Napoleon Bonaparte

Introduction

Napoleon Bonaparte was born on the island of Corsica, in Ajaccio, on 15 August 1769, one year after the island had been taken over by the French. He was the second surviving child of Carlo Bonaparte and Maria Laetizia Ramolino. Despite being involved with the Corsican independence movement, the father ingratiated himself with the French authorities and was able to obtain certificates of nobility and scholarships for his children. Napoleone, as he was known, was sent to the military college of Brienne, in the north of France, at the age of nine, and later went to the École Militaire in Paris, where he graduated as an artillery officer in September 1785. The advent of the Revolution in 1789 saw him return to Corsica to take part in local politics until, after falling foul of the dominant faction, led by Pasquale Paoli, he and his family were forced to flee the island in 1793. Napoleon first came to notice during the siege of Toulon that same year, and again in 1795 in Paris when he helped put down a royalist uprising. His first command in Italy followed soon after, where from 1796 to 1797 he made a name for himself as a brilliant general. Next came the Egyptian campaign from which he returned in 1799 to take part in a coup to overthrow the government, which led to the establishment of a new government—the consulate. Napoleon was able to quickly consolidate his hold on power during the early months of the consulate by stabilizing the domestic political situation as well as the military situation. There followed shortly after the Concordat with the Catholic Church (July 1801), bringing to an end years of religious discord in France; the Peace of Amiens with the only remaining power at war with France, Britain (March 1802); and the introduction of the Civil Code (1804). On the strength of his successes, Napoleon was elevated to consul for life in August 1802 by plebiscite. Again by plebiscite, in 1804, he was confirmed as emperor of France, with a coronation ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral on 2 December 1804. In May 1805, he was crowned King of Italy in the cathedral of Milan. After the resumption of war with the Third Coalition, a number of prominent battles against the great European powers (Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland, Eylau) led to the French occupying most of central Europe. The invasion of Russia in 1812 was Napoleon’s undoing. It compelled him to fight a defensive campaign to keep central Europe in 1813, and, when that was lost after the battle of Leipzig, to fight to save France from foreign invasion and occupation in 1814. Napoleon was obliged to abdicate a first time in 1814 and was exiled to Elba. He was there less than a year before returning to France in a doomed attempt to regain control. Waterloo was his last battle. Exiled to Saint Helena, he died there in 1821.

Biographies

The eminent French historian of Napoleon and the empire, Jean Tulard, maintains that more books have been written about Napoleon than days have passed since his death. There is a lot to the claim, but the quantity is by no means a reflection of the quality of the work. Much of it is what the French call de la petite histoire (anecdotal history). The works cited here, a smattering of the more recent books as well as some well-worn classics, can hardly do justice to the vast historiography at our disposal. The list is, on the other hand, a useful introduction to the topic and focuses in particular on works that are directly related to Napoleon and his life. There are many more biographies in languages other than English, but for the purposes of this article, the content has been limited to biographies, mostly in English, and mostly written since the end of the Second World War.

Foreign-Language Biographies

The French have grappled with Napoleon, his rule, his campaigns, and his life through biography from very early on in his life. The first French “biography” appeared in 1796 during the First Italian Campaign. The best explanations for the early French historiography are Geyl 1949 and Petiteau 1999 (both cited under Historiographies). Lefebvre 1969 is the best of these classic accounts. Of the more recent accounts, by far the most interesting is Jourdan 1998. Tulard 1984 is by the preeminent French expert on Napoleon and the empire, and his work remains invaluable even if he does not push the boundaries as far as he could. Willms 2005 is the best 21st-century work in German, although written by a journalist.

Jourdan, Annie. Napoléon: Héros, imperator, mécène. Paris: Aubier, 1998.
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This is an analysis of the image of Napoleon through painting, sculpture, and historiography, and is by far the most interesting work to appear in French over the last few decades, but it is not strictly biography.
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Lefebvre, George. Napoleon. Translated by Henry F. Stockhold. 2 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
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Translated into English, this classic text written by a Marxist historian of the French Revolution contains some insightful remarks on Napoleon, his character and the nature of the empire that are still worthy of consideration.
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Tulard, Jean. Napoleon: The Myth of the Saviour. Translated by Teresa Waugh. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1984.
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This work, which contains invaluable bibliographical references, was first published in French as Napoléon, ou Le mythe du sauveur (Paris: Fayard, 1977).
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Willms, Johannes. Napoleon: Eine Biographie. Munich: Beck, 2005.
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One of the best 21st-century works on the subject in German.
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Classic English Biographies

The two “serious” works in English on Napoleon—Markham 1963, written in the 1960s, and before that Thompson 1952, written in the 1950s—dominated the English-speaking world until the turn of the 21st century. They have been superseded by Forrest 2011 (cited under Scholarly English Biographies), a concise introduction to the man and his life. Although still good introductions, both are now dated and have been superseded by a spate of more recent works. Cronin 1971 remains the most accessible popular account that has remained in print since it first appeared.

Cronin, Vincent. Napoleon. London: Collins, 1971.
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This is a readable, competent, traditional biography. Cronin attempted to incorporate some new material (memoirs and letters that had come to light since the 1950s), and he quite successfully breathes life into the man and his character, highlighting some of the complexity inherent in Napoleon. Its main flaw, however, lies in the fact that Cronin too often takes Napoleon’s word at face value.
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Markham, Felix. Napoleon. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1963.
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Markham was an Oxford don. His work is brief—perhaps too brief—but it is nevertheless an excellent introduction that should be supplemented by more up-to-date works.
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Thompson, J. M. Napoleon Bonaparte: His Rise and Fall. Oxford: Blackwell, 1952.
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For many years, Thompson’s biography, along with Lefebvre 1969, cited under Foreign-Language Biographies, was considered to be the definitive work. Written by an Oxford don, it is now a classic work, more comprehensive than Markham 1963, Ellis 1997, Forrest 2011, or Jordan 2012 (the latter three cited under Scholarly English Biographies). However, the work is probably not for the uninitiated. A degree of familiarity with the French Revolution and the empire is assumed.
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Popular English Biographies

Two popular biographies, flawed, full of clichés, and a tad hostile, are Schom 1997 and McLynn 1997. Englund 2004 (cited under Scholarly English Biographies) is better, with some interesting insights. Along with Cronin 1971 (cited under Classic English Biographies), it is one of the more readable one-volume histories of Napoleon. Johnson 2002, a short biography, is marred in many respects and lacks the subtlety of an author familiar with the period.

Johnson, Paul. Napoleon. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002.
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A short potted history that unrelentingly adopts the black legend typical of many British biographers. Johnson considers Napoleon to be on a par with Hitler, a precursor of the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century. It is probably a book best approached for its historiographical curiosity.
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McLynn, Frank. Napoleon: A Biography. London: Jonathan Cape, 1997.
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This, like many other biographies, follows the traditional framework of Napoleon’s military exploits. In the end, Napoleon is reduced to a series of epithets: he becomes a pathological liar and a sadomasochist, suffering from a series of “complexes” about his mother, his brother (Joseph), his wife, the Orient, and Rome.
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Schom, Alan. Napoleon Bonaparte. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
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Napoleon is blamed for the resumption of war in 1803 against England and consequently for all the wars that followed, largely because (it would appear) he was rejected by his parents and humiliated at Brienne. Schom’s conclusion is that Napoleon was paranoid, sadomasochistic, and a psychopath.
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Scholarly English Biographies

Lyons 1994 and Ellis 1997 are syntheses that, in the tradition of Lefebvre 1969 and Tulard 1984 (both cited under Foreign-Language Biographies), are more history of the empire than biography. So too is Jordan 2012. Englund 2004 is better on domestic politics than foreign, but also comes closer to the biographical genre than most. Forrest 2011 is a short synthesis. Dwyer 2007 is the most complete work in English on Napoleon’s early life and rise to power.

Dwyer, Philip. Napoleon: The Path to Power, 1769–1799. London: Bloomsbury, 2007.
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This is the first volume of a planned three-volume history of the life of Napoleon. The work is a synthesis of scholarship on the empire, with forays into the archives, that melds iconography, biography, and political history. Dwyer does not delve, however, into military history. For that see the works cited under Military Campaigns.
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Ellis, Geoffrey. Napoleon. London: Longman, 1997.
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What starts as biography quickly falls into a social and political history of the empire. Any sustained biographical reflection on Napoleon is therefore averted. The work is best seen as a text for students, a little weak on the military culture of the empire, but more solid when it comes to the historiography, as well as an analysis of Napoleonic power.
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Englund, Steven. Napoleon: A Political Life. New York: Scribner, 2004.
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One of the better-written biographies up to the time it was published, largely filling the lacuna in English since Thompson 1952 (cited under Classic English Biographies), this is a solid work that is stronger on the domestic side of things, a bit thin when it comes to Napoleon’s character, and a little weak when it comes to foreign relations.
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Forrest, Alan. Napoleon. London: Quercus, 2011.
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A synthesis by an eminent British historian of the French Revolution, written at the end of his career. It is the most accessible short introduction to the life of Napoleon.
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Jordan, David P. Napoleon and the Revolution. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
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Jordan renews the debate about Napoleon as heir to the French Revolution. The book is not, as such, biography but reflection on the impact of the Revolution and the empire on the rest of Europe. Napoleon’s “revolution” was conservative. He was less interested in doing away with the ancien régime than in imposing French reforms.
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Lyons, Martyn. Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1994.
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A survey of the consulate and the empire that attempts to cover all the major elements from domestic to foreign policy to art, propaganda, and the cult of personality. Best used as an undergraduate text.
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Reference Works

The number of published documents and reference works runs into the thousands. Listed here are a number of key works that will help guide the uninitiated through the minefield that is the historiography. In particular, the collection Caldwell 1991, which lists the vast majority of relevant works up to its publication, is an indispensable tool for historians of the period. The following list comprises some of the more useful published sources. Napoleon’s correspondence, published by his nephew, Napoleon III, is being reedited by the Fondation Napoléon. The purpose is to include passages and letters that were omitted in the original edition. There is a selection of documents translated from the French in Dwyer and McPhee 2002, suitable for the classroom. Tulard and Garros 2002 provides a detailed chronology, while Tulard 1989 is a dictionary, not translated, that covers every aspect of the empire imaginable.

