Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life [Hardcover]

Alan Schom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 1997

Filling a remarkable gap, Alan Schom, an acclaimed historian, scholar, and author, offers the most complete picture ever of Napoleon Bonaparte, "the scourge of Europe" and France's greatest hero. Based on more than ten years of exhaustive research, Schom illuminates Napoleon's important economic and social reforms, his reorganization of the French government, and his tempestuous personal life and its effect on his political decisions.

Remarkably ambitious and compulsively readable, Napoleon Bonaparte covers every aspect of l'Empereur's life and career, from his childhood on Corsica to his dramatic rise to the throne of France, his campaigns of conquest to his final crushing defeat at Waterloo and death in exile on St. Helena. A lively and accessible text, Schom's book is generously illustrated with halftones and maps and features startling new insights about Napoleon's key aides, ministers, and generals. Schom portrays Napoleon with candor, exalting his ambition and undeniable genius, but also addressing his dark side -- his ego, his failures and frailties, and the misery caused by his years of warfare across Europe. Powerful, dramatic, colorful, and impossible to put down, Napoleon Bonaparte is a biography as complex, challenging, and fascinating as the legend himself.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

You won't come away from this energetic biography thinking much of the French emperor either as a man or as a general. Historian Alan Schom depicts Napoleon (1769-1821) as a cold-hearted manipulator: Schom's blistering accounts of the 1798-99 Egyptian campaign and the disastrous 1812 retreat from Russia show the French army decimated due to its leader's failure to inform himself about the lands he was invading or to properly plan for provisioning his troops. The fun of this book comes from vigorous prose that vividly evokes Bonaparte's titanic personality and the colorful band of schemers surrounding him.

From Library Journal

Until now, there has been no comprehensive, one-volume biography on Napoleon. This book ably fills that gap. Napoleonic scholar Schom (One Hundred Days, Atheneum, 1992) has written an objective account, describing the strengths and weaknesses of his complex subject and his tremendous impact on Europe. Unique to this book are the insightful discussions of Napoleon's relationships with his family, wives, mistresses, and other luminaries of the day and his little-known friendship with a leading French mathematician, Gaspard Monge. The author contends that Napoleon was a paranoiac psychopath, and he uses numerous examples of kidnappings, murders, lies, and wars brought on by the Corsican to illustrate his case. He was also sadistic in his persecution of various individuals, from a simple German bookseller to his own brother Lucien. A wonderful biography; highly recommended.?David Lee Poremba, Detroit P.L.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 992 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1st edition (September 5, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060172142
• ISBN-13: 978-0060172145
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #765,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( B ) > Bonaparte, Napoleon

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overall, an unsatisfactory biography., November 19, 1999

By 

M. BRUNO ([e-mail]) (Overland Park, Kansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life (Hardcover)

First, the book has a nice dust jacket with a very attractive portrait of Napoleon. I enjoyed some parts: Napoleon's youth, family gossip, and the murder of Napoleon (revealed years ago by Ben Weider). But often I got bogged down, and overall, Schom's book is unsatisfactory. His stated purpose of an all encompassing, one-volume, fair and balanced Napoleon biography falls short. He glosses over or misses important accomplishments: economics, law, nationalism, etc. Moreover, his prejudices are too obvious. Depending on how the psycho-babble definition of psychopath in 'medical notes' is applied, it would cover a very large number of successful military men (even the Iron Duke), businessmen, and politicians, including the current President of the United States.

His research shows a curious use of sources. As other readers have noted, Schom uses selective parts of secondary sources omitting pertinent explanations. Primary sources should be sifted and evaluated by a historian, but Schom seems heavily dependent on some of the less reliable memoirs available. (1) Bourrienne's memoirs are interesting, but he was fired by Napoleon for embezzlement, turned pro-Bourbon, and his memoirs were ghost written (presumably with his input). So, much of Bourrienne must be taken with a grain of salt. (2) Memoirs of the Duchess of Abrantes (Junot) were also ghost written and include lots of pure fantasy. (3) Barras was Napoleon's enemy (and Josephine's previous lover). His memoirs are generally considered to have very little credibility. Yet Schom seems to accept Bourrienne, Abrantes, and Barras as gospel.

Despite, the pretty dust jacket, I have limited shelf space. I prefer to keep Cronin's Napoleon, a much better read, showing Napoleon as a flesh and blood, three dimensional figure, not a cardboard cutout tyrant. Also, Cronin has an excellent bibliographical essay. And for those essential accomplishments overlooked by Schom, try Holtman's Napoleonic Revolution. For military actions, Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, has shortcomings, but for the most part, he is pretty good, and I still like the old study by Wartenburg, Napoleon as a General. J.C. Herold doesn't like Napoleon at all, but his Napoleon in Egypt is a pleasure to read compared to Schom's account of this campaign. Schom has obviously spent a great effort in this large volume; unfortunately, it is tainted and disappointing.

67 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Biased, Inferior Biography of Napoleon, March 22, 2001

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life (Paperback)

This is a very biased biography of Napoleon. Parts of it make interesting reading but on the whole, the book is very anti-Bonaparte. Essentially, Schom views Napoleon as a brutal, lying psychotic who was very lucky. Schom loses track of the historical sequence after 1799, glossing over the years 1800-1805 very quickly and then darting all over. Although there is some new material on Fouche and Talleyrand, most of the sources are well-worn. Schom totally ignores the development of the Grande Armee and what this did to the European balance of power. Instead, Schom focuses heavily on naval matters, particularly those events leading up to Trafalgar (based on research for his previous book). Schom avoids Napoleon's charisma and passes over his triumphs. There is no real analysis of Napoleon's role in history. Schom exaggerates negatives, such as casualties, expenses. The author never compares Napoleon to other contemporary rulers - i.e. was he really more territorially avaricious than the Tsar of Russia or Prussian Junkers (who dismembered Poland)?

71 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Subjective and partisan, April 16, 2003

By 

Vincent Poirier (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life (Hardcover)

Schom assures readers that his biography of Napoleon is objective and non-partisan because being American frees him of the prejudices, for or against, Europeans would feel for the subject.

Unfortunately he doesn't deliver, instead he always qualifies the many facts in the book: Napoleon, his family, and his supporters appear as the "devious so-and-so" or the "piratical such-and-such"; while Napoleon's enemies are "adversaries" or "unlucky victims" or "hapless innocents".

This is annoying in a supposedly impartial book. Schom should have toned down his attacks, and frankly admitted his dislike of the subject. Napoleon is and will remain controversial. Schom could have easily made a case against Napoleon without resorting to mere rhetoric. As it is, it feels like he wants to lure his readers into his camp.

One star for the impressive list of facts, and that's all.