Adam Zamoyski

Like many brilliant people Napoleon is contradictory and complex. Zamoyski does a good job revealing his many sides by stripping away the mythology. A close associate called him purely political which is probably the best way to see him. He was in his lifetime building a myth of himself, that still retains force to this day. He was not a pleasant person except when he chose to put on the charm for effect. He had an elite mind, with a prodigious memory, capacity for work, broad knowledge and show more needed little sleep.

In the aftermath of the excesses of the Revolution he became a citizen-King, partway in the old and new. The French people rallied behind him and in the early battles established France as an independent people free of Monarch rule. Then he started believing his own mythology, became soft and grandiose and made the fatal mistake of invading Russia, his downfall, and French populist support turned against him. Banished to Elba he made a dramatic return, defeated at Waterloo and exiled to St. Helena to die at age 51 of cancer.

He was probably the most famous person of the 19th century, today less so, but who doesn't know of Napoleon. This lengthy single-volume work glosses the battles and looks more at his personal life and affairs. I think the Roberts biography that is more about the campaigns would be a useful addition as they are so central to his fame, but wow these books are long, he led one of the most active lives I've ever read. show less

This books demonstrates that political misinformation was almost as abundant 200 years ago as it is today, at least in some circles. The author describes how various notable politicians of the early 19th century - especially Metternich in Austria and tsars Alexander and Nikolai in Russia - were so deeply shaken by the French revolution that their fear of history repeating itself lasted for decades.

The most interesting part of the story is that even though no real threat actually existed, show more the surveillance machinery which monitored signs of new uprisings (and was incentivized to discover them) mass-produced false accusations and reports. This misinformation heightened and perpetuated the concerns of leaders which feared the empowerment of the people more than anything else. In the afterword of the book the author puts it nicely: "the unnecessary repression of moderate liberal tendencies arrested the natural development of European society and helped create a culture of control of the individual by the state".

So the story is certainly interesting, but the book is a bit too long at 500 pages. The narrative seems to pass around the same circles again and again. It recounts how this or that political leader was afraid of upheaval, how he collected information through a terribly incompetent and biased filter, and how he then made bad decisions which had catastrophic consequences for more or less randomly selected innocent citizens. I would have liked to see the author occasionally take a few steps back from the details of who-said-what to provide some kind of bird's-eye view of the underlying system of government. show less

This book is mainly about the 1815 Congress of Vienna, at which there was some frenetic diplomacy, a lot of fornication, and an amazing amount of dancing. Again, it is the stories that are fascinating; such as the Austrian secret police report on one of the British delegates, which noted that he, a friend and some very loose women had taken a Viennese house and 'turned it into a f---ing-shop'. Zamoyski casts a caustic eye on these and other shenanigans, and shows how Waterloo and The Hundred show more Days was all Tsar Alexander's fault (because he was an impulsive fathead, and set Napoleon up in Elba without consulting any of his allies first); how the British claim to be the disinterested brokers of Europe was so much humbug; and chiefly, how desperately tawdry and cynical the whole business was. The fascinating cast includes, besides Alexander, sliding from swollen-headed arrogance to religious mania, Napoleon, Wellington, Metternich, Castlereagh, Beethoven, Blucher and an assortment of ladies of dubious virtue. show less

An absolutely riveting biography of Napoleon by Zamoyski. He manages to capture the face of the figure with a precise measured countenance that does not seek to aggrandize his victories (or faults) and makes to present all the facts in consideration with his exploits and attempts. There is much to be read in terms of his character and disposition, which is flavoured and established throughout the duration of this non-fiction book. Overall, I was not bored for an instant.

Recommended for show more history huffs: 4.5 stars. show less