"Bonaparte 1769-1802 " Topic

"This is clearly a remarkable book. And not least because it brought the French themselves, glutted with lives of Napoleon Bonaparte, roaring enthusiastically about the merits of this biography, back to the subject.

Patrice Gueniffey is an academic historian whose work has been chiefly concerned with the Revolution, but he undertook this massive work at the urging of his peers. This first volume takes Bonaparte from his Corsican birth to his seizure of the post of First Consul of France, de facto despot, and to his successful negotiation of the temporary peace he made at Amiens in 1802. For its freshness of view – for one thing, his Bonaparte is not swept along by tides of inevitability but by luck, hope and chutzpah – it reminded me of Simon Schama's Citizens, which told the history of the French Revolution in entirely new ways.

Bonaparte takes his place in the temple of history in a far sunnier and more cherished niche than Hitler and Stalin. Even though Desmond Seward, in Napoleon and Hitler: A Comparative Biography, found similarities of social background and a shared furious will to succeed, Napoleon and Hitler do not seem equivalent in our imaginations. And this, even though the 20th century has taught us the horrors arising from the "man of destiny" proposition, and the toxicity of the "triumph of the will" ideology…"
Full review here
link

Amicalement
Armand

This sounds like a great book, but mon Dieu, $96 USD??? Maybe someday I will be afford a reasonably priced copy.

Yes… a little expensive… (smile)

Amicalement
Armand