Napoleon, Michael Broers
Napoleon, Michael Broers
List: $29.95 | Sale: $20.97
Club: $14.97

Napoleon
Soldier of Destiny

Author: Michael Broers

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 20 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/08/2019


Synopsis

See Napoleon, a major motion picture from director Ridley Scott starring Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.Written with great energy and authority―and using the newly available personal archives of Napoleon himself―the first volume of a majestic two-part biography of the great French emperor and conquerorAll previous lives of Napoleon have relied more on the memoirs of others than on his own uncensored words. This is the first life of Napoleon, in any language, that makes full use of his newly released personal correspondence compiled by the Napoléon Foundation in Paris.Michael Broers’ biography draws on the thoughts of Napoleon himself as his incomparable life unfolded. It reveals a man of intense emotion, but also of iron self-discipline; of acute intelligence and immeasurable energy. Tracing his life from its dangerous Corsican roots, through his rejection of his early identity, and the dangerous military encounters of his early career, it tells the story of the sheer determination, ruthlessness, and careful calculation that won him the precarious mastery of Europe by 1807. After the epic battles of Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland, France was the dominant land power on the continent.Here is the first biography of Napoleon in which this brilliant, violent leader is evoked to give the listener a full, dramatic, and all-encompassing portrait.

About Michael Broers

Michael Broers is professor of Western European history at Oxford University. He is the author of The Napoleonic Empire in Italy, 1796–1814, winner of the Grand Prix Napoleon Prize, and Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny. He lives in Oxford, England.

About Simon Vance

Simon Vance is an award-winning actor and an AudioFile Golden Voice with over fifty Earphones Awards and thirteen prestigious Audie Awards. He was named Booklist’s very first Voice of Choice in 2008 and an AudioFile Best Voice of 2009.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mark

For all of their variety in number, size, and detail, biographies of Napoleon Bonaparte can be grouped into three categories. The first are those, such as Patrice Gueniffey's Bonaparte: 1769-1802, which concentrate on Napoleon the person, analyzing his motivations, beliefs, and views. The second, wh......more

Goodreads review by Kaśyap

This is the first part of a new two volume biography of Napoleon. Broers draws extensively from both primary and secondary sources. He starts this biography in Corsica with his family history and the material circumstances surrounding his childhood in Corsica. This is a necessary and important compon......more

Goodreads review by Brian

This new, multi-volume biography of Napoleon (and he certainly was significant and monumental enough to deserve the expansive treatment of multiple books) uses the complete personal papers of the emperor for the first time. Ending on the precipice of war with the Third Alliance in 1805, the jumping......more


Quotes

“Breathtaking. The best―and certainly the most original―scholar writing in this field writing in English. Broers succeeds admirably.” New York Review of Books

“This is a serious work, the product of reflection as well as research befitting a distinguished professor of Western European History at Oxford.” Washington Post

“Among the plethora of Napoleon biographies, this is immensely engaging for lay readers.” Kirkus Reviews