Caldwell, Ronald J. The Era of Napoleon: A Bibliography of the History of Western Civilization, 1799–1815. 2 vols. New York: Garland, 1991.
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An indispensable bibliographical guide containing the most complete list of works on Napoleon and the empire.
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Connelly, Owen, ed. Historical Dictionary of Napoleonic France, 1799–1815. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1985.
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For those unable to access Tulard 1989, this English version will help, although the focus is on the military side of things.
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Dwyer, Philip G., and Peter McPhee, eds. The French Revolution and Napoleon: A Sourcebook. London: Routledge, 2002.
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A collection of translated documents suitable for the classroom. McPhee was responsible for the chapters on the Revolution, Dwyer for those on the empire.
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Emsley, Clive. The Longman Companion to Napoleonic Europe. London: Longman, 1993.
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A concise but authoritative guide to various aspects of the Napoleonic era that is suitable for both students and specialists.
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Tulard, Jean, ed. Dictionnaire Napoléon. Rev. ed. Paris: Fayard, 1989.
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The most complete dictionary of personalities and themes surrounding the empire by the preeminent French specialists.
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Tulard, Jean, and Louis Garros. Itinéraire de Napoléon au jour le jour: 1769–1821. Rev. ed. Paris: Tallandier, 2002.
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An indispensable tool for anyone working on Napoleon. It shows where Napoleon was and what he was doing on any given day of his life.
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Primary Sources

While there are some translated collections of primary sources, the bulk are in French. The vast majority of sources have not been published and are only accessible through various archives, the principal being the Archives nationales and the Bibliothèque nationale, both in Paris. The military archives are housed at Vincennes. The sources listed here are specifically geared to public opinion rather than documents concerning the military. The French historian Alphonse Aulard was the first titular chair of the French Revolution at the Sorbonne. His collection is a mine of information on the period, although better for the consulate than the empire (Aulard 1903–1909 and Aulard 1912–1923). Hauterive 1908–1964 and Gotteri 1997–2004 are indispensable works for the police reports that were daily fed to Napoleon.

Aulard, Alphonse. Paris sous le Consulat: Recueil de documents pour l’histoire de l’esprit public à Paris. 4 vols. Paris: Cerf, 1903–1909.
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The collections of documents by Aulard on Paris during the consulate and the empire are made up of essentially two key sources: newspaper extracts and secret police reports. The collection is an indispensable source for judging the temperature of public opinion and people’s attitudes toward various measures, as well as toward Napoleon.
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Aulard, Alphonse. Paris sous le Premier Empire: Recueil de documents pour l’histoire de l’esprit public à Paris. 3 vols. Paris: Cerf, 1912–1923.
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The series of volumes on the empire are not as interesting as those on the Consulate (Aulard 1903–1909), in part because the number of newspapers had been greatly reduced, and what remained was strictly controlled by the regime. Also, Aulard’s use of the police archives does not appear to have been as thorough, and the collection only goes up to 1808.
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Gotteri, Nicole, ed. La police secrète du Premier Empire. 7 vols. Paris: Champion, 1997–2004.
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Gotteri follows where Hauterive 1908–1964 leaves off, that is, the daily police reports addressed by Fouché’s successor, Savary, to Napoleon up until 1814.
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Hauterive, Ernest de. La Police secrète du premier empire: Bulletins quotidiens adressés par Fouché à l’Empereur. 5 vols. Paris: Perrin & Cie, 1908–1964.
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Published extracts from the daily police reports addressed by Joseph Fouché to Napoleon until his disgrace in 1810.
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Correspondence

It has been calculated that Napoleon wrote or dictated more than forty-one thousand letters in his lifetime. About half of those were published by his nephew, Napoleon III, during the Second Empire in what has become a classic reference to his life, Bonaparte 1858–1870. The collection also included orders of the day and bulletins. It was, however, made in such a way that anything seen as unimportant or unfavorable or that simply appeared to conflict with the golden legend was edited out or omitted entirely. Another 4,500 letters were published in Bonaparte 1897 and Bonaparte 1898. There are other collections, but readers should refer to the article Tulard 1966, in which they are all enumerated. All known and previously unpublished letters should soon be available in a new edition published in the by the Fondation Napoléon, the Correspondance générale (Bonaparte 2004–). Haegele 2007 gathers together in one place the correspondence with Joseph, while Napoleon’s personal correspondence with Josephine can be had in Bonaparte 1981, and with Marie-Louise in Pierrelongue 2010.

Bonaparte, Napoleon. Correspondance de Napoléon Ier. 32 vols. Paris: Plon, 1858–1870.
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This is an incomplete collection of Napoleon’s letters that can be supplemented by Correspondance générale (Bonaparte 2004–). Some of these letters have been translated in J. M. Thompson, Letters of Napoleon (Oxford: Blackwell, 1934).
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Bonaparte, Napoleon. Lettres inédites de Napoléon Ier (an VIII-1815). Compiled by Léon Lecestre. 2 vols. Paris: Plon, Nourrit et Cie, 1897.
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Published at about the same time at the Brotonne collection (Bonaparte 1898), these volumes similarly contain letters not included in the official edition.
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Bonaparte, Napoleon. Lettres inédites de Napoléon Ier. Compiled by Léonce Brotonne. Paris: Champion, 1898.
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This collection includes letters not published in the official edition. It was followed some years later by a two-volume companion, known as the Dernières lettres inédites de Napoléon Ier.
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Bonaparte, Napoleon. Lettres d’amour à Joséphine. Edited by Chantal de Tourtier-Bonazzi. Paris: Fayard, 1981.
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It is in this collection that one finds the letters addressed to Josephine by Napoleon during the First Italian Campaign, full of fervor and passion. It provides one of the best insights into the character of the man. Unfortunately, most of Josephine’s responses to Napoleon have been lost, burned by him.
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Bonaparte, Napoleon. Correspondance générale: Napoléon Bonaparte. Paris: Fayard, 2004–.
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Published by the Fondation Napoléon, with various editors, including Thierry Lentz and Jacques-Olivier Boudon, this is a new, revised, and expanded version in which previously unpublished or expurgated letters are now to be found. Fourteen volumes are projected.
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Haegele, Vincent, ed. Napoléon et Joseph Bonaparte: Correspondance intégrale, 1784–1818. Paris: Tallandier, 2007.
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The complete correspondence between Napoleon and his older brother.
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Pierrelongue, Jean, ed. Napoléon et Marie-Louise: Correspondance. Paris: SPM, 2010.
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A couple of other collections of letters between Napoleon and his second wife exist, but this is the most complete.
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Tulard, Jean. “La correspondance de Napoléon Ier.” Journal des Savants 1 (1966): 48–56.
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A discussion of all the various editions of Napoleon’s letters.
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Memoirs

The Restoration era saw a burgeoning of the memoir come autobiography as genre as people felt compelled to write of their personal experiences and the part they played in the momentous events of these years. Tulard, et al. 1991 lists over 1,679 published memoirs on the consulate and the empire, translated or written in French (not counting of course those published in other languages).

Tulard, Jean, Jacques Garnier, Alfred Fierro, and Charles Huart. Nouvelle bibliographie critique des mémoires sur l’époque napoléonienne écrits ou traduits en français. Rev. ed. Geneva, Switzerland: Droz, 1991.
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For those interested in memoirs in general terms, this is an indispensable tool for those wanting to verify the origins and accuracy of these primary documents. The memoirs are listed alphabetically, by author. It supersedes an earlier first edition that came out in 1971.
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Historiographies

Napoleon was never quite accepted in academic circles, even in France, although this has changed beginning the late 20th century. For Jean Tulard, the main reason seems to be the hostility of the French republic toward the empire. For Petiteau 1999, the period suffers from the disadvantage of studying a short period of time (1800–1815) in the face of the Annales long-term approach to history, the predominance of foreign policy and military history, and the persistence of certain myths historians have never really been able to overcome. One should also mention the academic disdain for biography that seems to have been characteristic of the second half of the 20th century. Geyl 1949, Petiteau 1999, and Ellis 1991 treat Napoleonic historiography in detail.

