Zamoyski deserves praise for his selection of sources. Unlike some recent works that rely on the accounts of contemporaries who abhorred Napoleon, Napoleon: A Life incorporates the voices of those who were both for and against him, and, even more important, those who were observers and not politically polarized ... Although his book fills more than 700 pages, it moves quickly, and Zamoyski adeptly avoids getting bogged down in any specific topic ... one of the finest biographies of Napoleon Bonaparte ever written.
Engaging and highly readable ... What sets Mr. Zamoyski apart from countless other biographers is his ability to (1) provide context to the factors that made Napoleon a constant warrior and (2) to explore his restoration of order to post-revolutionary France ... An inclusive life of a historical dynamo.
The French are going to hate this book ... Napoleon has, for the most part, enjoyed an easy ride from historians, who are usually too intoxicated by his daring military victories to notice his serious flaws ... Zamoyski’s research is meticulous, his writing sublime, but the story suffers because of his admirable refusal to indulge in romantic fantasy. This is probably one of the truest biographies of Napoleon, but unfortunately the truth can sometimes be dull. That qualification aside, this book undoubtedly needed to be written.
Mr. Zamoyski rejects the Great Man thesis ... Napoleon emerges from Mr. Zamoyski’s book a wilful, self-made opportunist ... A worthy riposte to that of Andrew Roberts.
Where Roberts’s 2014 biography hailed modern Europe’s constitutional and legal frameworks as Napoleon’s legacy, Zamoyski finds it hard to avert his eyes from the mountain of corpses ... If this excellent study has a weakness, it is that Zamoyski never satisfactorily explains what it was all for, what end this incurably restless prodigy envisaged for himself or his empire ... This book focuses on Napoleon the man rather than on his battles. Waterloo receives only a page, sensibly so, because there is nothing fresh to be said. The emperor has had few biographers who address this shooting star with Zamoyski’s narrative power and nuanced judgment. Napoleon’s greatness is beyond dispute: he rode the tide of his times with awesome success. But his country remains cursed by its reverence for the illusion of glory that he created.
Talented and accomplished [writing, like Zamoyski's] would be a godsend in a new 750-page biography of [historical figures with fewer biographies]… but in the service of writing yet another big book about Bonaparte? Take a number. Get in line ... Considering the extent to which hagiography sells hardcovers, one doesn't expect to encounter this kind of assessment in a brick called Napoleon: A Life, so maybe readers should be grateful for any kind of critical assessment of this little monster. There are precious few such assessments in these pages. Instead, in every chapter, at every key dramatized moment, there are subtle and not-so-subtle shadings designed to exonerate this after-all-just-a-man Bonaparte ... Readers looking for that Bonaparte myth – and sales figures suggest they are legion – will find no better rendition of it this season than Zamoyski's book. That's a kind of distinction, but just as when Bonaparte would smile his piglet little half-smile at some general and say 'You're a man after my own heart,' it's a dubious distinction.
Avoids the well-established military details and gives us the story of a singular man ... lengthy but highly readable ... An illuminating, easy-to-read, warts-and-all biography of one of history’s most significant figures.
