Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life
Napoleon Bonaparte is a book written by Alan Schom and published by HarperCollins in 26th august 1998. Schom seeks to give details of Bonaparte from the day of his birth in Corsica to his death while away in exile in St. Helena. The book has been controversial. The International Napoleonic Society did state that it is the most hostile book documenting the life history of the French Emperor. Despite numerous claims that the book is erroneous, the review by the institution did not support its claims using any scholarly materials. Contrary to claims of error, Schom did properly annotate the book and in the Epilogue does state that he tried to give the emperor his rightful dues. The writing of this book is exemplary, has sufficient evidence or annotation and the subject pursued by the book are fascinating.
Napoleon Bonaparte has been the most dominating and powerful figures in the history of France. Many people have been indicating interest in understanding this acclaimed French Emperor. He has been providing a fascinating subject of observation from his time as French ruler up to date. There exist many books probably thousands detailing on the life of the French Emperor. Some give accounts of his unending victories on the battle field while others concentrate on his personal life. Despite the number of books written about the French ruler, there is no one such book that gives comprehensive details of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. The book Napoleon Bonaparte: A life by Alan Schom fills the gap giving details of Bonaparte that other biographers avoided. Schom divorces himself from the obvious praise of Bonaparte and instead gives candid description of both the strengths and weaknesses of Napoleon. The reason I chose this book is that it gives accounts about Napoleon that do not exist in other biographies.
Napoleon Bonaparte: A life written by Alan Schom is an ambitious and readable account of the life of Bonaparte. It includes all the available facets of his life from his birth and childhood at Corsica to the time of his death on the island of St. Helena. The major concentrations of the book are the military career of Bonaparte. It gives details into his military campaigns and details all the battles that he did win and also those that he won. These wars include those fought in Italy, Egypt, Austria, Russia, Poland, Prussia and Spain. There are also details of the organization of the military, internal conflicts, and the factors that contributed to either success or failure of these wars.
Schom in this book gives an illumination of the structural and political organization of the French government. This is possible through napoleon who rose to become the ruler of French from 1799 when he took power through a coup. On his political career, the books also describe key officers, aides, generals, and commanders that were pivotal to Napoleon. They included Admiral Villeneuve, police minister Fouche, and naval commander Talleyrand. There are international rivalries and their in inclusion of settlements of these conflicts in the book. Schom finalizes accounts about Napoleon by writing about his enemies. Napoleon had many enemies, but the book gives details of the most notable enemies of the first consul of France. They included Emperor Franz I from Austria, Duke of Wellington, Field Marshal Kutukoz, Czar Alexander of Russia, and Friendrich Wilhelm III from Prussia.
Schom also gives an account of the personal life of Bonaparte. Bonaparte was a polygamist and despite having a wife he had numerous mistresses. In his earlier life, Bonaparte married Josephine de Beauharmis but would later divorce her because of her affairs with his officers and the lack of children in their wedlock. He then marries Marie Louise, and they have a son Napoleon Francis Joseph Charles. During his marriages, Napoleon has mistresses such as Pauline Bellisle Foures of Egypt during the Egyptian campaigns. Schom also gives a vivid description of the Napoleon acknowledgement of his illegitimate children. He did acknowledge two of his illegitimate sons. That is Charles Leon whose mother was Eleonere Denuelle and Count Alexandre Walewski born to Marie Walewska. Despite previous biographies detailing on the promiscuity of Napoleon, there is none that gives vivid details of the accounts than this book.
A life by Alan Schom also gives details a friendship of Bonaparte with mathematician. There is little knowledge of the mathematician who was a savant. Schom also gives details concerning his death while in exile on the island of St. Helena. Helena. Napoleon has a myriad of flaws, and despite this knowledge, there is little documentation of these facts. It is Schom’s book that entails the destruction and misery caused by the emperor in Europe. Such misery emanates from his unending and at times needless wars that would to the wreckage of the European mankind. Other flaws of Bonaparte included his indifference on the medical needs of his soldiers and lack of appropriate planning and information gathering. It is such flaws that eventually lead to the end of his rule and his subsequent demise while in St. Helena.
