The rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte

My 14yr old son is halfway through this first volume and while it may not be as gripping as some works are, this book is full of accurate history that a movie cannot provide. We bought this so that my son can see, while historical movies are neat and can give perspective and animation to the history, it is better to back it up with solid foundational knowledge of that historical event or person. Both works should be in your library.

I have almost been through the two books, and they read very quickly.As a survey of events, these volumes are ok .. not sure if a Cole's Notes might give as much information in much less time!The disappointment is that despite all the pages (700), there is not much space devoted to understanding this man; or the events he unleashes in Europe. The Napoleonic Code is almost a footnote. Apart from the Russian Emperor Alexander, other leaders are very shallow described.And the battles are not very interestingly detailed either.The bibliography is useful as a place to start.

Robert Asprey in his twin hardcover volumes “The Rise and Fall of Napoleon Bonaparte” (reprinted in two softcover volumes as “The Rise and Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte”) offers a highly readable and strategically complete account of the period spanning Napoleon’s birth through his campaigns culminating at Waterloo, to the Emperor’s final exile and death.What makes these 1000-plus pages shine is the author’s willingness to explore Napoleon’s persona, ambition, and strategic aims without fear of shouting down numerous historians whose critiques of the “little corporal” are seen as one-sided and overly harsh; equally so any sources seen as suspect or tainted.Asprey writes in a sometimes-staccato style that soon becomes easy to the ear. His approach to Napoleon keeps pages turning at a rapid rate – and as a rarity in my case – offered a very real “one more chapter” urge. In their entirety, these twin tomes offered three small typos and one innocuous open-ended sentence that I came across.Volume 1 takes the reader from Napoleon’s birth to Austerlitz, volume 2 the battle’s aftermath to illness-ridden death. If anything wants here it is the way volume 1 ends with Austerlitz’s guns still smoking – while volume 2 picks up in geopolitics. Setting up volume 2 with a segue describing Europe’s shock wouldn’t have gone astray at all.Asprey’s “Rise and Fall” offers a solid path for those seeking a robust introduction to Napoleon “the man”, and the fate of Europe known as the “Napoleonic Wars”. Veteran readers will enjoy a well-researched argument that refreshingly omits parroting the scholarship of decades: “Napoleon bad – England good”. Where the author offers conjecture, he acknowledges dissenting views. Footnotes to sources appear at the end of each chapter.Remember, however, that even in 1000 pages though nearly all battles may be described, room will only permit at times, a rudimentary coverage of the movements of corps and divisions. Often therefore, we will read of the arrival of a general at one city, and few sentences hence, of his appearance 100 miles away.In this regard, Asprey does one thing very well where many books on military operations fail: maps.Though only a few, whenever a place name in mentioned in the text, you’ll always be able to find it on a map. Not bad for some complex maneuvers across Germany, Poland, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Russia, Egypt, and the Levant. Very rewarding in fact.

Gold mine of inspiration

Asprey states in the preface that he intends to write an objective account of Napoleon's life as for to long his image has swayed between demigod and Satan incarcerated. i can say that he has done his job well and had give us a wonderful work that covers the whole of napoleons amazing life from his mothers womb during Corsica's fight against french occupation to his sad end on St Helena island. he holds nothing back and while describing his amazing leadership skills and patronage to the arts and sciences he also describes his some might call 'plundering' of art from the places he conquered and carting them off to paris to be displayed there and his blood curdling messages on how villages that rebelled were to be dealt with. yet he doesn't say any criticism of him on this and just simply states what happened. he also even defends him on the areas of his life were he is most criticised and offers up all the facts which his detractors chose to ignore like on his apparent abandoning of his army in egypt. all in all this is a wonderful book yet it doesn't offer much in the way of passion or a greater insight into Napoleon the man and what he was really like to meet and more maps would have been nice. i greatly enjoyed this and i often couldn't put it down and left with a great understanding of napoleon's life and his military campaigns.

Got this for my dad as he specified what he would like for his birthday! I bought Volumes 1 and 2. He seemed to be thrilled with his bit a light reading in the evening!! Having said that he didn't manage to pass them onto anyone else...I don't know why??! :)