The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte: A Biography

Making History. The Home of 99p/99c History Books After plunging Europe into a terrible war, Napoleon died on Elba in 1821. Five years later his contemporary Sir Walter Scott wrote a brilliant debunking biography that stirred up international controversy for its thundering assault on the Napoleon legend. It so inflamed the French that Napoleon’s most-trusted general challenged Scott to a duel. Originally designed on a grand scale in nine volumes and over a million words, Scott’s monumental work is published again in one concise volume. This new edition retains his first-hand insights, elegant construction, page-turning writing and painstaking attention to detail, while selecting the parts that provide a fresh and authoritative take on Napoleon (including the ill-fated march to Moscow) for the modern historian. Published simultaneously in German, French, Italian and Spanish, the book was an international phenomenon. Scott’s research took advantage of privileged access to government papers as well as those of the main players, including the Duke of Wellington and important French generals. His life of Napoleon stands out not least because of his skilful portrayal of genuine people in both the smallest and most significant events. ‘Delightful...Walter Scott recalls to me the incidents on which through life I have mediated, and the influence of which is still in daily operation’ – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Sir Walter Scott (15 August 1771-21 September 1832) was a lawyer, poet, translator, historian and novelist. His classics works, such as Ivanhoe and Waverley, remain in print today. He was two years younger than Napoleon, whose biography was the only historical work he ever wrote. It was to inspire the approach of later historians Lord Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle. Read more