" This Very Short Introduction might prove disappointing to those expecting an introduction to a very short man. Dispelling the myth of Napoleon Bonaparte's short stature, as well as the other rumors and legends, David Bell provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context. This book emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility--for both good and ill--that...

From Alan Forrest, a preeminent British scholar, comes an exceedingly readable account of the man and his legend. Drawing on original research and his own distinguished background in French history, Forrest demonstrates that Napoleon was as much a product of his times as their creation.

Presents the life of the military genius who crowned himself Emperor of the French and established a vast European empire.

Patrice Gueniffey is the leading French historian of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic age. This book, hailed as a masterwork on its publication in France, takes up the epic narrative at the heart of this turbulent period: the life of Napoleon himself, the man who-in Madame de Staël's words-made the rest of "the human race anonymous." Gueniffey follows Bonaparte from his obscure boyhood in Corsica, to his meteoric rise during the Italian and Egyptian...

An acclaimed historian turns his sights on Napoleon, casting his towering life in a new light, from his early displays of military genius through his lust for power and his eventual defeat at Waterloo and exile on St. Helena.