Customer Reviews

One Hundred Days: Napoleon's Road to Waterloo

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Alan Schom's book, while on the face of it an informative guide to the Waterloo Campaign, is at best misguided and at worst completely untrue. Although he paints an interesting view as to the relationships between Napoleon and his brothers many of his other comments are contradicted by all other books on the subject. He says in his passage on the trial of Marshal Ney that this was one of the most hated men in the army, and yet every other authority describes Ney as the darling of the men, described as the 'Bravest of the Brave'.His view that Napoleon was certain to be defeated is also seriously flawed. Both Austria and Russia were more concerned with neutralising each other than with fighting Napoleon. David Hamilton-Williams in his book 'The Fall Of Napoleon' has hard evidence that these countries would have made peace with Napoleon had he won Waterloo. This book is fatally flawed in that it seems unable to give any credit to anyone who rallied to Napoleon in the campaign which he so nearly won against all the odds.

Schom is no great fan of Napolean, as his recent biography of the little Corsican demonstrates. However, I thought in reading this book that he provided a fairly even-handed, readable description of a fascinating period in European history. Most readers are familiar with the basic facts: In 1815, the deposed Napolean Bonaparte escaped from his island exile of Elba, and set sail for the shores of his beloved France. The king sent the army to recapture him, but upon encountering their former leader the troops rallied to his cause, and he ultimately marched into Belgium as the rest of Europe looked on in horror at this menace whom they thought was out of their hair forever. An alliance of troops, under the command of Lord Wellington, met up with Napolean on the great battlefield of Waterloo, leading to Bonaparte's final great defeat.

This book provides a very readable account of these 4 months, and effectively demonstrated how close Napolean actually was to pulling off one more great victory. He points out the damaging mistakes by Napolean's inferior generals, leading to his flank being disrupted by General Blucher at a crucial point in the battle. We all know how the story ends, and yet the story was oddly suspenseful in Schom's hands nonetheless. He also paints a very vivid, sometimes unflattering portrait of Napolean, who was not the same man who boldly grasped the crown from the Pope in Notre Dame and proclaimed himself Emperor over 10 years earlier. Napolean was physically weaker, had a slight drool, and lacked the dynamic force of his younger days during the final 100 day campaign.

All in all, while Schom's critical attitude towards Bonaparte has sometimes been open to attack, I thought this was a very entertaining historical narrative for the casual history buff like myself.

I found this book to be very readable and once again, I also found it to be another one of Alan Schom's anti-Napoleon treatment. I am bit amazed that someone of Mr. Schom's talent as a writer and historian would be wasted on such bias effort. I would like to ask Mr. Schom if Napoleon have done anything good or decent in his life since he really like to paint this French Emperor and one of history's greatest military commanders as little better then petty dictator with delusion of grandeur with a Hitler complex.

Mr. Schom would probably find a greater acceptence among Napoleonic readers if he would be more fair in his assessments of the facts and characters. When you are too bias against your subject, then its pretty clear to any reader that you got a grudge against it.

The book overall, doesn't add anything new to anyone who is well read on the subject of Waterloo campaign. For experience readers, this book will end up in your local used book store. For casual readers, there are many anti-Napoleonic traps that author insert to make claims that Napoleon was nothing more then an early 19th century misanthrope.

PS: I believed HMS Bellerophon was a ship of a line, not a frigate.

I attacked One Hundred Days like Wellington attacked the French. Unlike a biography I read of Boney years ago, Schom marvelously and succinctly described the background and characters of a constellation of lesser notables who surrounded the Emperor. In doing so he made understandable the mood of France as Napoleon made his spectacular come back attempt before bowing out of European history. This book filled an enormous gap in my understanding of France as a European power and as a nation at the beginning of the 19th century. My daughter could hardly have made a better choice of gifts for my birthday.

This author seems to have a decidely anti-Napoleonic bias. While on the surface there is nothing wrong with that, as Bonaparte has gott'en a lot of positive press over the years by Chandler and the like. Still, one would prefer a bit more subtle approach on what should be a balanced work on history.

This book is more a standard history than a military appreciation of the Waterloo campaign. Those looking for another military appraisal of this epic clash will be somewhat disappointed here. The author spends a lot of time chronicling the Emperor's return, which is interesting and does not tend to get too much attention in other works on the subject. Napoleon's efforts to the throw together a new government in a matter of days gets a lot of attention here and each major character involved gets a lot of attention. Fully a third or more of the book is taken up with mini bios on all the Bonaparte clan, as well as Fouche, Tallyrand, Davout and others. An entire chapter goes into great detail examining the tacit French resistence and over all lukewarm response toward his return in 1815.

The actual campaign of 1815 does not get started until the last third or so of the book. Here we get some nice insights of the strategies involved, and the mistakes made by all sides concerned. The letheragy of Ney, Soult, Grouchy and even the Emperor gets some explanation. Mistakes were made in 1815 that had not occured before. The author clearly shows that he was past his prime, and while the desire to conquer was still there, the will to do so was not. Napoleon's attention to detail was not at the same level as in previous campaigns. This might not have mattered before, but against the likes of Wellington, Blucher and Geneseau he could not afford such mistakes. Luck also was against him. Napolean often said a good marshal was a lucky one. This was lacking for him in 1815.

The author provides an exciting, if limited description of Waterloo itself. Nothing much new here as the emphasis of this book is elsewhere. Readers will be disappointed in the less detailed military perspective, and tried and true Bonaparte fans will also find much that is not appealing in Alan Schom's portrait of the great man. The main strength of this work stands on its overview of the three month period that comprises his return up to and including the famous battle itself. The characters of the time, the period international politics and the events leading up to the start of the campaign all make for good reading. Schom repeats himself a bit, but that is the nature of the beast when you try to combine social, political and military perspectives all in one volume. Worth reading and good to balance with many other works on the Waterloo campaign.

This drama-packed documentary on Napoleons last days as"World-beater"will have you on the edge of your seat!! All the details of the impending battle of all battles to unseat the(dimunitive)Emperor of the civilized world are given in an a very thorough(yet not belaboring/insipid)fashion...The thoroughness in giving a tally of the weaponry(and numbers of soldiers)of the opposing armies was in a word:"Impressive!!! You can easily visualize the immensity of the "battle royale"as Napoleons "last hurrah"draws near!! I for one found myself pulling for Napoleon(depraved as he is portrayed to be)to EXTIRPATE his foes(since I usually side with any excoriated and despised individuals,because I'm pretty familiar with the feeling of being so) when I first read this book around 8 years ago,and I felt slightly sad about Napoleons downfall!! Largely because the author did a noteworthy job of presenting a very human side of Napoleon,allowing the reader to sympathize with his plight...Reading this book made Napoleon my favorite(aside from Jesus Christ of course) historical figure of all-time!! The only other guy that comes close to being as interesting is Maurice de Talleyrand(also making an"appearance"in this(exciting/suspense epic!! An absolutely intriguing read for everyone,but ESPECIALLY for the war buff!! CLASSIC suspense!! Alan Schom was DEFINITELY on his "A-game"when he wrote this historical MASTERPIECE!!

If you do not know much about Napoleon, esp. the Waterloo campaign, this is a great book for its simplicity in the events leading up to (and including) the battle of Waterloo.