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Napoleon: A Life Audio Book Review

 


 

Napoleon: A Life – An Audio Book Review

 

  • Author: Andrew Roberts
  • Narrated by: John Lee
  • Length: 32 hours and 55 minutes
  • Unabridged
  • Genre: History

 

Download or CD available to BUY at Amazon.

 

 

Napoleon: A Life Audio Book Summary:

 

One of the greatest military minds in history, Napoleon Bonaparte, is a man whose life story is still shrouded in mystery. His conquests at Borodino, Austerlitz and Waterloo are all well documented but the same can not be said about who Napoleon truly was. In this audiobook by Andrew Roberts, he makes detailed use of Napoleon Bonaparte’s recently released 33,000 letters to help paint a more detailed imagery of the military genius. Thanks to these letters written by Bonaparte himself we now see a more human side and understand the motivation behind the vaunted military statesman.

The recently published letters shows Bonaparte to be a decisive leader and an understanding yet stern human being. It also showed Napoleon’s complete understanding of the importance of being able to tell his own story through his memoirs which he wrote during his exile on St. Helena. This memoir became the highest selling book in 19th century France. Andrew Roberts traveled through 53 of all 60 battle sites that Bonaparte took part in. Now, Roberts publishes what is considered to be the most complete biography of Napoleon that is both insightful and intricately written for modern readers and listeners.

 

One reason to listen:

Discover the truth behind the life and times of one of history’s most famous military leaders and learn more about the man behind the stories.


 

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Reactions:

 
“This is not only the first one-volume history of Napoleon but also THE book on Napoleon to read if you are new to his life-history or looking for a fresh take. Thanks to the recent release of his private letters (33,000+) and a fellowship at the Napoleonic Institute, Roberts has a far wider and deeper look into this infamous leader than any other author has had before. I sometimes find one-volume efforts unwieldy, but Roberts has been providing this style of high-quality history reading ever since “The Storm of War” and “Masters and Commanders”, and this book simply follows suit! To say it simply, he knows the material and shares it well. I wouldn’t call myself an expert of western history, really an amateur aficionado at best, even though I’ve read a lot about world politics of the time including biographies of the personalities and memoirs by the participants.” – Ed Morgan

 


 

“Why do we need another book on Napoleon? After all, as Mr Roberts admits right at the very beginning of his book, every aspect of Napoleon’s life “has now been documented, explored and picked over in the most astonishing detail”. Yet, for someone who is interested in the life of Napoleon, he had had an advantage over those biographers of previous generations; because he could use over a third of the 33000 letters which have recently been published and which serve as a template for this new amazing and hightly entertaining examination of Napoleon’s life.” – Paul Gelman

 



 

“Upon reading Roberts’ book, while it seems impossible that a figure as towering as Napoleon can ever have “the definitive one-volume biography,” Andrew Roberts comes as close as it can get. One is left only to awe at Napoleon’s meteoric rise to power, his battlefield ability, his own egoism, his political ability as lawgiver and administrator (which is where Napoleon has been most successful, now, almost 200 years after his death, his legal reforms still have more widespread influence than his armies ever died), and at the same time, one can see the propaganda machine and battlefield brutality hard at work. Roberts has written a biography of Napoleon not casting him as “Great” in the sense that Americans view the deified trio of Presidents: Washington, Lincoln, or FDR, but “great” in the historiographical sense—no other figure from 1796-1815 held the world in his hand, and moved almost 20 years of European history with a single breath, or had the rest of a continent trembling in their boots and reacting to his every move.” – Paul Krause

 


 

“The one area that I found flaw in the book was in Roberts’ retelling of Napoleon’s strategic failings. One of his key arguments that the catastrophic invasion of Russia in 1812 was beyond his control, really overlooks what Napoleon overlooked – which is that he underestimated not just the skill of their generals (ie. Barclay de Tolly) and fighting quality of their troops, but also the determination of the tsar. And although Roberts concedes that “Napoleon’s understanding of naval affairs was dismal,” his brief mention of losing Trafalgar in 1805 really understates the issue. The Battle of Trafalgar was pivotal in determining world trade systems and killed French hopes of invading England while boosting British economy so that even by 1815 France had barely reached Britain’s level of industrialism in 1780.” – Ed

 



 

“The underlying work is excellent, but for $22.00 it wouldn’t be too much to expect hotlinked footnotes. Flipping back to them manually is extremely cumbersome and makes a careful read in this format impossible. The book is extremely long, so be prepared for a long listen.” – Lostingotham

Score on Audible: 4.0 out of 5
Score on Amazon: 4.0 out of 5

Download or CD available to BUY at Amazon.


 

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