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Napoleon
- A Life
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 27 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's summary
The definitive biography of Napoleon, revealing the true man behind the legend.
"What a novel my life has been!" Napoleon once said of himself. Born into a poor family, the callow young man was, by 26, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The pope crowned him as emperor of the French when he was only 35. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic.
The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context.
Critic reviews
"Napoleon is an out and out masterpiece and a joy to read." (Sir Antony Beevor, author of Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege)
"A biography of Napoleon Bonaparte that avoids the well-established military details and gives us the story of a singular man...Illuminating." (Kirkus)
"Zamoyski tells the personal side of Napoleon's life...his hopes, his dreams, his self-doubts." (New York Journal of Books)
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Story
Phantom Terror explores this troubled, fascinating period, when politicians and cultural leaders from Edmund Burke to Mary Shelley were forced to choose sides and either support or resist the counterrevolutionary spirit embodied in the newly omnipotent central states. The turbulent political situation that coalesced during this era would lead directly to the revolutions of 1848 and to the collapse of order in World War I.
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Amazing
- By Mike Johnson on 07-14-15
By: Adam Zamoyski
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Napoleon
- A Life
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 32 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Roberts' Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon's thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine.
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What a dynamo!
- By Tad Davis on 01-16-15
By: Andrew Roberts
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Moscow 1812
- Napoleon’s Fatal March
- By: Adam Zamoyski
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 17 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1812 the most powerful man in the world assembled the largest army in history and marched on Moscow with the intention of consolidating his dominion. But within months, Napoleon's invasion of Russia—history's first example of total war—had turned into an epic military disaster. Over 400,000 French and Allied troops perished and Napoleon was forced to retreat.
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Very well done
- By Zach Simon on 06-25-24
By: Adam Zamoyski
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Napoleon
- Soldier of Destiny
- By: Michael Broers
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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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 conqueror.
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Clarity
- By Tad Davis on 03-25-19
By: Michael Broers
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The First Total War
- Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It
- By: David A. Bell
- Narrated by: Trenton Bennett
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The twentieth century is usually seen as "the century of total war." But as the historian David A. Bell argues in this landmark work, the phenomenon actually began much earlier, in the era of muskets, cannons, and sailing ships—in the age of Napoleon. In a sweeping, evocative narrative, Bell takes us from campaigns of "extermination" in the blood-soaked fields of western France to savage street fighting in ruined Spanish cities to central European battlefields where tens of thousands died in a single day. Between 1792 and 1815, Europe plunged into an abyss of destruction.
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Great Book Undercut by Narration
- By RKMIII on 05-21-24
By: David A. Bell
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Napoleon Unleashed
- A History of the Revolutionary, Emperor, and Military Genius Who Reshaped Europe and Defined Modern Leadership
- By: Aeon History
- Narrated by: Luke Oldham
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Witness Napoleon Bonaparte's Rise and Fall: From an outsider on Corsica to the Emperor of France, Napoleon's journey is a tale of ambition, strategy, and leadership. This book delves deep into his life, revealing a story that transcends history and offers timeless lessons.
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A Journey through History
- By Binshaji on 07-02-24
By: Aeon History
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Izabela the Valiant
- The Story of an Indomitable Polish Princess
- By: Adam Zamoyski
- Narrated by: Rich Keeble
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Trawling through a vast family archive and arcane sources in half a dozen languages, Adam Zamoyski has revealed the dramatic life of his great-great-great grandmother, an uneducated, vulnerable girl cast into a man’s world. Her aristocratic position enmeshed her in high politics and close encounters with Frederick the Great, Benjamin Franklin, Rousseau, Joseph II, Marie-Antoinette and Tsar Alexander I, and earned her the enmity of Catherine the Great.
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Insight into a different age
- By Unhappy customer on 06-30-24
By: Adam Zamoyski
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Metternich
- Strategist and Visionary
- By: Wolfram Siemann, Daniel Steuer - translator
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 36 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Metternich has a reputation as the epitome of reactionary conservatism. Historians treat him as the archenemy of progress, a ruthless aristocrat who used his power as the dominant European statesman of the first half of the nineteenth century to stifle liberalism, suppress national independence, and oppose the dreams of social change that inspired the revolutionaries of 1848. Wolfram Siemann paints a fundamentally new image of the man who shaped Europe for over four decades. He reveals Metternich as more modern and his career much more forward-looking than we have ever recognized.
