style in the arts.

The impossibility of defeating his most persistent enemy, Great Britain, led him to make draining and ultimately fatal expeditions into Spain and Russia, where half a million Frenchmen died, and his empire began to unravel.

More than any other modern biographer, Andrew Roberts conveys Napoleon's tremendous energy, both physical and intellectual, and the attractiveness of his personality even to his enemies. He has walked 53 of Napoleon's 60 battlefields and has absorbed the gigantic new French edition of Napoleon's letters, which allows a complete reevaluation of this exceptional man.

He overturns many received opinions, including the myth of a great romance with Josephine: She took a lover immediately after their marriage, and, as Roberts shows, he had three times as many mistresses as he acknowledged.

Of the climactic Battle of Leipzig in 1813, as the fighting closed around them, a French sergeant major wrote, "No-one who has not experienced it can have any idea of the enthusiasm that burst forth among the half-starved, exhausted soldiers when the Emperor was there in person. If all were demoralised and he appeared, his presence was like an electric shock. All shouted 'Vive l'Empereur!' and everyone charged blindly into the fire."

Andrew Roberts is a biographer and historian of international renown whose books include Salisbury: Victorian Titan (winner, the Wolfson Prize for History); Masters and Commanders; and The Storm of War, which reached number two on the Sunday Times best seller list. Roberts is a fellow of the Royal Societies of Literature and Arts. He appears regularly on British television and radio and writes for the Sunday Telegraph, Spectator, Literary Review, Mail on Sunday and Daily Telegraph.

©2014 Andrew Roberts (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

What the critics say

"Roberts...writes with great vigour, style and fluency." (Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times)
"Magisterial and beautifully written.... A richly detailed and sure-footed reappraisal of the man, his achievements--and failures--and the extraordinary times in which he lived." (Jeremy Jennings, Standpoint)
"Roberts tells his story with vigour and aplomb. And even critics of the emperor will recognize that there is much new information in Roberts’s 814 pages, while the frequent complaint that is made of a tendency among authors to foreshorten the military narrative is not suitable here." (Charles Esdaile, Literary Review)

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    3 out of 5 stars

Bad pronunciations

Odd choice to have a narrator whose French pronunciations are really weak, despite his German seeming excellent. A bit dry as well, in terms of intonation. Book is for Napoleon enthusiasts, rather than mildly interested amateurs.

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5 people found this helpful

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Absolutely Riveting

Couldn’t put the book down. Wasn’t a single boring part.
Incredibly interesting man, and a well written biography.

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1 person found this helpful

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Definitive book on Napoleon

This book lived up to my expectations. It is somewhat scholarly, containing newly uncovered details or interpretations of Napoleon's life. And at the same time it's a "page-turner".

Much of the book is, naturally, dedicated to accounts of Napoleon's battles and campaigns. But you don't have to be a military person to understand why Napoleon lost certain battles or how ingenious he was in his victories on the battlefield.

Despite the book's title, I am not convinced that Napoleon was "great". Quite to the contrary, I can't help but think about the 3 million soldiers who died in Napoleonic Wars. Most notably, French soldiers who met their horrible deaths on the territory of the Russian Empire simply because Napoleon was obsessed with blockading Brittain... It strikes me.

The performance and the language of the book are exemplary.

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Excellent

The dry humour interspersed throughout the account is well placed alongside the overall tone. Recommend to anyone who wants a factual yet entertaining account of Napoleon

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A must listen

What a delightful long and winding trip. So far it's second only to the Churchill bio on here for me. Enjoy with confidence, you won't regret it.

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Aptly named

I wish he spent much more time on his early years. This man lived more life in a day than anyone in our day lives in a lifetime. Well worth your time and attention.

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Amazing Story!

Listening to this book, and learning about Napoleon’s remarkable life, has made me realize that ordinary people are capable of anything.
What a story! What a life!

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Excellent

This is an exceptionally well written book which it is a pleasure to read. It deals with a very complex life cogently. The subject is still important, but not well known or understood. This book addresses both needs. Napoleon is the archetype of later men who have risen from unpromising beginnings to supreme state power, used arbitrarily and cruelly at home, and militarily aggressively abroad. The subject is worth knowing, and the book is worth reading. The author is a gifted biographer whose work is both interesting and entertaining in a mature manner.

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Bad history and okay reading

Ura ura! - does not mean plunder. Many such nonsensical small errors in this book. I get it, this is a popular history and not academic level but the text is far too much a shameless praise of Napoleon to have any value. Historical writing is nothing if it reads like a list of battles and supposedly great achievements without any critical evaluation. This is one of those books that read like teenage fanboy praise of superhero. Quite disturbing at times.

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He Came, He Saw, He Conquered

I enjoyed this book immensely. If you’re interested in history, this is a must read

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