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The Reign Of Napoleon Bonaparte

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As an avid history buff I've searched over the years for a really good modern, readable and fair biography of Napoleon. I had big hopes with a number of "high profile" works in the past few years, but I found so many of them were written by English authors who were none too objective and went so far as to compare Napoleon to Hitler (e.g. Alistair Horne's terribly biased "How Far From Austerlitz" and even more biased work by Alan Schom). That comparison is simply ridiculous -- no one talks today of "Hitler-Kulture," he left no legacy but murder and madness. Napoleon on the other hand left numerous infrastrucural improvements, the 'Code Napoleon' judicial system largely still in use not just in France but in dozens of countries worldwide, the list goes on. He didn't simply "grab for power" as many would have you believe, it was the French Revolution and because of his immense popularity throughout France he was -invited- to be Consul in an effort to end the chaos and Terrors. All this and more is nicely characterized in Mr. Asprey's work. As the author makes so clear, much of what is commonly known about Napoleon is taken out of context, "history written by the victors" as it were -- of course the English demonize Napoleon, and he hated them just the same, but in the book you find that it was not Napoleon who started one war after another in Europe but in fact it was usually the English as the "bad guy," bankrolling and instigating 7, yes SEVEN, coalitions against Napoleon, all but the last of which they lost (and consequently lost so much of Europe). I was drawn to this biography of Napoleon because I had previously read the author's Frederick the Great biography, which I counted as the second-best biography I've ever read (after Robert K. Massey's Pulitzer-winning Peter the Great). He did not disappoint -- this is a truly great work, sure there are probably some areas here and there one might like to know more about, one reviewer here called his treatment "superficial," but again, let's be fair, Napoloeon's life is vast, Mr. Asprey gives two very full action-packed volumes for a terrific overview. I agree with another reviewer here, take this one plus the Vincent Cronin and you have a pretty darn good feel for Napoleon and his times.

Update: Robert Asprey died January 26, 2009. He left a major portion of his estate to New College of Florida. I knew him, wrote for and with him, and called him my mentor for over 35 years.

For those who read history with an eye for understanding the human traits that so enrage or encourage us all, reading the second book of Asprey's work on Napoleon reminds us what the elusive term "leadership" really is. For those who were taught that leadership is "not a personal or individual thing but rather a relationship and a process whereby people influence one another concerning real changes they intend for the organization or a society" this latest book should serve as a wake-up call. Leadership in Napoleon's time (and today?) is a personal and individual thing. Once again Asprey has meticulously researched a side of Napoleon vis a vis his leadership roles as simultaneous imperial administrator and military commander, with such incredible insight that the reader is forced to rethink all that he or she thought about this incredibly complex man. Most telling, and most prescient of all the chapters, are the end ones describing how the many nation entities of the European continent, along with England, waged incessant battle until Napoleon was doomed to failure. States Asprey, "Why did (Napoleon) persist in his discredited strategy (moving ahead without reinforcement/resupply)? The short answer is because he did not believe that it 'was' discredited. We are dealing here with disparate and complex factors working on a strange amalgam of past and present caught in the fearful coils of the arrogance of ingnorance, trapped in his belief of enemy impotence and cowardice, failing to recognize that his once omnipotent and beautiful army had weakened and withered into halting old age, that the political elixir which he had brewed to save Europe from itself had turned poisonously bitter and impotent...That was the real key to his disjointed actions and spurious decisions and it is at once terribly sad, yet in another sense strangely noble --- a defeated man refusing to accept defeat." And contributing to Napoleon's defeat (and education) was the war he was forced to contend with in Spain against terrorists and guerrillas. Those forces wore Napoleon's army and lessening resources down, weakening them to the point they could not be used in future battles. Napoleon loathed terrorism and guerilla tactics, but in the end, was forced to use them to wear down opposition forces. Asprey makes nearly two hundred years of history as relevant as if it had happened on 9/11/01. It is now up to the greatest military and economic power on Earth to deal with disparate and complex factors and not get caught in the fearful coils of the arrogance of ignorance. Asprey reminds our leadership how and why.

The second volume of Asprey's biography of Napoleon makes the same error of the first one: he focuses entirely on Napoleon's military career while virtually ignoring every other aspect of the man's life. Asprey has billed his book as an attempt to see the whole Napoleon, but in this he fails. Napoleon's personal life, his domestic policies in France, his philosophy, are passed over with scarely a mention.

Furthermore, even in covering Napoleon's military career, Asprey falls short. The section on the crossing of the Danube River during the 1809 Austrian Campaign, one of the most fascinating events in Napoleon's career, is covered in a confusing and slipslod manner, leaving the reader utterly at a loss to what actually happened. The Battle of Dresden, a massive engagement which lasted two days and was Napoleon's last major victory, is mentioned only in passing, without even a full sentence devoted to it. Overall, the writing gives the impression of an author in a hurry to meet a deadline, unable to carefully edit and correct his work.