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Very intensely researched
- By PDH on 04-11-23
By: Wolfram Siemann, and others
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The Napoleonic Wars
- By: Alexander Mikaberidze
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created. Napoleon's ultimate defeat was to determine the history of Europe for almost 100 years. From the frozen wastelands of Russia, through the brutal fighting in the Peninsula to the blood-soaked battlefield of Waterloo, this book tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire.
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No description of battles
- By John Gaston on 01-15-21
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Genghis Khan
- His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy
- By: Frank McLynn
- Narrated by: Tim Andres Pabon
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Mongol leader Genghis Khan was by far the greatest conqueror the world has ever known. His empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to Central Europe, including all of China, the Middle East, and Russia. So how did an illiterate nomad rise to such colossal power and subdue most of the known world, eclipsing Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Napoleon?
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Well Researched but Poorly Written
- By Sean V. Werner on 08-10-16
By: Frank McLynn
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Theoderic the Great
- King of Goths, Ruler of Romans
- By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, John Noel Dillon - translator
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In the year 493, the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors, their wives, and children personally cut down Odoacer, the man famous for deposing the last Roman emperor in 476. That leader became Theoderic the Great (454-526). This engaging history of his life and reign immerses listeners in the world of the warrior-king who ushered in decades of peace and stability in Italy as king of Goths and Romans.
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More for historians than general readers
- By Bill Staley on 10-29-23
By: Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, and others
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The Corsican: A Diary of Napoleon's Life
- By: Napoleon Bonaparte, R. M. Johnston - editor
- Narrated by: Jack Chekijian
- Length: 17 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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These are entirely Napoleon Bonaparte's own words, written and spoken, and collected in journal form. A particular focus here has been put on Napoleon's writings that pertain to military and state matters. The dates in terms of the revolutionary calendar have been modernized, and names and titles of individuals mentioned have been maintained with no attempt at uniformity. This production was begun on the 250th year of Napoleon's birth.
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Superb
- By William S. knightly on 09-02-20
By: Napoleon Bonaparte, and others
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A New World Begins
- The History of the French Revolution
- By: Jeremy D. Popkin
- Narrated by: Pete Cross, Jeremy D. Popkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The principles of the French Revolution remain the only possible basis for a just society - even if, after more than 200 years, they are more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the listener in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society.
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Narration
- By Kindle Customer on 04-26-22
By: Jeremy D. Popkin
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Napoleon
- The Art of War & Power
- By: Napoleon Bonaparte
- Narrated by: Stephane Cornicard, Andrew Wincott
- Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Napoleon Bonaparte's ascent to power was meteoric. Ever the outsider and regarded by many as an upstart, his extraordinary determination, courage, and tactical skill saw him rise from ordinary beginnings to become the greatest military commander of his age. A brigadier general by the age of 24, crowned Emperor of France by age 35, he had conquered most of the countries of Europe by the time he was 45.
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The Weimar Years
- Rise and Fall 1918–1933
- By: Frank McDonough
- Narrated by: Paul McGann
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Established in 1918–19, in the wake of Germany’s catastrophic defeat in the First World War and the revolution that followed swiftly on its heels, the Weimar Republic ushered in widespread social reform, a radical cultural flowering and the most democratic conditions the German people had ever known. The Weimar Years is a vivid narrative of a dramatic period in German history. Year by year, from 1918 to 1933, Frank McDonough covers the major events in both domestic and foreign policy and the personalities who shaped them, together with developments in music, art, theatre and literature.
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An excellent history of the time period
- By Jackie Renee Johnson on 04-02-24
By: Frank McDonough
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The Storm of War
- A New History of the Second World War
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 28 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The Second World War lasted for 2,174 days, cost $1.5 trillion, and claimed the lives of more than 50 million people. Why did the Axis lose? And could they, with a different strategy, have won? Andrew Roberts's acclaimed new history has been hailed as the finest single-volume account of this epic conflict. From the western front to North Africa, from the Baltic to the Far East, he tells the story of the war - the grand strategy and the individual experience, the cruelty and the heroism - as never before.
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A very interesting book with some shortcomings.
