Napoleon: The Man Behind The Myth
Adam Zamoyski2018

A landmark new biography that presents the man behind the many myths.

Napoleon arouses more passionate and violently conflicting feelings than any other figure in history. Was he a god-like genius, a Romantic avatar, a megalomaniac monster, a compulsive warmonger - or just a nasty little dictator?

In his magnificent new study - the first in English to go back to original European sources - Adam Zamoyski shows that he was none of these. Napoleon was a brilliant tactician but a poor strategist, responsible for the worst disaster in military history.

A man of boundless ambition, he was also deeply insecure. He could be selfish and violent, but also kind and generous. Callous yet sensitive, ruthless but not cruel, the reviled emperor was as creative as he was destructive.

Based on primary sources in many European languages and beautifully illustrated with portraits made from life, this biography dives deep to examine how Napoleone Buonaparte, the boy from Corsica, became 'Napoleon': how he achieved what he did, and brought about his own undoing.