Napoleon

Starred review from April 15, 2008
Dwyer (modern history, Univ. of Newcastle, Australia; "Napoleon and Europe") offers a thorough and engrossing examination of Napoleon Bonaparte's meteoric rise to power. He follows Napoleone di Buonaparte (who changed his name in 1796) from his birth in Corsica (1769) until the coup d'tat of 18 Brumaire (1799). The result is a truly human portrait of a man who claimed to be larger than life. Dwyer stresses that Napoleon was born into a clannish Corsican family heavily involved in the island's political intrigues and that his familial experiences served him well in the turbulent times of revolutionary France. Unraveling many of the myths connected with the early campaigns in northern Italy and Egypt, Dwyer shows that self-promotion was the engine driving Napoleon. He was a gifted political animal who skillfully embellished his early military achievements to create an aura of predestined greatness. These themes are not new (see, e.g., Stephen Englund's "Napoleon: A Political Life"), but they have never been explored in such detail. This first of a projected two-volume study will give the specialist or any interested reader a much deeper understanding of one of the most fascinating figures in world history and is essential for all Napoleonic collections.Jim Doyle, Rome, GA

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2008
Historical interest in Napol'on seems inexhaustible, a reflection of Napol'ons success in creating a legend, as biographer Dwyer labels the phenomenon, of his heroic destiny. Recounting the youthful Napol'ons military and political apprenticeship, Dwyer stresses a combination of more prosaic influences than fate in Napol'ons rise from Corsican obscurity to leadership of France. At crucial points in his ascent, from obtaining a military scholarship to being enlisted in the 1799 coup that brought him to power, Napol'on enjoyed critical political patronage. In detailing these biographical turning points, Dwyer perceptively appraises traits balancing within Napol'ons ambitions, in which revolutionary enthusiasm (Napol'on was arrested as a Robespierre supporter) was gradually sapped by cynicism about men and politics. Assessing him as essentially opportunistic, Dwyer makes the case by contrasting what Napol'on said was happening (in contemporaneous and retrospective commentary) with what was actually happening: Napol'ons categorical military failure in Egypt, for example, was believed a glorious success in France. For readers interested in the French Revolution, Dwyers biography possesses attractive narrative fluidity and long-term library value as a research source.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)