Napoleon

Rating:
Summary: Absoluetly Brilliant
Review: As Cronin says at the outset, he wants to give us Napoleon the man more than the general or emperor. And he succeeds impressively! Napoleon's campaigns and battles are well documented elsewhere (most notably in Chandler's epic text). Here Cronin gives us the battleplan not at Jena or Austerlitz, but inside the mind of the man who was Napoleon.

This is a superb text. By the end of it one feels that he almost knew and dined with Cronin's Napoleon personally. The biography is emotional and sensitive. The sense of intimacy achieved is chilling. I felt almost at his bedside in St. Helena at that painful death.

Here is a rare successful portrait of a human being behind a legend.

Rating:
Summary: Sympathetic psychological portrait
Review: Books about Napoleon seem to fall in two categories : the hate-him biographers, like Paul Johnson, who depict him as a demon who can do no good, or the admirers, like all French authors on Napoleon I have seen, who can say no bad about him.

Cronin's book is also very kind to Napoleon : for instance when he is crowned emperor of France, we are told that Napoleon did not really seek this title, but that it was his friends who thought it would be a splendid idea. I cannot imagine that someone as ambitious as Napoleon would just sit back and wait for his friends to have such a good idea. Furthermore we are told Napoleon's wars were defensive only. Whilst I have sympathy for Cronins argument that all Europe's old regime monarchs ganged up against France, I still think Napoleon was a person who tended to settle differences on the battlefield rather than at the negotiating table.

Still, as long as one bears this bias in mind, this is a highly enjoyable psychological portrait because it succeeds very well in showing how Napoleon changed during his life. For instance, the description of his relationship with his wife Josephine is an eye-opener because it shows Napoleon in such a different light from his battlefield image : he stayed with her for a long time despite knowing she betrayed him repeatedly.

There is relatively little in this book about specific battles, except to demonstrate how creative Napoleon was in military strategy and tactics (for instance you may read more in this book about Napoleon's favourite foods or his daytime routines). The battle at Waterloo merits only 3 pages (Napoleon was less than inspired that day).

This book is not for those interested in military history, but I recommend it for those who want to understand a man who managed to terrorise the established monarchs, czars and emperors of Europe for many years and who left a more lasting legacy than his victors : from his Code Civil, which is still the basis to civil law in a number of European countries, to the tree-lined French routes nationales ( so his troups could march in the shadow). In particular I would recommend it to those who have purchased Paul Johnson's book about Napoleon.

Rating:
Summary: Even a Napoleon Hater will learn to appreciate Napoleon...
Review: Having been raised under a British-biased educational system, I can confirm the many prejudices we are prey to on the subject of Napoleon. (Insidiously, these are actually not so much taught as absorbed during childhood through popular myth, fable, hearsay and caricature.). Nonetheless, emboldened by the reputation of the author, whose books on the Italian renaissance were the best I had ever read, I decided to give old "Nap" a second chance and a careful hearing.Was I impressed? Put it this way: the following week I drove 1,000 miles to Paris to pay my belated respects and express my admiration at his tomb in the Invalides.Excellent, absorbing reading.

Rating:
Summary: Gripping
Review: I got this book at a second hand stall in Thailand, because there was nothing better there (all romances etc.) and I was unable to put it down! It's fascinating, and the characters are so vibrant and real that you can almost smell them. There is a lot of talk in the introduction about how Napolean is treated as a villain in England, and how this book runs counter to that. I have never been exposed to that bias, so it didn't affect me. What was interesting, though, was how Napolean's early success set him up for his later, spectacular defeats. The book covers the events from Napolean's birth to his death, and even if you end up not entirely in sympathy with his actions during his life, you still can maintain sympathy for him as a person, and for France at that crazy time in its history. The best thing about this book, though, is its readability. You can swap it for some popular adventure/romance/light reading novel, and actually learn something without your brain hurting at all.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: I have tried to read a lot of different books of napoleon and this is the only one I have finished because it kept me fascinated. His life is remarkable. Reading this book has made me want to read other biographies. I learned a lot of things. I recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: "What a great novel my life is!"
Review: Napoleon is reported to have said this, and it is true. In this magnificent biography of the Corsican, Cronin has written the life of Napoleon from the inside: who the man really was. It is not only circunscribed to battles and politics, but especially the intimate life and anecdotes of Napoleon. It changed my vision about this man. The information and research are exhaustive, yet the book reads like a novel. That is the true art of biography.

Napoleon has been one of the most controversial characters in History, and deservedly so. Cronin does not take sides, but he clearly rejects the portrait of Napoleon as an overambitious monster, always trying to get more and more territories for France. Undoubtedly, ambition was the driving force for this man, but we have to consider that he was constantly harassed by other powers who feared that his influence would destroy the old European regimes. Undoubtedly, his coronation as Emperor was a big disappointment to all those who believed he would be the leader of Republicanism. Beethoven, for instance, dedicated his Third Symphony to him, but after the coronation he erased the dedicatory, writing instead: "To the memory of a great man". However, we have to judge historical figures by the standards of their times, not ours.

All in all, this is probably the best biography of Napoleon. At least it is the best among the three or four I have read. It is a shame that it is out of print.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Single Volume about Napoleon's Life
Review: Simply put, Vincent Cronin's Napoleon is the best biography of Napoleon I have ever read. As a student of Napoleonic history, I have read many biographies of the great man, but none has struck home like this one. Cronin presents Napoleon as the man he was, not the myth, not the legend, not the "Anti-Christ." Napoleon's fascinating life from birth to death reads like a novel. It is hard to put down.
Unlike other authors, Cronin does not appear to take sides. He presents Napoleon's accomplishments as well as his faults. If you were to chose one biography of Napoleon, this should be the one!

Rating:
Summary: Great read if you are interested in Napoleon
Review: This biography keeps the reader's interest. While I remember little about Napoleon from high school history class, this book highlights Napoleon in an interesting way. Cronin writes well and picks out enough information to give you a good overview of Napoleon.

Easily, a biography on Napoleon can run volumes and they do. Cronin, however, presents Napoleon's early days on Corsica, his French military school days, his significant battles in Italy and Egypt, his reign in France, his march on Russia, his exile to Elba, his return to France and his final bannashment to the Island of St Helena, in an easy going manner.

According to Cronin, Napoleon is either loved or hated by biographers. While a reader doesn't need to know this, Cronin provides an analysis at the end of his book on primary sources about Napoleon and which, in his view, are credible. Based on this, Cronin appears to present a balanced view of Napoleon.

Rating:
Summary: Great read if you are interested in Napoleon
Review: This biography keeps the reader's interest. While I remember little about Napoleon from high school history class, this book highlights Napoleon in an interesting way. Cronin writes well and picks out enough information to give you a good overview of Napoleon.

Easily, a biography on Napoleon can run volumes and they do. Cronin, however, presents Napoleon's early days on Corsica, his French military school days, his significant battles in Italy and Egypt, his reign in France, his march on Russia, his exile to Elba, his return to France and his final bannashment to the Island of St Helena, in an easy going manner.

According to Cronin, Napoleon is either loved or hated by biographers. While a reader doesn't need to know this, Cronin provides an analysis at the end of his book on primary sources about Napoleon and which, in his view, are credible. Based on this, Cronin appears to present a balanced view of Napoleon.