Napoleon the Great
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Napoleon the Great
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Thorne
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By:
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Andrew Roberts
About this listen
Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives. In the space of just 20 years, from October 1795, when as a young artillery captain he cleared the streets of Paris of insurrectionists, to his final defeat at the (horribly mismanaged) battle of Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon transformed France and Europe.
After seizing power in a coup d'état, he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the revolution had descended. In a series of dazzling battles, he reinvented the art of warfare; in peace he completely remade the laws of France, modernised her systems of education and administration, and presided over a flourishing of the beautiful Empire style in the arts.
The impossibility of defeating his most persistent enemy, Great Britain, led him to make draining and ultimately fatal expeditions into Spain and Russia, where half a million Frenchmen died, and his empire began to unravel.
More than any other modern biographer, Andrew Roberts conveys Napoleon's tremendous energy, both physical and intellectual, and the attractiveness of his personality even to his enemies. He has walked 53 of Napoleon's 60 battlefields and has absorbed the gigantic new French edition of Napoleon's letters, which allows a complete reevaluation of this exceptional man.
He overturns many received opinions, including the myth of a great romance with Josephine: She took a lover immediately after their marriage, and, as Roberts shows, he had three times as many mistresses as he acknowledged.
Of the climactic Battle of Leipzig in 1813, as the fighting closed around them, a French sergeant major wrote, "No-one who has not experienced it can have any idea of the enthusiasm that burst forth among the half-starved, exhausted soldiers when the Emperor was there in person. If all were demoralised and he appeared, his presence was like an electric shock. All shouted 'Vive l'Empereur!' and everyone charged blindly into the fire."
Andrew Roberts is a biographer and historian of international renown whose books include Salisbury: Victorian Titan (winner, the Wolfson Prize for History); Masters and Commanders; and The Storm of War, which reached number two on the Sunday Times best seller list. Roberts is a fellow of the Royal Societies of Literature and Arts. He appears regularly on British television and radio and writes for the Sunday Telegraph, Spectator, Literary Review, Mail on Sunday and Daily Telegraph.
©2014 Andrew Roberts (P)2015 Audible, LtdEditorial reviews
Critic Reviews
"Magisterial and beautifully written.... A richly detailed and sure-footed reappraisal of the man, his achievements--and failures--and the extraordinary times in which he lived." (Jeremy Jennings, Standpoint)
"Roberts tells his story with vigour and aplomb. And even critics of the emperor will recognize that there is much new information in Roberts’s 814 pages, while the frequent complaint that is made of a tendency among authors to foreshorten the military narrative is not suitable here." (Charles Esdaile, Literary Review)
What listeners say about Napoleon the Great
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Aaron
- 04-05-2015
Excellent narrative.
Great detail and wonderful insights. Best yet on Boney, his life, loves, letters, rise and fall.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- L. Darragh
- 18-10-2020
Very in depth
ideal for someone wanting a very in depth biography of Napoleon, he had an incredible journey.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Alex
- 05-03-2017
Convincing
The Author puts forward a very well explained an clearly laid out argument for Napoleons greatness.
Excellent book and the best insight into the true nature of Bonaparte.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 16-03-2017
Very well done.
Thorough and detailed without becoming too bogged down in piece by piece storytelling. Capable of taking someone from having no knowledge of the man to having a sound overview of his life and achievements.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Attila
- 19-02-2017
Very good. Essential for Napoleonic enthusiasts.
Went into this a little hesitant as I have read quite a bit on this subject and did not really feel like there was much more I was willing to learn on the subject.
I cant say I learnt any new facts however the author is very good at tackling this kind of biographical history and it was a real pleasure to go on the journey with him through the extraordinary life of Napoleon.
In the end I highly recommend this book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Nicholas
- 24-02-2021
Great book
Very informative but also good story telling. Napoleon is a great historical figure and it is worth understanding his impact. Highly recommend this book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 14-03-2021
Incredible
The story of Napoleon is a phenomenal listen. Andrew Roberts has a fantastic ability, and Stephen Thorne a capturing voice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Maggott-of-Face
- 08-07-2021
A MUST READ! if this genre is your jam, read it!
great structure, pace and narration. i was very impressed by the impartial and thorough telling of the Corsican's amazing life. truly he was a Great!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Ben
- 24-09-2021
Finally putting the record straight
The British today love to hate Napoleon, and yet they have no idea that in doing so they have merely repeated 2 centuries worth of monarchical & political propaganda.
Loved this thorough, blow-by-blow account demonstrating Napoleon’s talent, accomplishments, & above all, humanity. A story for our own time of how one makes oneself, & how turbulent times enable success otherwise unthinkable within the mediocrity of any established hierarchy.
My only negative was repeated ‘woke’ apologies that an aristocrat shouldn’t have been executed (for spying/treachery), slavery should never have been reinstituted (in Haiti), he shouldn’t have ‘meddled in others’ marital affairs’ (didn’t all monarchies for this routinely?) & acquiesced in a massacre in the Middle East; that some field reports were propagandist & that a very small number of agreements were reneged upon. All while his adversaries do exactly these things (& worse), behaviours dismissed in a passing comment. Though derided as colonialism, he sought to unite language groups, not that any of these could admit his far-sightedness, rather pretending that they came up with the idea themselves during the 50 years following his abdication.
I guess it’s because that Napoleon is so breathtakingly competent, loyal and humane that his memory is continually denied - if Wellington and Churchill could see his brilliance, it’s about time we had a book like this to set the record unapologetically straight.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Tomas
- 10-07-2016
An amazing tale of an amazing man
Loved this title, superbly written and delivered. provides clear, well worded accounts of Napoleon and does a great job of shedding light on this great figure and debunking common misconceptions. I highly reccomend this book to those interested in this great giant of history as it does not devolve into the psycho sexual reasonings that I've seen other authors attribute to Napoleon, instead it focuses on facts and evidence in a narrative way.
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