There are many myths and legends surrounding the figure of
Napoleon Bonaparte, many books written about his great military
successes, the Napoleonic Code and life in France with Napoleon as its emperor. For his own part, the American born author
Alan Schom has undertaken the unenviable task of writing a book on the complete life and times of Napoleon while looking at it from every aspect including the wars and conquests, his personal life and that of his family as well as the Empire and the fate of France under Bonaparte's rule.
The picture that he paints is not exactly positive as we see Napoleon rise from his position of a young idealist with ideas of freeing Corsica of the French yoke, his rise through the French army and his early military conquests including his betrayal of his army in Egypt, to the point where Napoleon launched a coup and took power in France for himself, then becoming Emperor. All the while throughout his brutal rule as hundreds of thousands died in his pointless wars, the war booty flooded the country and it was consumed to feed the army which so ravaged Europe as it went, burning, raping and pillaging, making these wars all the more pointless as they achieved nothing. We see in the book both heroism of French military figures in the battles fought and also outright acts of treason and betrayal.
Finally, we see Napoleon the man. A control freak who ruined the lives of most of his family by giving them power which corrupted them while denying them his trust or friendship. His lies about his military exploits would put even George Bush to shame. For all his plotting, scheming and killing, Napoleon died a virtual prisoner of the English he worked so hard to wipe out. During his rule, the French as a people were taxed worse than under any previous French ruler, paying for his wars while he censored the press, the theatre and his hatchet man Fouche dispatched of his opponents. Alan Schom's analysis of Napoleon the man, the leader is so realistic you can almost smell the smoke from the muskets and cannons as he describes the battles. This is a must read for those wishing to learn about the history of France.