Napoleon in 100 Objects (Hardback)
Series: In 100 Objects
Pages: 291
Illustrations: 100
ISBN: 9781526731364
Published: 5th March 2020
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For almost two decades, Napoleon Bonaparte was the most feared, and revered, man in Europe. At the height of his power, the land under his control stretched from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and encompassed most of Western Europe.
The story of how a young Corsican, who spoke French with a strange accent, became Emperor of the French at the age of just thirty-three is a remarkable one. The many fascinating objects brought together in this book detail not only Napoleon’s meteoric rise to power, but also his art of war and that magnificent fighting force, the Imperial Guard, which grew from a small personal bodyguard to the size of a small army. Some of his great battles, such as Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena and Wagram, are also explored, as is Napoleon’s great Oriental adventure, which saw him conquer Egypt. He took with him artists and scientists, which led to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Napoleon, however, took a step too far when he marched into Russia. The vast distances and the weather wrecked his army and he was never able to recover – and, eventually, his enemies proved too strong. France was invaded and he was compelled to abdicate. Napoleon was not finished, though, and he returned from exile to lead France into war one more time, only for his army to be beaten beyond all hope of recovery in the muddy Flanders fields at Waterloo.
In this engaging and hugely informative book, the author takes us on a journey across Napoleonic Europe to discover the places, people and objects that tell the story of one man’s life. It is a story of one of the most turbulent eras in history, one that, to this day, still bears Bonaparte’s name. But his legacy lives on in the French legal and social systems and he remains as enigmatic a figure today as he did 200 years ago.
Featured on the website of
Portsmouth Napoleonic Society
Napoleon in 100 Objects by Gareth Glover
Julian Stockwin
For almost two decades, Napoleon Bonaparte was the most feared, and revered, man in Europe. At the height of his power, the land under his control stretched from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and encompassed most of Western Europe. The many fascinating objects brought together in this lavishly illustrated book detail not only Napoleon’s meteoric rise to power, but also his art of war and the role of the Imperial Guard, which grew from a small personal bodyguard to the size of a small army.
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A curious and interesting book.
Miniaturas JM
Read the full Spanish review here
This is a very good book with an interesting text and an entertaining method of presenting a biography. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the life and times of Napoleon.
Battles and Book Reviews
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This addition to the innovative “..in 100 Objects” series follows the established pattern for the series, with many full colour images through the body of the book. Napoleon is one of a handful of figures in history to have endured and continued to attract strong attention. – Recommended reading.
Firetrench
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This is a very good book with an interesting text and an entertaining method of presenting a biography. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the life and times of Napoleon.
Battles and Book Reviews
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The 100 objects series continues with Napoleon, one of the greatest army strategists of the nineteenth century. An amazing collection of objects that aid our understanding of the man who wanted to rule the world.
Books Monthly
The book indicatively presents the objects in chronological order, using the object itself as an excellent starting point to wander on various themes and to tell anecdotes and historical facts about Bonaparte, the result is that the book is, like all those in the series, extremely pleasant .
On The Old Barbed Wire
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What a fascinating approach to the life and times of Napoleon Bonaparte. Proclamations, furniture, cannons, hats, frocks and so much more are all illustrated and written about. Gareth Glover gives us the story of each of the hundred objects in their context and in doing so writes a brief broad brush history of the Napoleonic period. Every item is dealt with individually but the whole is structured roughly in the correct chronological order. Every item has two or three pages which makes this book easy to pick up at odd moments for a ‘little read’ but be warned it is easier to pick up than to put down. One reads one section then sees the picture of the next item so one reads on and ten minutes soon becomes half an hour.
Clash of Steel
This is a high quality publication; the photographs are beautifully presented.
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The device of linking an historical subject to 100 objects in order to further detail the tangential impacts is well known and works well. Indeed, it works very well in this book which delivers a mass of information that could be describes as ‘just off the beaten track’ yet is essential in grasping a more complete knowledge of Napoleon and his times. Thus, from this principle we get a damaged Eagle taking us into a neat description of the regiments that lost their Eagle in battle; the role of the bee in Napoleonic iconography; the creation of Antwerp docks. So it goes on. Compelling reading.
Michael McCarthy
Michael McCarthy. Battlefield Guide
About Gareth Glover
Gareth Glover is a former Royal Navy officer and military historian who has made a special study of the Napoleonic Wars for the last thirty years. In addition to writing many articles on aspects of the subject in magazines and journals, his books include From Corunna to Waterloo, Eyewitness to the Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo, An Eloquent Soldier, fourteen volumes of The Waterloo Archive, Waterloo: Myth and Reality, The Forgotten War Against Napoleon: Conflict in the Mediterranean 1793-1815, The Two Battles of Copenhagen 1801 and 1807: Britain and Denmark in the Napoleonic Wars and Marching, Fighting, Dying: Experiences of Soldiers in the Peninsular War.
Born on this day - Napoléon Bonaparte
15th August 1769
One of the most controversial, influential and celebrated figures in human history, Napoleon seized upon the opportunities created by the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and became a general at age 29.
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