6 reviews for Napoleon
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Napoleon
by Emil Ludwig
Description:
Emil Ludwig’s biography of Napoleon, now 74 years old, continues its remarkable presence as a classic of Napoleonic literature and has yet to be surpassed for its unique presentation. Writing in the present tense, Ludwig brings to life his subject’s character better than any other biography of Napoleon. The biography is divided into five books One, “The Island” (birth to marriage); Two, “The Torrent” (Army of Italy to First Counsel); Three, “The River” (Marengo to birth of Napoleon II); Four, “The Sea” (Russia to Waterloo); and Five, “The Rock” (St. Helena). Each book begins with a quote from Goethe. Although Ludwig does not include a bibliography, the concluding four pages, the “Envoy”, he states, “In this book, all the data are recorded facts, except the soliloquies.” Also, in the acknowledgments he thanked Professor Pariset and Kurt Wildhagen for advice on the book and Edouard Driault and F.M. Kircheisen for help with supplying material for the illustrations.
About The Author
Emil Ludwig (originally named Emil Cohn) was born in Breslau, now part of Poland. Ludwig studied law but chose writing as a career. At first he wrote plays and novella, but also worked as a journalist. In 1906, he moved to Switzerland, but, during World War I, he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Berliner Tageblatt in Vienna and Istanbul. He became a Swiss citizen in 1932, later emigrating to the United States in 1940.
At the end of the Second World War, he went to Germany as a journalist, and it is to him that we owe the retrieving of Goethe’s and Schiller’s coffins, which had disappeared from Weimar in 1943/44. He returned to Switzerland after the war and died in 1948, in Moscia, near Ascona.
During the 1920s, he achieved international fame for his popular biographies which combined historical fact and fiction with psychological analysis. After his biography of Goethe was published in 1920, he wrote several similar biographies, including one about Bismarck (192224) and another about Jesus (1928). As Ludwig’s biographies were popular outside of Germany and were widely translated, he was one of the fortunate émigrés who had an income while living in the United States. His writings were considered particularly dangerous by Goebbels, who mentioned him in his journal.
Ludwig interviewed Benito Mussolini and on December 1, 1929 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. His interview with the founder of the Republic of Turkey appeared in Wiener Freie Presse in March 1930, addressing issues of religion and music. He also interviewed Joseph Stalin in Moscow on December 13, 1931. An excerpt from this interview is included in Stalin’s book on Lenin. Ludwig describes this interview in his biography of Stalin. What was originally an omitted section of the interview by Joseph Stalin himself, Professor of Montclair State University Grover Furr had finally published an English version of it.
Ludwig’s extended interviews with T.G. Masaryk, founder and longtime president of Czechoslovakia, appeared as Defender of Democracy in 1936
Skryf Review
“Amazing Book”
Navya
A Life, written by Andrew Roberts, is an absolutely astounding biography on one of modern history’s greatest conquerors, Napoleon Bonaparte. Born in Corsica and resentful of French rule over the island, he eventually gave up his nationalist views and joined the French army as an artillery officer. Rising through the ranks during France’s bloody Revolutionary period, Napoleon eventually become the centre of a coup d’etat attempt by a number of conspirators to overthrow the ineffective and chaotic French revolutionary system. Napoleon outfoxed his co-conspirators, and took full military control of France, eventually proclaiming himself an Emperor. What followed was a whirlwind of political reform, French expansion and military victory. Italian, German and Austrian states were all defeated by Napoleons armies, and the geopolitical situation of Europe was drastically changed. Multiple coalitions consisting of almost every European power were allayed and defeated 5 times, until the disastrous Russian campaign and Napoleon’s Hundred Days out of political exile. He ended his life in captivity on British owned St. Helena, far away from the political gambit of Europe.Napoleon was an energetic, meticulous and rebellious figure. He did away with most established conventions, dismissed most religious traditions (at times dabbling in Islam, and considering marrying a Russian Orthodox princess). He took personal control over much of the facets of his Empire, simultaneously fighting major campaign battles while engaging in reforms at home, offering advice to his subordinates and involving himself in minute disputes and issues. He married for love, and was with his wife, Empress Josephine, for 13 years before divorcing and marrying an Austrian princess in a political move to try and end Austria’s stringent opposition of French power.