Ellis, Geoffrey. The Napoleonic Empire. London: Macmillan, 1991.
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Provides a more comprehensive review of most of the major works in English and in French, mostly to do with the empire.
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Geyl, Pieter. Napoleon: For and Against. Translated by Olive Renier. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1949.
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Possibly the best account of how the French viewed Napoleon and the empire, it covers those historians writing before World War II. The work can be complemented by Petiteau 1999.
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Petiteau, Natalie. Napoléon: De la mythologie à l’histoire. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1999.
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This is a more up-to-date historiographical essay that attempts to encompass works in languages other than French but that is essentially francophile.
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The Early Years

Late-19th- and early-20th-century French works dominate the historiography surrounding Napoleon’s early years (Chuquet 1897–1899, Masson and Biagi 1895, Masson 1907, all cited under Childhood and Youth). In English, Napoleon’s childhood on Corsica, his schooling, and his involvement in the early phases of French Revolution usually rate no more than one or two chapters in the standard biographies, largely overshadowed by the First Italian Campaign. It was then that he first came to public note, and this is considered the beginning of his rise to power. Even then, however, the works that focus specifically on the Italian campaign are generally military histories that fail to place it in a wider diplomatic, political, and biographical context. The First Italian Campaign (1796–1797) was fought in the context of the First Coalition against France that began in 1793. After an outstanding military campaign in which Napoleon defeated a number of Austrian armies, created a number of sister republics, and negotiated a treaty, he returned triumphant to Paris in December 1797. For a short while, he considered an invasion of England before deciding on an expedition to Egypt. He returned to Paris in October 1799, after a campaign of mixed success, in order to take part in a coup to overthrow the Directory. The coup, which took place in the month of Brumaire (November) according to the revolutionary calendar, saw Napoleon play a key role. He essentially hijacked the process and got himself nominated first of three consuls in the new regime, with a new constitution, in December 1799. The Egyptian campaign has inspired far more works since the mid-20th century. His return from Egypt in 1799 and his participation in a coup that overthrew the Directory has also received more detailed attention.

Childhood and Youth

Little is really know about Napoleon Bonaparte before he became famous, but historians have done an excellent job at uncovering what they could of his life in Corsica as a child (especially in Carrington 1988), and then as an officer in the royal army. The classic works are Chuquet 1897–1899, Masson and Biagi 1895, and Bonaparte 1907. The authenticity of some of the material uncovered by the authors of these works has been contested (Defranceschi 2001), but all Napoleon’s surviving writings from his youth and early days in the royal artillery have been uncovered.

Bonaparte, Napoleon. Manuscrits inédits, 1786–1791. Edited by Frédéric Masson and Guido Biagi. Paris: Société d’Éditions Littéraires et Artistiques, 1907.
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A supplement to Masson and Biagi 1895, this volume contains notes taken while Napoleon was a student in France. An invaluable insight into the mind of a young man finding his way in the world.
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Carrington, Dorothy. Napoleon and His Parents: On the Threshold of History. London: Viking, 1988.
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This is the best account of the Bonaparte family in prerevolutionary Corsica available in English, based on extensive research in the archives.
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Chuquet, Arthur. La jeunesse de Napoléon. 3 vols. Paris: Armand Colin, 1897–1899.
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The most detailed history of Napoleon’s youth, including his years on Corsica, and as a student at Brienne and the École militaire in Paris.
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Defranceschi, Jean. La jeunesse de Napoléon: Les dessous de l’histoire. Paris: Lettrage, 2001.
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A revisionist history that questions, although not entirely convincingly, many of the assumptions held by historians on Napoleon’s youth.
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Masson, Frédéric. Napoléon dans sa jeunesse, 1769–1793. Paris: Ollendorff, 1907.
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This is part of the encyclopedic work carried out by Frédéric Masson.
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Masson, Frédéric, and Guido Biagi. Napoléon Inconnu: Papiers inédits, 1786–1793. 2 vols. Paris: Ollendorff, 1895.
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The works by Masson and Biagi are based on extensive archival collections, as well as letters written by the Bonapartes. They remain the most detailed, reliable accounts of Napoleon’s life before he comes to fame. This volume is a history of the family and also contains notes, manuscripts, and letters.
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The First Italian Campaign

There is little in English on Napoleon’s first campaign. The major military histories are in French. Readers should also see Dwyer 2007 (cited under Scholarly English Biographies). Blanning 1996 has a very good section on the wars, while Boycott-Brown 2001 is the most complete synthesis.

Blanning, T. C. W. The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787–1802. London: Arnold, 1996.
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Chapter 5 contains a very good account of the campaign in Italy, placing it in the larger context of the revolutionary wars.
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Boycott-Brown, Martin. The Road to Rivoli: Napoleon’s First Campaign. London: Cassell, 2001.
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One of the few accounts in English of Napoleon’s first campaign in Italy in 1796–1797.
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Egypt

The expedition to Egypt was one of the more romantic moments of Napoleon’s life and rise to power. It has led to some revived interest in both French and English, especially the scientific aspect of it. For that Strathern 2007 is good. For the military expedition and the interaction between the French and Egyptian populations Cole 2007 is better. The best general account, however, is still Herold 1962. The focus here is on English works. La Jonquière 1899–1907 is the most detailed of all, with an abundance of archival documents and letters quoted in full. Laurens 1997 is by far the best recent work in any language.

Cole, Juan. Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
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Cole’s is the best 21st-century English account, giving a more nuanced view of the colonizer-colonized paradigm. It is slightly marred by the frequent comparisons with the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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Herold, J. Christopher. Bonaparte in Egypt. New York: Harper & Row, 1962.
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The best English account of Napoleon and the expedition, even if it advances what might be considered an outmoded modernist narrative, namely, that Napoleon’s arrival dragged Egypt out of its slumber and set it on the path to modernity.
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La Jonquière, C. de. L’expédition d’Egypte, 1798–1801. 5 vols. Paris: Charles-Lavauzelle, 1899–1907.
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By far the most detailed collection of documents on the expedition.
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Laurens, Henry. L’expédition d’Egypte, 1798–1801. Rev. ed. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1997.
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The best account in French by a scholar familiar with Arabic sources.
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Strathern, Paul. Napoleon in Egypt: “The Greatest Glory.” London: Jonathan Cape, 2007.
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Other than Herold 1962, this is the most accessible account of the expedition and the improbability of the French ever coming to grips with the Muslim society they had invaded.
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Brumaire

The coup of Brumaire in November 1799 that brought Napoleon to power is often interpreted within the grand narrative of Napoleon’s mythic rise to power. Vandal 1903–1907 is a classic example. Contemporary historians are more cynical and place the coup within the larger context of French domestic and foreign policy. Crook 1998 and Gueniffey 2008 both contextualize the coup very well, although Gueniffey tends to compare Napoleon with De Gaulle and overlooks more recent English scholarship on the Directory.

Crook, Malcolm. Napoleon Comes to Power: Democracy and Dictatorship in Revolutionary France, 1795–1804. Cardiff, UK: University of Wales Press, 1998.
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A good introduction to Napoleon’s seizure of power, containing a selection of primary sources.
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Gueniffey, Patrice. Le dix-huit brumaire: L’épilogue de la Révolution française, 9–10 novembre 1799. Paris: Gallimard, 2008.
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Written by a student of the preeminent French historian François Furet, this book supersedes Albert Ollivier’s 1959 volume published by the same house. For Gueniffey, the emphasis is on the end of the Revolution.
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Vandal, Albert. L’avènement de Bonaparte. 2 vols. Paris: Plon, 1903–1907.
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A detailed account that relies on archival sources and that is still worth consulting. Vandal was a Bonapartist, so the work has to be used with a degree of caution.
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The Consulate and the Empire

Most histories of the consulate and the empire place Napoleon center stage, but it is only since the appearance of the seminal work Woolf 1991 (cited under English Works) that historians have begun to consider the Napoleonic era a watershed moment in the history of Europe.

French Works

French works on the empire are of varying degrees of scholarship. There is still a tendency among some conservative historians to treat Napoleon and the empire as though he were defending France from an onslaught by Europe’s monarchical powers, powers that never accepted the Revolution. The works in Lentz 1999 are an example. Others are more critical. The two most interesting French historians of the empire are women—Annie Jourdan and especially Natalie Petiteau (Jourdan 2000 and Petiteau 2008). Boudon 2000 is a fairly straightforward treatment of the empire, as is Lentz 1999 (four volumes are published until 2010), both syntheses of French scholarship (overlooking the English contributions to the field). Lanzac de Laborie 1905–1913, although old, contains a wealth of interesting material on Paris during the empire.

Boudon, Jacques-Olivier. Histoire du Consulat et de l’Empire, 1799–1815. Paris: Perrin, 2000.
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Boudon eschews the military campaigns and focuses on the social, cultural, and political aspects of the empire.
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Jourdan, Annie. L’empire de Napoléon. Paris: Flammarion, 2000.
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This is a thematic history in which Jourdan argues that the empire was the product of Napoleon’s vision for a confederated Europe. Her views are sometimes harsh; she argues that the empire was founded on lies and abuses against the democratic French Revolution. This may have been true, but then the democratic experiment that was the Revolution was dying a slow death, and was put out of its misery by the coup of Brumaire. The section on the empire is followed by a glossary of terms, each containing a short essay.
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Lanzac de Laborie, Léon de. Paris sous Napoléon. 8 vols. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, 1905–1913.
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One of the most interesting works on Paris, public opinion, and the workings of government during the empire, much of it archival based. Sorted by themes, it is still worth dipping into.
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Lentz, Thierry. Le Grand Consulat, 1799–1804. Paris: Fayard, 1999.
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This work is part of a six-volume history of the empire, Nouvelle histoire du premier Empire, that includes vol. 1, Napoléon et la conquête de l’Europe, 1804–1810 (Paris: Fayard, 2002); Vol. 2, L’effondrement de l’Empire, 1810–1814 (Paris: Fayard, 2004); Vol. 3, La France et l’Europe de Napoléon, 1804–1814 (Paris: Fayard, 2007); and Vol. 4, Les Cents-Jours, 1815 (Paris: Fayard, 2010). They are thorough although there is no overarching narrative, and the detail is sometimes overwhelming and a tad dry.
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Petiteau, Natalie. Les Français et l’Empire (1799–1815). Paris: La Boutique de l’Histoire, 2008.
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A wonderful insight into the workings of the empire and public opinion in France.
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English Works

The most interesting works on the empire are in English. Anglophone historians are possibly more inclined to adopt a critical approach and to find new, innovative ways to think about Napoleon and the empire. Most of the works cited here are more suitable for the classroom than for the general reader and are not, as such, scholarly monographs. This is the case for Grab 2003, Lyons 1994, and Ellis 1991. Woolf 1991 is the exception and can justifiably lay claim to relaunching scholarly interest in Napoleonic studies in the English-speaking world. Woloch 2001 is one of the more interesting reflections on the foundation of the empire and the men who supported Napoleon. Collins 1979 is useful to those wanting to understand the legislative complexities of the empire.

