THE FOLIO SOCIETY

Whether viewed as an inspired leader or obsessed tyrant, Napoleon has divided opinion for over 200 years. Few individuals have left such a mark on history. Georges Lefebvre’s classic work, published here in a single volume in English for the first time, is a definitive portrait of the Napoleonic era.

Lefebvre’s history sweeps us from the lightning coup d’état of 18 Brumaire in 1799, which established ‘le petit caporal’ as First Consul, to his final downfall amidst the wheatfields of Waterloo. Lefebvre describes Napoleon as an ‘uprooted person’, neither a nobleman nor a proletarian. Corsican rather than French, he placed himself above the political parties of his day. More than a biography, here is a brilliant survey of the turbulent age Napoleon inaugurated in his attempt to redraw the map of Europe, from the Peninsular War to the invasion of Russia. The cast includes his antagonists – Pitt the Younger, Wellington, Metternich and Tsar Alexander – and his allies – the wily Minister of Police Fouché and Talleyrand, the ‘Prince of Diplomats’. Lefebvre’s account is equally clear-eyed about Napoleon’s genius and his flaws. Napoleon’s determination to emulate Caesar and Augustus condemned Europe to more than a decade of war and economic crisis, but he also built an empire, introducing educational, administrative and financial initiatives that are still in place today.

Known as the ‘historian’s historian’, Georges Lefebvre was one of the pre-eminent French scholars of the 20th century. In his introduction to this edition, the award-winning historian Andrew Roberts explains his admiration for Lefebvre’s ability to ‘dig beneath the surface of Napoleonic myth-making’, and why this biography, first published in 1935, has never been surpassed.