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-24-11
By: Andrew Roberts
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
What listeners say about Napoleon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Justin Cottrell
- 08-03-23
Great historical title
I knew quote a bit about Napoleon, but this book filled in many gaps in my knowledge about the emperor of France. I knew how it would end, but the ride through Napoleon's life was still a great adventure. a good listen for serious history fans and anyone else looking to learn about Napoleon.
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- P. Hark
- 10-20-19
An incredible life, well told and well performed
What an incredible life of a most wilful person, modernizing France, infrastructure as well as institutions. A bridge between divine right and man of the people. I think like many geniuses, complex and contradictory. He is able to rationalize any point of view if it suits the desired outcome.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Curt Brackenrich
- 07-08-19
Breathtaking in scale, research, and performance!
I wish there were 6 stars to give this audio book. I enjoyed every last minute of it, 27+ hours and I wish it were longer, this is one of the best audio books I've ever experienced, The hard-to-believe story of Napoleon's life is on full display here, in all it's glory and tragedy. Anyone interested in his life will be happy to have this book as part of their library.
Adams Zamoyski's research and writing is perfectly done, and the narration of Leighton Pugh is masterful, this was a complete joy to listen to.
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4 people found this helpful
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- A. Wenzel
- 09-01-19
Fantastic
this book is a wonderful introduction to Napoleon the legend and force. I found it very easy to follow and incredibly informative. The material is solid and the narrator does a wonderful job with names and places in multiple languages. If you are interested in learning about the Corsican who made himself a general at 26 and later an emperor, read it!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jimbo
- 07-15-19
Great introduction to Napoleon.
I had only a thumbnail sketch of Napoleon before this book. And that involved a lot of the popular myths about him.
But this book does a fantastic job of providing an objective account of his life. The author provides direct quotes from Napoleon’s contemporaries for color. When the true facts are unknown he is careful to state so and offer reasonable possibilities to what Napoleon May have been thinking at the time backed up by evidence.
Napoleon was a fascinating person and full of contradictions. He’s worth any history fan’s time.
One issue I had with the performance was that the narrator had impeccable French. And to my provincial Yankee ears all the names sounded the same. That made it hard to keep track of the people. Everyone around Napoleon sounded like they had the same name.
Other than that though I did enjoy his delivery.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Greg Brown
- 07-27-19
From man to myth
I was interested in Napoleon's battles and genius. The book is actually a very good biography of a MAN and his times. He became a flawed human being through this excellent history. Why he went to Moscow and other questions about his life became more important to me. His once great military strategies that failed, but nearly succeeded were revealed. His family loyalties that led to some mistakes were interesting.
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1 person found this helpful
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- kurt sackman
- 12-04-21
WHAT IS MYTH?
It must be quite a delicate challenge with all this source material and so little you can actually say once you've limited yourself to the man ...himself.
Compound that with the fact that the source material itself is as massive as it is duplicitous —much from the man himself.
I feel there's much more Adam has to say about "our hero." For once the author is neither French nor British: Zamoyski's Polish background gives him a privileged position on this strange compound character, this ball of contradictions that is the vanguard of modern history that we call what he called himself, Napoleon Bonaparte —which was not quite his name and certainly not what his mother called him.
Sometimes the myth is inside the "man himself". —He was born under a lucky star after all.
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- Sarah Kurasz
- 09-10-19
Wrapping up my trot through French history
So my knowledge of Napoleon before this book was learned from about an hour and a half long footnote at the end of a series of lectures on the French revolution and from his brief appearances in Les Mis and War and Peace. After this book, I feel like I'm a lot wiser. It was frequently interesting and informative.
I'm giving it four stars instead of five though because 1) the narrator wasn't the most engaging narrator and 2) there were points where I felt like whole sections of time were just glossed over and I was left with questions. Still, I thought it was in interesting book and a good overview of Napoleon and the period he so heavily influenced.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-09-20
Excellent listen! I knew the name, now I know man.
Loved it. A final summary of his accomplishments and a total, estimated tally on troop deaths would have been nice at the end.
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- maridell monnheimer
- 08-05-19
A focused overview of Napoleon
This book provides the reader with a great depiction of Napoleon not only as emperor but as the ambitious young soldier, who continuously grasped for more power to achieve his goals and “follow is star”.
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