This book describes the period between 1769 and 1821, which is the lifetime of Napoleon Bonaparte. Evident from the book this was a period of constant conflicts between nations and kingdoms. There were fights In various parts of Europe whose concerns were expanding territories. During this time, the French had feuds with the English and the strategic position of Egypt made it the epicenter of the battle. France captured Egypt in an attempt to stage an offensive against the English army but failed. Austria was the other enemy of France. The two fought on many fronts with both sides either winning or losing. Conflicts with Austria were in most cases about territory with Napoleon’s brother being the person with the responsibility of negotiating with Austria. In accordance to this, this book indicates that this time of history was a time of constant wars and temporary peace in Europe.
Schom’s give indicates that the past during the time of napoleon was not peaceful. Empires valued expansion of their territories as any expense. France for instant engaged their neighbors in endless wars so that it could expand its territories. It was not until during the rule of Napoleon in 1811 that France would reach its peak. The French empire at the time was vast there were many satellites and allied states. Other empire fought back leading to the decline of Napoleon’s rule and his death in 1821. The past described in the book is that of constant struggles to expand empires, and it is such events that are dominant in the life of Napoleon.
The author of the book believes that this is the book that finally the truthful story of Napoleon. That is most authors did not detail numerous flaws of the emperor during his needless wars. Schom views the entire career of Napoleon as a failure, and he indicates so in the book. In fact, he describes both Trafalgar and Waterloo confrontations and the fatal mistakes of Napoleon. According to Schom, Napoleon was the cause of not only the disaster in his personal life but also in France and Europe. Schom seems to be responding to the mixed reactions of Europeans on the issue of Napoleon. Despite the fact that he does mention key strengths of Napoleon during his conquest, there is sufficient evidence in the book that he concentrates more on the weakness of Bonaparte. This has been the reason that many individuals that admire Napoleon indicate that Schom had the aim of spreading anti-Napoleon ideologies.
Schom uses a number of sources to support his views. Some of his sources include memoirs of Bourrine, Madame Junot, and Thiebault. Bourinne was a school friend of Napoleon at the military academy and would later become his private secretary. Despite that many other biographers choose not to use the memoirs, they become a vast resource to Schom. It is perhaps the refusal by biographers to acknowledge such significant historical facts that lead to lack of informative description of Napoleon’s dark sides. International Napoleonic Society states that the resources that Schom uses are dubious and historically inapplicable, but they do not provide scholarly evidence.
Before reading the book, I had I belief that Napoleon was one of the most influential historical figures in the history of Europe. Many historical books describe him as a man dedicated to his work and his country. In fact, the expression that I had prior to reading the book was that Napoleon was a brilliant ruler. Schom’s book is enlightening as it provides information that facilitates the analyses of Napoleon from both aspects. It gives accounts of how the thirst for power and expansion of territories in Europe lead to Napoleon recruiting boys to fight in his unending wars with other empires. This book opened my eyes into the implications of Napoleon’s conquest for newer territories. It not only had negative implications on France but to the entire continent of Europe and parts of Africa and India.
From history classes, Napoleon description is of a great ruler. History books in most cases detail on the political and military facts leaving out personal details. This book facilitated my confirmation of the issues learnt from history class and advanced that knowledge. The book gives a vivid account of Napoleons personal life, which is insightful. In addition, Schom gives accounts of issues that led to failures and victories during the time of Napoleon as the Ruler of France. While confirming that Napoleon did succeed in capturing various territories, Schom does discredit the notion of historical books that Napoleon was an ardent planner. According to Schom, Napoleon was not an expert planner and he had no successful way of collecting data. This made him vulnerable and was part of the reasons that his enemies used against him. Napoleon Bonaparte: A life confirms things that I did learn earlier while adding to that knowledge.
References
Schom, A. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
