Richard Holmes

Published to mark the 250th anniversary of Napoleon's birth. Holmes relives Napoleon's life and times in this extraordinary period by examining letters, military maps, reports, proclamations, ship's logs and coded messages, which were previously filed away or exhibited in archives in Europe. Napoleon was a charismatic and astute military leader who built an empire in a series of astounding campaigns...

This outstandingly vivid and accessible book, written by one of Britain's leading historians, provides the essential overview of Napoleon's career. Beginning in revolutionary France with a brilliant young Lieutenant who still styled himself Napoleone di Buonaparte, Holmes examines every facet of his subject's military career: his astonishing victories at the Battle of the Pyramids, Marengo, Jena and...