Napoleon

A Life

By: Adam Zamoyski

Narrated by: Leighton Pugh

Length: 27 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

The definitive biography of Napoleon, revealing the true man behind the legend.

"What a novel my life has been!" Napoleon once said of himself. Born into a poor family, the callow young man was, by 26, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The pope crowned him as emperor of the French when he was only 35. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic.

The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context.

©2018 Adam Zamoyski (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Napoleon is an out and out masterpiece and a joy to read." (Sir Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege)

"A biography of Napoleon Bonaparte that avoids the well-established military details and gives us the story of a singular man...Illuminating." (Kirkus)

"Zamoyski tells the personal side of Napoleon's life...his hopes, his dreams, his self-doubts." (New York Journal of Books)

Great historical title

I knew quote a bit about Napoleon, but this book filled in many gaps in my knowledge about the emperor of France. I knew how it would end, but the ride through Napoleon's life was still a great adventure. a good listen for serious history fans and anyone else looking to learn about Napoleon.

An incredible life, well told and well performed

What an incredible life of a most wilful person, modernizing France, infrastructure as well as institutions. A bridge between divine right and man of the people. I think like many geniuses, complex and contradictory. He is able to rationalize any point of view if it suits the desired outcome.

Breathtaking in scale, research, and performance!

I wish there were 6 stars to give this audio book. I enjoyed every last minute of it, 27+ hours and I wish it were longer, this is one of the best audio books I've ever experienced, The hard-to-believe story of Napoleon's life is on full display here, in all it's glory and tragedy. Anyone interested in his life will be happy to have this book as part of their library.

Adams Zamoyski's research and writing is perfectly done, and the narration of Leighton Pugh is masterful, this was a complete joy to listen to.

Fantastic

this book is a wonderful introduction to Napoleon the legend and force. I found it very easy to follow and incredibly informative. The material is solid and the narrator does a wonderful job with names and places in multiple languages. If you are interested in learning about the Corsican who made himself a general at 26 and later an emperor, read it!

Great introduction to Napoleon.

I had only a thumbnail sketch of Napoleon before this book. And that involved a lot of the popular myths about him.
But this book does a fantastic job of providing an objective account of his life. The author provides direct quotes from Napoleon’s contemporaries for color. When the true facts are unknown he is careful to state so and offer reasonable possibilities to what Napoleon May have been thinking at the time backed up by evidence.
Napoleon was a fascinating person and full of contradictions. He’s worth any history fan’s time.
One issue I had with the performance was that the narrator had impeccable French. And to my provincial Yankee ears all the names sounded the same. That made it hard to keep track of the people. Everyone around Napoleon sounded like they had the same name.
Other than that though I did enjoy his delivery.

From man to myth

I was interested in Napoleon's battles and genius. The book is actually a very good biography of a MAN and his times. He became a flawed human being through this excellent history. Why he went to Moscow and other questions about his life became more important to me. His once great military strategies that failed, but nearly succeeded were revealed. His family loyalties that led to some mistakes were interesting.

WHAT IS MYTH?

It must be quite a delicate challenge with all this source material and so little you can actually say once you've limited yourself to the man ...himself.

Compound that with the fact that the source material itself is as massive as it is duplicitous —much from the man himself.

I feel there's much more Adam has to say about "our hero." For once the author is neither French nor British: Zamoyski's Polish background gives him a privileged position on this strange compound character, this ball of contradictions that is the vanguard of modern history that we call what he called himself, Napoleon Bonaparte —which was not quite his name and certainly not what his mother called him.

Sometimes the myth is inside the "man himself". —He was born under a lucky star after all.

Wrapping up my trot through French history

So my knowledge of Napoleon before this book was learned from about an hour and a half long footnote at the end of a series of lectures on the French revolution and from his brief appearances in Les Mis and War and Peace. After this book, I feel like I'm a lot wiser. It was frequently interesting and informative.

I'm giving it four stars instead of five though because 1) the narrator wasn't the most engaging narrator and 2) there were points where I felt like whole sections of time were just glossed over and I was left with questions. Still, I thought it was in interesting book and a good overview of Napoleon and the period he so heavily influenced.

Excellent listen! I knew the name, now I know man.

Loved it. A final summary of his accomplishments and a total, estimated tally on troop deaths would have been nice at the end.

A focused overview of Napoleon

This book provides the reader with a great depiction of Napoleon not only as emperor but as the ambitious young soldier, who continuously grasped for more power to achieve his goals and “follow is star”.