Napoleon: No. 2 [Paperback]

Max Gallo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 2004

'What a novel my life would make!' Napoleon used to exclaim. Napoleon is thirty years old in November 1799. He has played and won. Brumaire and the Consulate have put paid to the Directory. In five years at Notre Dame, the First Consul will be crowned Emperor of France. One year after that, in the sun of Austerlitz, he will be declaring, 'Soldiers, I am happy with you!' The legendary journey has begun. Conspiracies are rife. All - or almost all - the nations want to destroy him. He must be victorious, otherwise everything will collapse. 'Conquest has made me what I am. Conquest alone can preserve me.' But for how long? Max Gallo follows Napoleon's every step, intimately revealing him in all his extraordinary intelligence and genius. Thousands of books have been written about this mythical figure, undoubtedly one of the most illustrious in the world's history. But none like this, since Max Gallo, as both historian and novelist, is able at every moment to put himself on the most intimate of footings with Napoleon and to attune his account to the very pulse of his fabulous existence.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"'What a novel my life would make!' Napoleon used to exclaim."

About the Author

A remarkable figure in French public life, Max Gallo is the author of 80 books biographies, novels, historical novels, memoirs which have sold in their hundreds of thousands. Formerly Professor of History at Nice University, his political career, which began in Nice, was galvanized when Francois Mitterrand persuaded him to be spokesperson for his government. He has been or continues to be an MEP, newspaper editor, eminence grise in the last French elections and he lives in Paris.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan (August 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 033390799X
• ISBN-13: 978-0333907993
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,747,855 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rise to glory -- from the 18th of Brumaire to the Emperor's Crown, March 6, 2008

By 

Kenneth D. Gartrell "www.kengartrell.com/BLOG/" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sun of Austerlitz: A Novel (Napoleon series) (No. 2) (Paperback)

This is the second installment of the four-part Gallo biographical and semi-fictional account of Napoleon Bonaparte. It accounts for the time of Napoleon's return from Egypt to the day of his coronation as Emperor of France one year after the victory at la Bataille des Trois Empereurs.

I can only really repeat what I have said in other reviews - that this series is essential reading for anyone interested in the interior view of Napoleonic events as seen through the eyes of Napoleon himself. Because it is such an incisive interior view, the reader who is not already knowledgeable about the major events must read some kind of historical anthology along with these books to make any real sense of them. I promise, however, that this targeted syntopical reading will pay big dividends in providing a low cost/high benefit perspective on the age.

For the truly ambitious, I also recommend getting a copy of a book that surveys the Marshals of France and another that canvases the love interests of Napoleon. With all that, a great deal of pleasure and comprehension can be achieved from the reading.

For those already sophisticated in Napoleonic history, the books offer a unique perspective that is missing almost everywhere else. The books can be read along with viewing the DVDs of the four-part A&E adaptation. Personally, the books are much better. However, the movie does deliver voices and characters to the written story.

You cannot go wrong reading these books. They are well crafted and interesting. I am done reading all of them and, sad to say, looking for something as good and as insightful.

For some reason everyone is more interested in the end of Napoleon these days than in the glories and struggles that went before. I guess maybe because the 200th anniversary period is running its course and all the knowing authors want to be positioned for the culmination of the all-European celebration of the age now ongoing.

Well, we still have seven years till the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, so there is plenty of time to catch up for the glory now in store.

So get cracking. Read my other Gallo reviews, and if you like, review my lists that apply to the great age of France, when Western Civilization passed from the Enlightenment to Romanticism, and when the political makeup of Europe passed from the hands of royalty to the complexities of democracy.

This book is essential to the whole story because it is a microcosm of the age. From the heat of the Pyramids, Napoleon rises from a common soldier to the Emperor of Kings. It is a kind of Horatio Alger story that almost cannot be believed.

3 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The man that changed the world, March 31, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Napoleón (Hardcover)

It's amazing how this man push the result of the French Revolution and make it a reality, from monarchy to democracy, not only in Europe but around the world.

6 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars how i discovered the life of a giant, April 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Napoleón (Hardcover)

I was really impressed by how a little boy of nine years old, became a big man who changed the history of this world!this book made me thinking of many things,like...me for example.