This work fails in its stated purpose to present a full view of Napoleon's life, its writing style is somewhat sloppy and overall the book fails to impress.

This is part two of the best biography of Napoleon that I have read. It is a focus on political and military history but does a decent job of covering the social aspects of napoleon's reforms. This book really focuses on the Napoleonic empire and its eventual fall. It also covers his return to power and does an excellent job of presenting the information clearly. The prose is well done and really makes for quick and interesting reading. This is a must have for anyone studying this era.

"The Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte" is the second volume on the life of Napoleon by Robert Asprey. Volume One was entitled "The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte" covering his life from his birth in 1769 on Corsica to his victory at Austerlitz in 1085. That volume ends with Napoleon as the crowned emperor. All is well with the emperor!
In this final volume we see Napoleon meet his Waterloo as he is soundly defeated by Lord Wellington and the allies on June 18, 1815. Napoleon, who had earlier escaped from captivity on Elba where he had been exiled since his defeat at the Battle of the Nations, spent the last six years of his life on the South Sea island of St. Helena. Here Napoleon spent six miserable years of ennui, physical ailments and relatively harsh treatment from his English captors. His disdain for the governor of the ilsand Hudson Lowe was mutual. A sad end for the man who had made the great nations of Europe live in fear of the Grande Armee's military juggernaut.
Asprey briefly covers the major battles of this period. If you wish to study them in greater depth turn to David Chandler or John Elting's fine works on these huge and bloody confrontations. Asprey is good in superficially covering Napoleon's many amours including the sexy Marie
Walewski of Poland as well as his second wife Marie of Austria. Napoleon divorced the unfaithful Josephine but loved her until her death in 1814.
This book is a good introduction to the life and career of France's most famous political/military man. Napoleon was complex, hot-headed and
a man who had trouble dealing with the hand played him by Madame Fate.This
is a readable book. The maps included are minimal and poorly drawn. The period illustrations are well reproduced. It is a good book worthy to have a place on the bookshelves of miltary history buffs.

With much Napoleonia, the reader finds himself lost in the powerful scenes and events. There was however, much more to the man than just the battlefield. Asprey performs a difficult task well in bringing to life the man behind the mask and revealing Bonaparte as both a military leader and as the ranking statesman of his age.

Beyond even those facets however lies a personality, larger than life, dedicated to not only his personal prestige and ambition, but to that of his family as well. Questions such as how does one person emerge as the central figure of the era or how does a man put personal accomplishment above the world around him continue to bedevil historians. Asprey disects these and other aspects of the career of Napoleon while enlightening readers about the nature of the man himself.

Clearly this book along with its earlier companion "The Rise..." should take pride of place in any historians Napoleonic collection. What better way to recognize the bi-centenial of the era than with publication of these volumes?

A little more than a week ago, I finished reading this wonderful book, which aptly sums up Napoleon's reign.

Here was a man who bestrode Europe like a Colossus. Napoleon was a representation of a shift in the governing order whose rule was once largely regarded as a matter of divine right. Though no believer in democracy (as exemplified by Britain), he supported and nurtured people of proven talent both in the military and civilian spheres.

Yet notwithstanding his considerable talents and intellect, it was Napoleon's own egotism and the seemingly unending years of war from 1803 to 1815 that led to his own undoing.

I confess I felt deeply sympathetic about Napoleon in his later years (in particular, the post-Waterloo era when he was exiled on St. Helena island, where he was treated rather shabbily by the British governor there). At his best, he was a master military commander on both the strategic and tactical levels. I find him endlessly fascinating

Asprey's second book on Napoleon Bonaparte picks up right were the first one had left off, Napoleon now Emperor of the French, was engaging in a series of wars and struggles known as the Napoleonic Wars. Europe was determined to destroy this usurper to power and he was determined to beat them back and gobble up their kingdoms as well.

"Neither was Napoleon that father of the wars that accompanied the process, as his detractors would have us believe. Almost constant warfare between was the legacy of the revolutionary chaos, a series of wars invoked by European and English rulers determined to topple this dangerous interloper and restore Bourbon feudalistic rule to France" p.xxii

In this war, Napoleon had the greatest victory of his career, the Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors; Napoleon would defeat the forces of Austria and Russia at the same time. William Pitt the Younger is said to have collapsed dead at the news. This battle marked the official end of the Holy Roman Empire, as its last Emperor Francis II, dissolved it in favor of the Austrian Empire and proclaimed himself Emperor Francis I. Austerlitz had made Napoleon the master of continental Europe. Although he would still have adventures by conquering Prussia and fighting in Poland, he was clearly the man in charge. He would use his new position to create the Continental System that would force the great Empire of the Sea, Great Britain, into an impossible position. He would create puppet states and place his own brothers and in-laws on to those thrones.