Collins, Irene. Napoleon and His Parliaments, 1800–1815. London: Edward Arnold, 1979.
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A specialized account, but the only work in English, of the institutions of government (the Council of State, the Senate, the Legislative Corps, and the Tribunate).
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Ellis, Geoffrey. The Napoleonic Empire. London: Macmillan, 1991.
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An authoritative survey of the Empire, and the major works by theme.
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Grab, Alexander. Napoleon and the Transformation of Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
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Grab has structured his work around ten principal countries within the broader context of occupation and exploitation.
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Lyons, Martyn. Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1994.
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A thematic treatment of the period with an emphasis on Napoleon as heir to the French Revolution.
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Woloch, Isser. Napoleon and His Collaborators: The Making of a Dictatorship. New York: W. W. Norton, 2001.
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The opening chapters deal with Napoleon’s consolidation of power and the men in his entourage, including the second most important man in the empire, Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès.
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Woolf, Stuart. Napoleon’s Integration of Europe. London: Routledge, 1991.
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A seminal work that began a resurgence in scholarship into the empire. Woolf looks at structures and institutions rather than personalities.
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Collections of Essays

As with all collections of this nature, the quality of the chapters within these volumes can vary enormously. Many of them are based on conferences and therefore illustrate the type of work that is being undertaken by historians in the field at a given time. Dwyer 2001 is also synthesis of particular topics and themes and useful to the student, while Dwyer and Forrest 2007 is for the more specialized reader. This is also the case for Rowe 2003. Brown and Miller 2002 is a collection of scholarly articles that mostly deal with the period before empire.

Brown, Howard G., and Judith A. Miller, eds. Taking Liberties: Problems of a New Order from the French Revolution to Napoleon. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2002.
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The predominant theme running through this series of essays that crosses between the Revolution and the empire is the search for stability.
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Dwyer, Philip G., ed. Napoleon and Europe. Harlow, UK: Longmans, 2001.
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A collection of essays by the leading historians of the day.
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Dwyer, Philip G., and Alan Forrest, eds. Napoleon and His Empire: Europe, 1804–1814. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.
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An overview of current trends in research and historiography, revisiting traditional themes like Napoleon’s revolutionary credentials, the plebiscite for the empire, and the Continental System, but also looking at new research on questions of citizenship, gender, education, and local government.
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Rowe, Michael, ed. Collaboration and Resistance in Napoleonic Europe: State-Formation in an Age of Upheaval, c. 1800–1815. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
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This volume contains twelve essays that look at the French occupation of a number of different countries, the extent to which those countries collaborated or resisted, and the impact on the process of state formation.
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Religion

Religion was one of the most divisive issues in the wake of the French Revolution. The way in which Napoleon tackled that problem and largely resolved it—culminating in the concordat with the Catholic Church in 1802—is well treated by a number of historians of religion. Less well treated is the falling out between Napoleon and Pope Pius VII, which led to the pope’s abduction in 1809. Hales 1962 and O’Dwyer 1985 are both adequate but lacking in detail and analysis. Aston 2000 and Aston 2002 are both good overviews suitable for the classroom. The impact of the concordat within France is treated by Boudon 2002 and outside of France, in Italy, by Broers 2002. A spate of works have appeared on Napoleon and the Jews. Napoleon is often considered to have emancipated the Jews of France, largely the theme of Schwarzfuchs 1979, but as Birnbaum 2007 points out, the picture is more complicated.

Aston, Nigel. Religion and Revolution in France, 1780–1804. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 2000.
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A solid synthesis of works on the history of religion. The last chapter deals with Napoleon.
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Aston, Nigel. Christianity and Revolutionary Europe, 1750–1830. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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Chapter 7 (pp. 258–296) is on religion in Napoleonic Europe.
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Birnbaum, Pierre. L’aigle et la synagogue: Napoléon, les Juifs et l’état. Paris: Fayard, 2007.
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Birnbaum is the author of several works on Jews in French history. In this work, he argues that Napoleon attempted to marginalize the Jews and keep them from entering the public sphere. The argument is different than Schwarzfuchs 1979.
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Boudon, Jacques-Olivier. Napoléon et les cultes: Les religions en Europe à l’aube du XIXe siècle, 1800–1815. Paris: Fayard, 2002.
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Boudon is a specialist of the history of religion for this period. This and Broers 2002 place Napoleon’s role in the concordat in a larger perspective of European modernization.
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Broers, Michael. The Politics of Religion in Napoleonic Italy: The War against God, 1801–1814. London: Routledge, 2002.
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A thematic treatment of the impact of Napoleonic religious reforms that focuses on northern and central Italy. Broers argues that these reforms resulted in enormous resentment among Italians.
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Hales, E. E. Y. Napoleon and the Pope: The Story of Napoleon and Pius VII. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1962.
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A little outdated, but a good introduction to the topic, and one of the few works (with O’Dwyer 1985) to treat Napoleon’s relations with Pope Pius VII.
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O’Dwyer, Margaret M. The Papacy in the Age of Napoleon and the Restoration: Pius VII, 1800–1823. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985.
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The first part of the book deals with the papacy and Napoleon. A good summary of the English, French, and Italian sources, and a good starting point for the topic.
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Schwarzfuchs, Simon. Napoleon, the Jews and the Sanhedrin. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979.
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Schwarzfuchs argues that the institutions Napoleon created were of enduring value to French Jews.
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The Foundation of the Empire and the Coronation

The transition from republic to empire in May 1804 has not generally been the focus of historians as much as the ceremony that saw Napoleon anointed emperor in December 1804 (with the exception of Dwyer 2010). Masson 1911 is a standard history of the consecration but full of interesting details. Good analyses of the symbolism behind the coronation ceremony are to be found in Chanteranne 2004 and Lentz 2003, which is largely a coffee table book.

Chanteranne, David. Le sacre de Napoléon. Paris: Tallandier, 2004.
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A detailed analysis of the ceremony, which looks at the political as well as the symbolic import of the coronation.
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Dwyer, Philip G. “Napoleon and the Foundation of the Empire.” Historical Journal 53 (2010): 339–358.
DOI: 10.1017/S0018246X1000004XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A rethinking of the normally accepted notion that Napoleon drove the push to empire. It takes into account both elite and public opinion.
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Lentz, Thierry, ed. Le sacre de Napoléon, 2 décembre 1804. Paris: Nouveau Monde, 2003.
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A richly illustrated collection of essays on the coronation and its iconography.
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Masson, Frédéric. Napoleon and His Coronation. Translated by Frederic Cobb. London: T. F. Unwin, 1911.
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A classic account that still contains some useful information. French original published 1908.
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Resistance and Opposition

The degree to which the peoples of Europe resisted or accepted the empire has long been the object of scholarly study, but the investigation of the topic has really come into its own since the beginning of the 21st century. Resistance came from individuals as well as movements, from royalists as well as republicans or nationalists (for want of a better word). Within France, Bertaud 2001 is a good overview of the royalist plot to kill Napoleon in 1804 and which led to the abduction and assassination of a Bourbon prince. Lentz 2012 studies an example of an individual, although admittedly not altogether sane, taking on the regime. For more diffuse opposition, see Gobert 1925. Outside of France, Broers 2010 attempts to place the act of rebellion in a larger context, not only within but also outside of Europe. There has been a tendency to examine the reaction of the occupied, rather than the methods used by the occupiers to put down rebellion and resistance. This is the case for Esdaile 2005. There is a debate about the effectiveness of the guerrilla movement. Esdaile 2004 argues that the guerrillas did more harm than good for the allies, while Hocquellet 2001 argues that without the guerrillas Spain would have quickly succumbed. There is a good summary of the debate in Broers 2010.

Bertaud, Jean-Paul. Le duc d’Enghien. Paris: Fayard, 2001.
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An updated version of an earlier book by the same author, it looks at the royalist assassination attempt against Napoleon in 1804 and the abduction and assassination of the Duke of Enghien in the lead-up to the coronation.
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Broers, Michael. Napoleon’s Other War: Bandits, Rebels and Their Pursuers in the Age of Revolutions. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2010.
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Broers does not limit his examination of “bandit-rebels” to Europe, but also looks at those of South America.
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Esdaile, Charles. Fighting Napoleon: Guerrillas, Bandits and Adventurers in Spain, 1808–1814. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004.
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One of the most comprehensive treatments of the “guerrilla,” the irregular Spanish forces, and their role in resisting Napoleon. Esdaile challenges the myths surrounding the effectiveness of the guerrilla movement.
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Esdaile, Charles J., ed. Popular Resistance in the French Wars: Patriots, Partisans and Land Pirates. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
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A collection of essays dealing with armed civilian resistance to the French in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, and Russia.
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Gobert, Adrienne. L’opposition des assemblées pendant le Consulat, 1800–1804. Paris: Sagot, 1925.
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According to Caldwell 1991 (cited under Reference Works), although dated, this study still represents one of the most important contributions to the political history of the consulate.
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Hocquellet, Richard. Résistance et révolution durant l’occupation napoléonienne en Espagne, 1808–1812. Paris: Boutique de l’Histoire, 2001.
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Not only about the evolution of the Spanish from armed resistance to revolution, but also about the manner in which Spain was dragged into the modern era by Napoleon’s invasion.
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Lentz, Thierry. La conspiration du général Malet, 23 octobre 1812: Premier ébranlement du trône de Napoléon. Paris: Perrin, 2012.
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A detailed examination of one of the more bizarre episodes during the empire, a plot by a mentally unbalanced general to take over the reins of government.
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Foreign Policy

Foreign policy, along with military history, is one of the two approaches that dominated Napoleonic historiography until the 1990s, when a shift in the types of studies undertaken occurred. The classic work is Sorel 1885–1989, which attempts to explain French conquests as a natural expansion to France’s “natural frontiers,” and claims that Napoleon defended those gains from Europe’s monarchist powers. A similar argument is adopted by Lentz 1999 (cited under Consulate and the Empire: French Works). That position has been challenged by English-speaking historians, most notably by Schroeder 1994, a superb example of how standard interpretations can be completely questioned and rethought. Schroeder 1990 argues that Napoleon’s behavior was criminal. Broers 1996 is less critical; the author attempts to rethink the impact of the empire on the development of Europe. Scott 2006 is a more traditional view of great-power international politics and should probably be read before attempting the works by Schroeder or Broers. More detailed studies include Dunan 1943, a model of scholarship (the footnotes are longer than the work itself); Grainger 2004 is an Anglocentric view of the negotiations of Amiens but an adequate introduction to a complicated story; Muir 1996 is best for the British involvement in the Iberian Peninsula.

