Napoleon: A Life

Napoleon: A Life is a massively detailed book about, you guessed it, the European Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Clocking in at just under 1,000 pages, this book details the life of Napoleon from his birth to death and leaves no stone unturned. Obviously based on the title and length, I assumed this book would be detailed, but I was surprised with the insightfulness of the material.  Andrew Roberts does a great job at gathering the multitude of information about Napoleon into a well-organized chronological order for the reader to digest.  

Some of the material was certainly cumbersome, especially when it came to reading long strings of French names or something similar.  However, for as many times as my eyes glossed over, there were equally as many times I was pleasantly surprised by one-liners from Napoleon. History knows him as a ruthless conqueror, but for those who knew him at the time, he was well liked, inspiring and often funny.  

I learned more than I could possibly retain in this book, but I would recommend this to anyone who wants an in depth look at early 19th century Europe or specifically, French history or information of Napoleon.  My only advice is to clear your calendar as it will take quite a while! 

C. L.