Hiten
This fine biography is as thorough as it is balanced. The exhaustive research by Andrew Roberts included thousands of letters written by Napoleon that were not available to other biographers as well as letters written by others and memoirs of many people from the day. The balance comes from critical examination of the sources, Roberts discusses whether certain letters and memoirs were self serving or accurate and looks to other sources to aid in that balance.The biography intersperses the military campaigns and political reforms with Napoleon’s personal life. He initially loved Josephine and was faithful to her only to learn of her infidelity. But Napoleon forgave her though he went on to a series of mistresses and his eventual divorce from her for a male heir and political alliance pursuant to new marriage was done so with tempered feelings, they maintained a long and warm correrspondence long after the divorce. His marriage to the Austrian princess was not just of convenience but the one woman who repeatedly appeared in his life, even in his defeat, was his Polish mistress.There is much in this thorough and complete biography that is not touched upon in this review; all the more reason to read it yourself!
Havisha
It’s already been a few weeks since I finished Napoleon, so unfortunately it’s not as vivid in my memory as it once was. I procrastinated on writing a review here in part because I was conflicted on whether it was four-star or five-star material, and after some time to digest I’ve decided to bump it up to five.I had little to no interest in military history going into the book, and the fact that it consistently held my attention and even made me more and more engaged in the battle talk as the book went on speaks to how smartly it connected the different aspects of Napoleon’s life. The interplay of politics, war, and philosophy throughout Napoleon’s rise was the central drama of the biography for me — it proved to be both a timeless theme and one that was intimately situated in revolutionary France and the vacuum of power and political direction that it produced. France and the 18th century are two topics about which I knew little, and the incredibly detailed story that the biography pieced together helped me to feel like I was deep in the trenches of historical analysis.But what ultimately pushed Napoleon into five star territory for me was the prose. Roberts’ writing was fresh and engaging while staying expertly economical, an achievement I didn’t so much notice while reading the bio as when I moved on to other writing and realized how much I’d taken it for granted.
Smit
I read a review that said this was bias, that ‘Great’ is not a term we should use for Napoleon. First, this book is not bias and shows Napoleon warts and all. The author brings up contrary evidence from detractors but properly dismisses them as bias when appropriate. Second, in the concluding chapter it is pretty clear that Napoleon is a Great, and that his disaster’s were merely the result of hubris, something that affects all Greats, from leading surgeons to Ronda Rousey. His legacy has lasted and on a purely numbers game he is one of the leading men of history.I have also read that you can judge a book (or I suppose writer) by the amount of other books they spur you to read. Eg I just started Duff Cooper’s ‘Talleyrand’, and plan to read books on Nelson, Catherine the Great, the Congress of Vienna, Prussia and the Russian Campaign. All this a result of learning the fascinating ins and outs of the life of Napoleon. Of course the battle accounts are detailed and interesting, but it is more Napoleon’s letters and communications that really entertain and enlighten. It’s a tragic story, but one that is important and we all should know.Oh yeah and the audiobook wrapped up as I opened the door after my morning walk, great timing.
Anmol
This book is an absolutely fantastic biography of one of the largest lives ever lived. I consider myself to possess a decent knowledge of history, but the Napoleonic era is one place I do not know much. Perhaps it is the American education system to blame – I do not recall learning any European history after the Revolutionary war. Once the USA comes along, the rest of the world was ignored, at least up to WWI. My knowledge of Napoleon’s life came from bits and pieces picked up in other reading, whether overviews of the era or stories that rubbed against Napoleon’s story. This book certainly remedied that!My only qualm with the book, which does not even take away one star, are the names. Reading name after name and trying to keep track of them all was a daunting task. Thankfully Wikipedia helped with some of that. I suspect this could be the sort of book better read in an e-version as you can quickly search for the names of people. I suppose something would have been taken away from the story if the names of other people were dropped, after all they were part of Napoleon’s story, but it was definitely hard to keep track of them all.