Broers, Michael. Europe under Napoleon, 1799–1815. London: Arnold, 1996.
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A fascinating insight into the workings of the empire and Napoleon’s foreign relations policies. Broers posits the existence of an “inner” and an “outer” empire, depending on the degree to which various regions were integrated or not.
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Dunan, Marcel. Napoléon et l’Allemagne: La système continentale et les débuts du royaume de Bavière, 1806–10. Rev. ed. Paris: Plon, 1943.
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A detailed study of Napoleon’s relations with the Kingdom of Bavaria. A model of scholarship in which the footnotes are longer than the text.
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Grainger, John D. The Amiens Truce: Britain and Bonaparte, 1801–1803. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell & Brewer, 2004.
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Examines the events leading to the conclusion of peace between Britain and France, as well as the breakdown in relations that followed shortly after. The best English account of this complicated affair.
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Muir, Rory. Britain and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1807–1815. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
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Britain’s military operations, especially in the Iberian Peninsula, set within the context of the wider European conflict. Muir focuses on British politicians and officers, and the effectiveness of the British economy in defeating Napoleon. Muir argues that just as British political factors influenced strategic military decisions in Spain, so too did the fluctuations of the war affect British political decisions.
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Schroeder, Paul W. “Napoleon’s Foreign Policy: A Criminal Enterprise.” Journal of Military History 54 (1990): 147–161.
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A distilled version of Schroeder 1994 in which the author argues that Napoleon behaved no better than a mafioso on the international scene.
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Schroeder, Paul W. The Transformation of European Politics, 1763–1848. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994.
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By far the most up-to-date and thought-provoking account of the period, placed in a much larger context. Schroeder is not kind on Napoleon’s intentions and motivations (as can be seen from Schroeder 1990), but even if one does not agree, this work has to be taken into account.
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Scott, H. M. The Birth of a Great Power System, 1740–1815. Harlow, UK: Pearson/Longman, 2006.
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Scott looks at the development of the European great power system that emerged out of the second half of the 18th century, and in particular the Napoleonic wars. The system put in place at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 would survive more or less intact until the outbreak of World War I.
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Sorel, Albert. L’Europe et la Révolution française. 9 vols. Paris: Plon, Nourrit et Cie, 1885–1989.
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A classic study on French foreign policy from the years before the advent of the French Revolution through to the end of the empire, based on a thorough examination of the archival material, which tries to place the era in a longer context.
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Napoleon and His Family

Napoleon’s family has not received as much scholarly attention as the emperor. Napoleon’s brothers in particular have earned a reputation for being incompetent, first propounded by Napoleon himself, and later taken up by historians such as Masson (see Masson 1897–1919), but that is not always the case. Joseph, Louis, and even Murat achieved a good deal in difficult circumstances. Most of the family has been ignored by scholars, and this is especially the case for the women, as a result of which the lacuna has been filled by popular historians, most of whom have not bothered to delve into the archives in any great detail.

French Works

French works in particular tend toward the hagiographic. The exceptions to this rule are Boudon 2008, which brings Jérôme into new light, and Haegele 2010 on Joseph (although it is possibly not as thorough as it could be). They can be supplemented by two other works: Lamar 2000 (cited under English Works) for the former; Girod de l’Ain 1970 for the latter. Neither is as critical as it should be. Louis is crying out for a biographer. In the meantime, Jourdan 2010 gives some interesting insights. On the whole, Napoleon’s relations with his brothers in power were tempestuous. For an overall view of the Bonaparte family, the standard work is the multivolume Masson 1897–1919. Tulard 1999 does an adequate job on Caroline’s husband, Murat.

Boudon, Jacques-Olivier. Le roi Jérôme: Frère prodigue de Napoléon, 1784–1860. Paris: Fayard, 2008.
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A biographical treatment of the king of Westphalia by a French specialist of the period.
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Girod de l’Ain, Gabriel. Joseph Bonaparte: Le roi malgré lui. Paris: Perrin, 1970.
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The author presents Joseph as a reluctant king, but fails to answer some of the basic questions surrounding his motives and the reasons why he was so harshly treated by his younger brother.
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Haegele, Vincent. Napoléon et Joseph Bonaparte: Le pouvoir et l’ambition. Paris: Tallandier, 2010.
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The most complete biography to date, even though some questions remain unanswered.
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Jourdan, Annie, ed. Louis Bonaparte: Roi de Hollande, 1806–1810. Paris: Nouveau Monde, 2010.
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There are no scholarly biographical works on Louis, but this collection of essays fills that gap.
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Masson, Frédéric. Napoléon et sa famille. 13 vols. Paris: Ollendorff, 1897–1919.
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Masson treats all the family members in detail. Although much of this work is anecdotal, it is still worth consulting.
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Pietromarchi, Antonello. Luciano Bonaparte: Principe romano. Reggio Emilia, Italy: Città Armoniosa, 1980.
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A good overview of the subject but lacking a little in nuance and depth. Translated into French by Reine Carducci Artenisio as Lucien Bonaparte: Prince romain (Paris: Perrin, 1985).
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Schiel, Irmgard. Marie-Louise: Eine Habsburgerin für Napoleon. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1983.
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The best account available of Napoleon’s relationship with Marie-Louise. Translated into French by Jacques Dumont as Marie-Louise: Une Habsbourg pour Napoléon (Brussels: Racine, 1998).
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Tulard, Jean. Murat. Rev. ed. Paris: Fayard, 1999.
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Tulard gives a convincing rendering of the life of Murat, who had hoped to be given the Spanish crown, but had to be content with the Kingdom of Naples. After Napoleon’s fall, he became involved in intrigues between Paris, Vienna, and London and ended by betraying Napoleon. Tulard treats his subject a little more leniently than most.
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English Works

Lucien has been better treated than most of the Bonaparte brothers, although one has to wonder why; his role in power was minimal after 1800. Simonetta and Arikha 2011 is an English attempt at Lucien’s life, supplementing Pietromarchi 1980 (cited under French Works). Atteridge 1909 and Markham 1975 are good general introductions to the family and help fill the lacuna in the English language. Napoleon’s relations with women have been the object of a good deal of literature, most of it uninteresting. This is particularly the case for Napoleon’s first wife, Josephine, who has attracted a number of female authors and a female readership. By far the best of these accounts is Knapton 1963. For Napoleon’s second marriage, Palmer 2001 serves in English, but the German account in Schiel 1983 (cited under French Works) is far better.

Atteridge, A. Hilliard. Napoleon’s Brothers. London: Methuen, 1909.
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This work looks at the four brothers in an attempt to view them not as satellites of Napoleon but as independent entities.
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Connelly, Owen. The Gentle Bonaparte: A Biography of Joseph, Napoleon’s Elder Brother. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
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A bit sketchy in parts, but the only biography in English of the man who became king of Naples and then of Spain.
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Hibbert, Christopher. Napoleon: His Wives and Women. New York: Norton, 2002.
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A popular account of Napoleon’s relations with his women.
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Knapton, Ernest John. Empress Josephine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
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There are many biographies of Josephine on the market, aimed at a female readership. This is the best of them.
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Lamar, Glenn J. Jérôme Bonaparte: The War Years, 1800–1815. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.
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An attempt at rehabilitating Jérôme that is not entirely successful. True, he was not as bad as many made him out to be, but failings there were.
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Markham, Felix. The Bonapartes. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975.
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A social history of the Bonaparte family by an Oxford don.
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Palmer, Alan. Napoleon and Marie Louise: The Emperor’s Second Wife. New York: St. Martin’s, 2001.
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Alan Palmer is a popular biographer. Here he tries to bring Marie-Louise out of the obscurity into which she has largely fallen in the English-speaking world to place her marriage in a larger context of international relations as well as bringing out the intimacy between husband and wife. It is the only account in English but lacks depth.
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Simonetta, Marcello, and Noga Arikha. Napoleon and the Rebel: A Story of Brotherhood, Passion, and Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
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The work claims to do more than it actually accomplishes, but a good overview of the life of Lucien.
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Napoleon, Propaganda, and the Arts

There are too many works on individual artists to mention here, but this is a selection of some of the most important works on art, as well as works touching on Napoleon’s use of propaganda to promote his image. The other side of that coin is the use of caricatures to criticize the man and his regime.

