"‘Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny’ sheds new light on..." Topic

… the storied emperor.

"I once read that there are more biographical works about Napoleon Bonaparte than any other man in history. What about Jesus? Possibly. But to quote the highly quotable Napoleon himself, "I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ was not a man."

Certainly, no figure obsessed the 19th century more than this Corsican upstart. Whether you pick up Stendhal's "The Charterhouse of Parma" or Tolstoy's "War and Peace," whether you settle down with Conan Doyle's thrilling stories about Brigadier Gerard — in some ways, the Napoleonic hussar's adventures are even better than those of Sherlock Holmes — or study Marx's most brilliant essay in historical analysis, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte," you confront the long shadow of this "soldier of destiny," as Michael Broers describes him in the subtitle of this astute and thoughtful biography.

While Napoleon believed his fortunes to be governed by destiny, his real genius lay in self-control and martial daring coupled with an indomitable will to power. Summing up the emperor's myriad accomplishments, Broers concludes that "No other man from such relatively humble beginnings had ever risen so high." More than anyone else, Napoleon exemplified the key principle of modernity and social change, "the career open to talent."…"
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