"Napoleon's gentle if contemptuous treatment of Czar Alexander is curious, as if regarding the Russians as visitors from another planet. He disparaged Russian arms, having noted even before Austerlitz that the cavalry although splendidly turned out had not yet learned to use savers effectively. `The Russian troops are brave,' he commented after Austerlitz, `their generals are inexperienced, their soldiers ignorant and sluggish which in truth makes their armies to be little feared.' He regarded Alexander as an ambitious but inexperienced and impetuous young man surrounded and controlled by firebrand courtiers such as Prince Dolgoruky who were in English pay. Alexander's participation in the Third Coalition was a temporary aberration, an unwise intrusion in European affairs. `Russia is the sole power in Europe able to make war of fantasy,' he wrote. `After a battle lost or won, the Russians vanish; France, Austria, Prussia, to the contrary, must live a long time with the results of war." p. 2

However, enforcing the Continental System would prove costly for the Emperor of the French. He would invade Portugal through Spain in order to enforce it. When the Spanish royal family began to give Napoleon a hard time, he would depose the King of Spain, Charles IV, in favor of his own older brother Joseph. Once more, a Bonaparte would take a throne of a Bourbon king. Spain however would never be fully conquered and Napoleon would have to invest to many troops fighting the Spanish gorilla* forces.

"A final weakness stemmed from Napoleon himself. His diplomacy was atrocious. The exclusion of either King Charles or Prince Ferdinand from rule was doomed from the beginning, as anyone with the slightest knowledge of the Spanish character would have realized. The center of power envisaged by Napoleon did not exist. The grandees who had propped up the throne were despised as the French. Military occupation had turned into a war of pacification that neither Napoleon nor his generals how to fight. It was a fast-moving series of small wars in a big country, not a war of corps or divisions. Early successes, a few hundred insurgents shot here, a few thousand there, villages burned, arms collected, private properties and fortunes sequestered, officials and priests forced to swear allegiance to the new crown, cities and towns required to pay enormous `contributions'--all these were ingredients for a massive civil explosion." p.113

For want of an heir, Napoleon was forced to divorce Josephine and remarried this time to Marie Louise of Austria, ironically the niece of the infamous Queen Marie Antoinette. The new Empress would give birth to the Baby Napoleon, known as the King of Rome.

Nothing however would be as equally disastrous as Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Seeking to punish Tsar Alexander I for his backing out of the Continental System, Napoleon invaded the Russian Empire. The French Emperor would have victory after victory, but as Russia withdrew, the Russians burnt their own cities and farms. As the winter came the French had no resources and they had to retreat with very heavy losses. Seeing Napoleon as weak, the rest of Europe joined in to help destroy him. The French were eventual overwhelmed and were forced to surrender. Napoleon would be exiled to Elba, and King Louis XVIII was put on the throne that his brother had lost.

Napoleon was restless in Elba and plotted his way back to the throne of France. King Louis XVIII had made quite a mess of things, just like his brother, and Napoleon would land in France to claim what he felt was rightfully his.

"It was surely one of the boldest acts in history, Napoleon landed on the southern coast of France with 1,000 soldiers, two cannons and some very fiery words set forth in three proclamations, one to the French people, one to the French army, and one to the Old Guard." p.375

Napoleon's new reign would last one hundred days. This brief reign would cause immediate war. Napoleon would fight his last battle at Waterloo, where he lost to allied forces under the command of the Duke of Wellington.

This time Napoleon would be exiled to St. Helena where he would remain in a gilded cage until his death. Napoleon's legacy is a mixed one, Asprey's work on him stands out because he does not give in to either side, the British paint him as a monster and the French a saint. He was both and neither, Asprey presents Napoleon as an incredible human being and that is it. He is a man who was the winner of a thousand battles who was ultimately brought down in the end. He took on the entire world and lost but he is remembered for taking it on.

*These were of course the original gorilla forces.

Robert Asprey has written an outstanding biography about one of the world's greatest (or infamous) leaders.

Not drenched in military minutia or battlefield granularity, this 2nd volume presents a balanced and fair overview of the man and his leadership of France.

Asprey's literary style is entertaining and brisk. If you're looking for a bio that'll provide you with a solid foundation about how Napolean impacted Europe and the World -- you can't go wrong here.

This two volume biography was extremely detailed and really captured the essence of the Napoleon. It had a lot of facts I didn't know and I felt like it penetrated his psychology. I couldn't find anything wrong with it, other than it was too short!