Caricatures

If Napoleon was a master at propaganda, his opponents were just as masterful at mocking the image he created. The outpouring of caricatures during this period was enormous and represents an aspect of what came to be known as the black legend, providing scholars with a visual anti-Napoleon. Most of the anti-Napoleonic caricatures appeared after the Russian debacle. Napoleon, however, was not the only personality to come in for a drubbing. Most of the political leaders of the day were the object of mockery. The two most comprehensive collections of Napoleonic caricatures are to be found in the British Museum in London and the de Vinck Collection at the Bibliotheque nationale in Paris. A selection of the French caricatures can be found in the collections Clerc 1985 and Benoit 1996. Mathis 1998 is by far the most complete collection of caricatures but focuses largely on the German anti-Napoleonic output.

Benoit, Jérémie, ed. L’anti-Napoléon: Caricatures et satires du Consulat à l’Empire. Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1996.
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This is the end product of an exhibition held at the Château de Malmaison.
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Clerc, Catherine. La caricature contre Napoléon. Paris: Editions Promodis, 1985.
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Arranged thematically, Clerc’s book looks at attempts to counter official Napoleonic propaganda through caricature.
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Mathis, Hans Peter, ed. Napoleon I. im Spiegel der Karikatur: Ein Sammlungskatalog des Napoleon-Museums Arenenberg mit 435 Karikaturen über Napoleon I. Zürich, Switzerland: Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 1998.
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The most complete collection of caricatures of Napoleon available in print, with texts in English, French, Italian, and German. An admirable work that contains many images reproduced for the first time.
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Paintings and Sculptures

Iconography was one of, if not the primary, means Napoleon used to convey a particular image of himself and to sell the empire. He did this so well because he was able to enlist the greatest artists of his age in his cause. The study of iconography and the image of Napoleon in particular is one of the more interesting approaches to have emerged from work on the empire since the late 20th century. Dayot 1895 is a good starting point for any exploration of Napoleonic iconography. Jourdan 1998 (cited under Foreign-Language Biographies) contains a good analysis of the use of art during the empire. O’Brien 2006, Johns 1998, and Johnson 1993 are good studies on individual artists and their work. Grigsby 2002 and Porterfield and Siegfried 2006 are interesting studies on some of the better-known artists and their works. Prendergast 1997 is more theoretical.

Dayot, Armand. Napoléon raconté par l’image, d’après les sculpteurs, les graveurs et les peintres. Paris: Hachette, 1895.
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This contains synopses not only of Napoleonic engravings but also of Napoleonic paintings, sculptures, and popular objects of art.
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Grigsby, Darcy Grimaldo. Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.
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There are some fascinating insights into some of the most important paintings of the period, even if the conclusions are sometimes a little left field. To be complemented by Johns 1998.
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Johns, Christopher M. S. Antonio Canova and the Politics of Patronage in Revolutionary and Napoleonic Europe. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
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Canova was a brilliant sculptor and the artist responsible for a monumental statue of Napoleon that was never displayed in public (now at Apsley House in London).
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Johnson, Dorothy. Jacques-Louis David: Art in Metamorphosis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993.
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Johnson interprets key groups of works at selected moments of David’s long career. She places those works within the intellectual currents of the day.
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O’Brien, David. After the Revolution: Antoine-Jean Gros, Painting and Propaganda under Napoleon. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.
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A thorough treatment of Gros, his paintings, and his relations with Napoleon.
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Porterfield, Todd, and Susan L. Siegfried. Staging Empire: Napoleon, Ingres, and David. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006.
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A beautifully illustrated book focusing on Ingres’s Napoléon I on His Imperial Throne (1806) and Jacques-Louis David’s Sacre (1804).
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Prendergast, Christopher. Napoleon and History Painting: Antoine-Jean Gros’s La Bataille d’Eylau. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.
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An art historian’s perspective on history painting. The language is sometimes a little dense.
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The Press

One of the first things Napoleon did when he came to power was contain the press by suppressing sixty of the seventy-three Paris newspapers. By 1811, only four newspapers remained, a vehicle for Napoleon’s propaganda. There are few works in English that deal specifically with this particular topic, although they are discussed in Jourdan 1998 (cited under Foreign-Language Biographies) and Lyons 1994 (cited under Scholarly English Biographies). Holtman 1950 contains a chapter, while Cabanis 1975 is the most complete account.

Cabanis, André. La presse sous le Consulat et l’Empire, 1799–1814. Paris: Société des Etudes Robespierristes, 1975.
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An important work when it appeared, Cabanis looks at how the press was used to shape public opinion.
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Holtman, Robert B. Napoleonic Propaganda. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1950.
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A classic account, now a little dated, but which has not yet been superseded.
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Military Campaigns

It has been estimated that between 1796 and 1815 more than two thousand battles were fought. Napoleon fought in about sixty battles. Since he is considered one of the greatest military commanders of all time, it is not surprising that military histories of Napoleon and his wars abound. The Second Italian Campaign (the War of the Second Coalition), one episode of which was the crossing of the Alps, culminated in the victory of Marengo (June 1800) and peace with Austria at Lunéville (February 1801). Having amassed an army along the coast to invade Britain (war resumed in 1803), Napoleon decided instead to move against Austria and Russia, which had formed a Third Coalition against France. They were roundly defeated at the Battle of the Three Emperors (Austerlitz), on 2 December 1805. This resulted in the Treaty of Pressburg. Prussia was defeated the following years at the twin battle of Jena-Auerstädt in what was a Fourth Coalition against France (Prussia and Russia). The war continued in the east and culminated in the battle of Friedland (14 June 1807, the anniversary of Marengo). There followed a meeting between Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon on a raft in the middle of the Niemen River, which led to the Treaty of Tilsit. The treaty lasted a few years before the two powers came to blows. The disastrous Russian campaign (1812), which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of men, resulted in Napoleon having to fight in Germany in 1813 to keep his empire (the Sixth Coalition). Austria came down on the side of the allies Russia and Prussia (soon to be joined by Britain). There were two principle battles that occurred: Dresden in August, a nominal victory; and Leipzig in October, the Battle of the Nations, the largest land battle in Europe up to that time, and which was nominally lost by Napoleon. In 1814, the allies invaded France. Despite a series of brilliant rearguard actions fought by Napoleon, he was obliged to abdicate in April of that year at Fontainebleau. Included here are a few of the many hundreds of military histories for this period, with a focus not so much on particular battles or campaigns but on those works that place the wars in a larger context. Chandler 1966 remains the most complete overview, but more modern, abridged military histories are to be had in Esdaile 1995, Esdaile 2007, Gates 1997, and Rothenberg 1978. Bertaud 2006 is an example of the more recent cultural military histories that are coming to the fore. Bell 2007 is more an essay on the changing nature of warfare. Connelly 2006 challenges the notion of an omniscient general.

Bell, David A. The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
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Bell’s controversial thesis is that the Napoleonic Wars, the first instance of “total war,” represent a shift in the way wars were fought.
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Bertaud, Jean-Paul. Quand les enfants parlaient de gloire: L’armée au cœur de la France de Napoléon. Paris: Aubier, 2006.
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A cultural history of the army and its role in the creation of the Grande Empire.
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Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1966.
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A classic history of the Napoleonic wars that is still worth consulting.
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Connelly, Owen. Blundering to Glory: Napoleon’s Military Campaigns. 3d ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.
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The thesis is not that Napoleon “blundered” to glory so much as that he was a spontaneous commander acting according to circumstances. Connelly is not, therefore, as critical as the title suggests. He believes Napoleon to be an improviser of genius.
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Esdaile, Charles. The Wars of Napoleon. London: Longman, 1995.
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A book that is divided into nine chapters or essays on the Napoleonic Wars that is designed as a text for the classroom. Some prior knowledge of the wars is required. In his first foray into the wars, Esdaile argued that the wars were the fruit of Napoleon’s ambition and his desire to defeat Britain.
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Esdaile, Charles. Napoleon’s Wars: An International History, 1803–1815. London: Allen Lane, 2007.
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Not so much military history as a study on international relations during the Napoleonic period. It takes into account not only Napoleon but the strategic interests of the other European powers, including the Ottoman Empire.
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Gates, David. The Napoleonic Wars, 1803–1815. London: Arnold, 1997.
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A good synthesis of the wars of the empire, including those at sea. A suitable text for students.
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Rothenberg, Gunther E. The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.
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In what has not become classic text, Rothenberg describes the equipment, the tactics, and the strategies used by France and its adversaries. It is the most accessible and complete description of the method of war and how it changed over the period.
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The Second Italian Campaign

There is very little on Napoleon and his second campaign in Italy, in part because it did not last long and only one major battle—Marengo—was fought. Of the few works available, the best are Gachot 1899 and Messiez and Sorel 2001. For a wider perspective on the campaign, see Rodger 1964.

Gachot, Edouard. La deuxième Campagne d’Italie (1800). Paris: Perrin, 1899.
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Traditional military history of the campaign with detailed descriptions of the army’s maneuvers.
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Messiez, Maurice, and Christian Sorel, eds. La deuxième campagne d’Italie et les conséquences de la Bataille de Marengo. Chambéry, France: Société Savoisienne d’Histoire et d’Archéologie, 2001.
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Contains a number of interesting chapters, including by Natalie Petiteau and Thierry Lentz.
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Rodger, A. B. The War of the Second Coalition, 1798 to 1801: A Strategic Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon, 1964.
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Although a little antiquated, the most complete account of the Second Coalition in English, placing it in a global context.
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The Third Coalition

The two major battles of this campaign were Ulm and Austerlitz. Austerlitz has attracted an extensive literature, although it is generally seen from the French perspective. This is the case for Garnier 2005. Kagan 2006 attempts a detailed military history of the campaign from all perspectives, although it can get a little bogged down in the detail. Schneid 2005 is more accessible. For Napoleon’s attempt to invade Britain, two works are worth consulting—Franklin and Philp 2003 and Wheeler and Broadley 2007, a reprint of an earlier examination. On the Battle of Austerlitz, Duffy 1977 gives a good account. For the larger political perspective see Schroeder 1994 (cited under Foreign Policy).

