
Napoleon
A Life
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Narrated by:
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Leighton Pugh
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By:
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Adam Zamoyski
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 AudioListeners also enjoyed...




















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)
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Great historical title
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An incredible life, well told and well performed
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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.
Breathtaking in scale, research, and performance!
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Fantastic
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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.
Great introduction to Napoleon.
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From man to myth
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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.
WHAT IS MYTH?
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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.
Wrapping up my trot through French history
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Excellent listen! I knew the name, now I know man.
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A focused overview of Napoleon
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