Duffy, Christopher. Austerlitz 1805. London: Seeley, 1977.
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A short account. Only the last third of the book deals with the battle itself.
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Franklin, Alexandra, and Mark Philp. Napoleon and the Invasion of Britain. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2003.
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Before the campaign, the plans to invade Britain brought to light in a series of articles. The focus is on Britain’s political, social, and military response.
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Garnier, Jacques. Austerlitz, 2 décembre 1805. Paris: Fayard, 2005.
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The most thorough work in French on the subject.
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Kagan, Frederick W. The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801–1805. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2006.
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A detailed military history that is meant to be the first in a series of volumes. Kagan looks at battles plans both planned and carried through from all the warring parties.
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Schneid, Frederick C. Napoleon’s Conquest of Europe: The War of the Third Coalition. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005.
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The campaign placed in a larger perspective.
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Wheeler, H. F. B., and A. M. Broadley. Napoleon and the Invasion of England: The Story of the Great Terror. Stroud, UK: Nonsuch, 2007.
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The planned invasion from the English perspective. Reprint of the 1908 edition.
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The Fourth Coalition

The battles of Jena and Auerstädt saw the Prussian armies decisively defeated by Napoleon and Davout, but the campaign was prolonged by the arrival of the Russians and resulted in the bloody battles of Eylau and Friedland. While Simms 1997 does not touch on the battles of Jena-Auerstädt, the author gives the political-diplomatic background leading to them, as well as touching on the aftermath. Not for the uninitiated. For the battles, see Houssaye 2006. For a reflection on the battles and the enormous consequences for Prussian military life, see Paret 2009. For Friedland, Parker 1983 gives a good account.

Houssaye, Henry. Iéna et la campagne de 1806. Paris: Giovanangeli, 2006.
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A classic account first published in 1912.
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Paret, Peter. The Cognitive Challenge of War: Prussia 1806. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2009.
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This book, although containing an account of the battles of Jena and Auerstädt, is more about the consequences of defeat and Prussia’s attempts to redress the situation after 1806.
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Parker, Harold T. Three Napoleonic Battles. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1983.
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The first of these discussed battles is Friedland, by a consummate historian of the age.
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Simms, Brendan. The Impact of Napoleon: Prussian High Politics, Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Executive, 1797–1806. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511583032Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
A detailed diplomatic study of Prussian high politics and the road that led to Napoleon’s victory over Prussia in 1806.
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Spain and Portugal

Napoleon was only in Spain for a relatively short time, so the works listed here are limited, where possible, to a few of the more important books that have appeared in the early 21st century. The standard account is the multivolume Oman 1902–1930, but it is more military history. Balagny 1902–1907 is a detailed military history in the tradition of the French publications by the general staff. Esdaile 2002 provides the best overview in any language. Gotteri 2004 gives the reasons for Napoleon’s involvement in Portugal. Brégeon 2006 attempts to give the Spanish perspective.

Balagny, Dominique Eugène Paul. Campagne de l’empereur Napoléon en Espagne, 1808–1809. 5 vols. Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1902–1907.
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Replete with documents, plans, maps, and letters.
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Brégeon, Jean-Noël. Napoléon et la guerre d’Espagne: 1808–1814. Paris: Perrin, 2006.
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A good account from the French perspective of the Spanish imbroglio.
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Esdaile, Charles. The Peninsular War: A New History. London: Allen Lane, 2002.
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The best account in English of the involvement of the French in the Peninsular War. For a more detailed examination, see the classic account in Oman 1902–1930.
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Gotteri, Nicole. Napoléon et le Portugal. Paris: Giovanangeli, 2004.
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One of the few works in any language that deals with the reasons behind Napoleon’s decision to invade Portugal.
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Oman, Charles. A History of the Peninsular War. 7 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1902–1930.
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One of the most complete military histories of the war in the Peninsular, only vol. 1, 1807–1809: From the Treaty of Fontainebleau to the Battle of Corunna, deals with Napoleon’s brief intervention.
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1809 and the Austrian Campaign

Napoleon was only in Spain a few months when he had to return to France to stave off a renewed threat from the east. He was badly mauled by Archduke Charles at the Battle of Aspern-Essling, but managed to defeat him a short time later at Wagram. The year 1809 was, in many respects, a turning point for the fortunes of Napoleon. No further campaigns were won. The Battle of Wagram is treated by Epstein 1994 and Rothenberg 2004. The larger campaign is best treated in Gill 2008–2010. A brief overview can be had in Arnold 1995.

Arnold, James R. Napoleon Conquers Austria: The 1809 Campaign for Vienna. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995.
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Arnold relates the major battles in the first phase of the campaign of 1809, from the Austrian invasion of Bavaria to the French capture of Ratisbonne. For the military buff.
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Epstein, Robert M. Napoleon’s Last Victory and the Emergence of Modern War. Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 1994.
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Not quite Napoleon’s last victory, but certainly his last successful campaign. Epstein argues that neither Napoleon nor the opposing commander of the Austrian forces, Archduke Charles, understood that the conduct of war had irrevocably changed.
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Gill, John H. 1809: Thunder on the Danube: Napoleon’s Defeat of the Habsburgs. 3 vols. Barnsley, UK: Frontline, 2008–2010.
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A detailed military history of the campaign of 1809.
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Rothenberg, Gunther E. The Emperor’s Last Victory: Napoleon and the Battle of Wagram. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004.
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A much more accessible account than Gill 2008–2010. Rothenberg believes that the quality of the French troops engaged at Wagram, the largest battle of the wars before Leipzig, was still high.
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The Invasion of Russia

There have been a spate of works on the Russian campaign, as well as some broader works on Franco-Russian relations. The two most interesting works on the 1812 campaign in English are Lieven 2009 and Zamoyski 2004. Adams 2006 is more about the long and intricate involvement of France and Russia during this period, while Boudon 2012 and Rey 2012 attempt a view from below. Vandal 1891–1896 is a classic work focusing on international relations.

Adams, Michael. Napoleon and Russia. London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006.
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This deals with Franco-Russian relations for the whole period in question. A solid work but one that sometimes leaves out the sources.
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Boudon, Jacques-Olivier. Napoléon et la campagne de Russie, 1812. Paris: Armand Colin, 2012.
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Boudon, a French specialist in the history of the empire, attempts to gives the reader the common man’s perspective of the campaign.
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Lieven, Dominic. Russia against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814. London: Allen Lane, 2009.
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Not strictly a work on the Russian campaign, but which encompasses much more. This is the most thorough work in English on Franco-Russian relations for the period.
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Rey, Marie-Pierre. L’effroyable tragédie: Une nouvelle histoire de la campagne de Russie. Paris: Flammarion, 2012.
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Rey is a Russian specialist who attempts to see the campaign from the Russian perspective.
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Vandal, Albert. Napoléon et Alexandre Ier: L’alliance russe sous le premier empire. 3 vols. Paris: Plon, 1891–1896.
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A classic study of Franco-Russian relations, still worth consulting.
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Zamoyski, Adam. 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow. London: HarperCollins, 2004.
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Possibly the best account in English of the campaign.
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The Defense of Central Europe and the Collapse of the Empire

A number of accounts on the final phase of the Napoleonic wars have appeared in the early 21st century, most of which are military histories. We have yet to see an account that integrates the complex foreign and domestic political situations. Houssaye 1937 is the standard account that does this up to a point, but it is getting on a bit. For those who do not have French, Petre 1914 can replace Houssaye up to a point. Leggiere 2007 does the military campaign in a wider context (that is, not just the north of France), as does Ashby 2010, but with far less detail. Riley 2000 takes into account the international context, although that did not have much bearing on the war in central Europe.

Ashby, Ralph. Napoleon against Great Odds: The Emperor and the Defenders of France, 1814. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010.
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Ashby places the campaign in a wider context, taking into account the state of conditions inside France.
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Houssaye, Henry. 1814. Paris: Perrin, 1937.
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The classic French account of the campaign.
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Leggiere, Michael V. The Fall of Napoleon. Vol. 1, The Allied Invasion of France, 1813–1814. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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A detailed military history of Napoleon’s 1814 campaign.
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Petre, F. Loraine. Napoleon at Bay, 1814. London: John Lane, 1914.
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The best-known English account of the campaign for France.
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Riley, J. P. Napoleon and the World War of 1813: Lessons in Coalition Warfighting. London: Frank Cass, 2000.
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Riley argues that the campaign in 1813 was not limited to central Europe but was indeed a world war that encompassed operations in Europe, Spain, and North America.
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Waterloo

Waterloo is one of the most written-about battles in history, so this is not the place to list an extensive bibliography. Included here are some of the better more recent works. Many of the standard works look at the battle and the campaign from either the French or the British perspective. Such is the case for Houssaye 1893 and Margerit 1964. The role of the Prussians in defeating the French is at the forefront of Hofschröer 1998. Barbero 2005 gives an excellent account of the battle from the common soldier’s perspective. Black 2010 is a good generalist account. Largeaud 2006 looks at the place of the battle in modern French memory. Schom 1992 sets the battle in the context of the return from Elba and the Hundred Days and is a good introduction to the subject from an otherwise hostile author.

Barbero, Alessandro. The Battle: A New History of Waterloo. Translated by John Cullen. New York: Walker, 2005.
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This is not so much a history of the Waterloo campaign as an account of the experience of battle. Well worth the read.
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Black, Jeremy. The Battle of Waterloo. New York: Random House, 2010.
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A good introduction to the battle and its fallout.
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Hofschröer, Peter. 1815: The Waterloo Campaign; Wellington, His German Allies and the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. London: Greenhill, 1998.
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This is a revisionist history of the battle that underlines just how few British troops were actually present and the role of the Prussians under Blücher.
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Houssaye, Henry. 1815. 3 vols. Paris: Perrin, 1893.
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A detailed study of Napoleon, France, and public opinion during the Hundred Days. Based on archival sources, it is still worth consulting.
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Largeaud, Jean-Marc. Napoléon et Waterloo: La défaite glorieuse de 1815 à nos jours. Paris: Boutique de l’Histoire, 2006.
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Largeaud’s book is not about the battle itself but rather about its place in modern memory.
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Margerit, Robert. Waterloo, 18 juin 1815. Paris: Gallimard, 1964.
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Part of the series Trente journées qui ont fait la France (Thirty Days that made France), this is an engaging, detailed account of the battle from the French perspective.
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Schom, Alan. One Hundred Days: Napoleon’s Road to Waterloo. New York: Atheneum, 1992.
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A standard account of Napoleon’s return from Elba and his attempts to muster the army before the inevitable conflict with Europe. Schom has a somewhat jaundiced view of the man.
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Elba and the Hundred Days

Exiled to the island of Elba, off the Italian coast, Napoleon did not stay there for long. Fearful that the allies were about to remove him, he risked everything in one last throw of the dice, landed in Frejus in the south of France in March 1815, and marched on Paris. The restored Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, fled. The Hundred Days, as this period between Napoleon’s return from Elba and his second abdication is known, culminated in Waterloo (June 1815). It was during this period that Napoleon was able to refashion his political image, portraying himself as a liberal. It was an image that would persist long after his second fall from power. A number of French works look at Napoleon’s stay on the island and his decision to return, including Baylac 2011 and Godlewski 2003. Far more interest, at least among English-speaking historians has been given to the “Flight of the Eagle” and the second abdication. The best works in English are MacKenzie 1982 and MacKenzie 2009. Bertaud 2011 is a French exploration of the abdication after Waterloo, although it does not bring all that much new to the field. Thornton 1968 looks at an ever narrower topic, his surrender to the English.

Baylac, Marie-Hélène. Napoléon, Empereur de l’île d’Elbe: Avril 1814–février 1815. Paris: Tallandier, 2011.
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A synthesis of Napoleon’s exile to Elba in French.
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Bertaud, Jean-Paul. L’abdication: 21–23 juin 1815. Paris: Flammarion, 2011.
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Bertaud looks at the political events surrounding Napoleon’s abdication after Waterloo.
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Cyr, Pascal. Waterloo: Origines et enjeux. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2011.
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Cyr looks not so much at the battle itself, the subject of the last two chapters, as at the difficulties Napoleon faced on his return from Elba, and the muted opposition from both the administration and royalists.
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Godlewski, Guy. Napoléon à l’île d’Elbe: 300 jours d’exil. Paris: Fondation Napoléon, 2003.
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A reprint of a book first published in 1961; only some of the chapters deal with the exile itself. Others touch on the response of the Restoration regime, plotting Bonapartists, Marie-Louise, and the reasons why Napoleon decided to leave.
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MacKenzie, Norman. Escape from Elba: The Fall and Flight of Napoleon, 1814–1815. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
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The best account in English of Napoleon’s stay on Elba and what was known as the “Flight of the Eagle.” It is marred by the lack of footnotes. It is followed by Mackenzie 2009.
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MacKenzie, Norman. Fallen Eagle: How the Royal Navy Captured Napoleon. Lewes, UK: Bellerophon, 2009.
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Looks at the days following the battle of Waterloo and Napoleon’s surrender to the British.
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Martineau, Gilbert. Napoleon Surrenders. Translated by Frances Partridge. London: John Murray, 1971.
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This work looks at the days after Waterloo and Napoleon’s decision to surrender to the British.
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Thornton, Michael John. Napoleon after Waterloo: England and the St. Helena Decision. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1968.
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Focuses on Napoleon’s detention aboard the Bellerophon in July and August 1815. Marred by the lack of footnotes.
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Saint Helena

A second abdication followed Waterloo, and this time exile to Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, from which Napoleon was never to return. He died there on 5 May 1821, probably of cancer of the stomach. His remains were brought back to France in 1840 and eventually laid to rest in the Invalides in Paris. Napoleon’s exile on Saint Helena is one of the more written-about episodes of his life, despite the fact that not much occurred there. While on the island, Napoleon was able to dictate his memoirs, and in so doing rewrite history and his role in it. The memoirs are cited in the Primary Sources section, while some of the secondary works are interesting reflections on the fall from power, Napoleon’s life and character, and what it is like to be imprisoned.

Primary Sources

The three texts cited here by the “evangelists” of Saint Helena form the body of memoirs dictated by Napoleon while in exile. Bertrand 1949–1959 and Gourgaud 1944 did not appear until many decades after Napoleon’s death. Las Cases 1983, on the other hand, was one of the most successful publications of 19th-century France.

Bertrand, Henri-Gratien. Cahiers de Sainte-Hélène. Edited by Paul Fleuriot de Langle. 3 vols. Paris: Michel, 1949–1959.
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Bertrand was Napoleon’s aide-de-camp and was by his side at every battle after 1805. He followed his imperial master into exile and took down Napoleon’s utterances in a journal that was not uncovered and published until after World War II. The journal begins in 1816 and end with Napoleon’s death. The folios given to the Archives nationales by Bertrand’s daughter.
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Gourgaud, Gaspard. Journal de Sainte-Hélène, 1815–1818. 2 vols. Paris: Flammarion, 1944.
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This edition is annotated by Octave Aubry.
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Las Cases, Emmanuel de. Le mémorial de Sainte-Hélène. Edited by Marcel Dunan. 2 vols. Paris: Flammarion, 1983.
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There are several editions to this classic work, which contributed so much toward creating the legend of Napoleon, but the annotated version by Marcel Dunan is one of the best.
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Secondary Works

Most of the works on Saint Helena, and there are many more than those cited below, touch on the daily life of Napoleon on the island; his conflict with the British governor, Hudson Lowe; and his physical demise. Included here is a selection of what may be considered some of the more interesting works on this final stage of Napoleon’s life. The best historical narratives are Martineau 1969 in French and Willms 2008, available in English. Giles 2001 gives a competent account. Unwin 2010 looks at the last moments, so to speak, while Dancoisne-Martineau 2011 gives a sort of who’s who. By far the most interesting essay on exile and captivity is Kauffmann 1999.

Dancoisne-Martineau, Michel. Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène, Atlantique Sud. Paris: Perrin, 2011.
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This is a collection of vignettes on people associated with Napoleon, written by a man who has spent decades on the island. It complements Martineau 1969.
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Giles, Frank. Napoleon Bonaparte: England’s Prisoner. London: Constable, 2001.
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A standard survey of Napoleon’s life in exile.
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Kauffmann, Jean-Paul. The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon’s Exile on Saint-Helena. Translated by Patricia Clancy. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1999.
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More travelogue than history, this is nevertheless a wonderful account of exile written by a French journalist held in captivity in Lebanon for three years in the 1980s.
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Martineau, Gilbert. Napoleon’s St. Helena. Translated by Frances Partridge. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1969.
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This looks at daily life on the island. This was one of the first studies to incorporate the previously unpublished journal of Major Gideon Gorrequer, acting military secretary of Governor Sir Hudson Lowe. Gorrequer detested his superior and was sympathetic to Napoleon’s plight.
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Unwin, Brian. Terrible Exile: The Last Days of Napoleon on St Helena. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010.
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An account of the last phase of Napoleon’s life. The author claims it draws on “many previously overlooked journals and letters,” but there is little evidence of that.
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Willms, Johannes. Napoleon and St Helena: On the Island of Exile. Translated by John Brownjohn. London: Armchair Traveller, 2008.
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An insightful account of Napoleon’s years of captivity. One of the better works on Saint Helena, by a German journalist who takes Napoleon’s posturing with a grain of salt. There is also material on the politics surrounding the return of Napoleon’s body to France in 1814, and on efforts to preserve the site of Longwood.
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Legend and Legacy

Napoleon did much to create his own legend and left a political legacy in France that not even he could have envisaged. Much of it was a reaction to the repressive Restoration regimes that followed his fall, but there is no denying that there was a core of loyal supporters who kept the memory of Napoleon alive well after his death. Hazareesingh 2004 is the best English treatment of the legend, but for the political construction of Bonapartism, Bluche 1980 and Ménager 1988 are indispensable works of scholarship, both wonderfully researched. Laven and Riall 2000 looks at the more practical implications of the impact of Napoleon on Europe after the fall. Alexander 2001 places Napoleon in the context of 19th- and 20th-century European history.

Alexander, R. S. Napoleon. London: Arnold, 2001.
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An overview of the “reputation” of Napoleon, and the evolution of his image both during his lifetime and after. The political as well as the artistic are covered.
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Bluche, Frédéric. Le Bonapartisme: Aux origines de la droite autoritaire, 1800–1850. Paris: Nouvelles Éditions Latines, 1980.
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The political origins of the right in France has its origins in Bonapartism, according to Bluche, but this work is much more than that.
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Hazareesingh, Sudhir. The Legend of Napoleon. London: Granta, 2004.
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The construction of the legend is complex but beautifully set out in this work that looks at public perceptions of Napoleon and the values people attached to him during the 19th century.
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Laven, David, and Lucy Riall, eds. Napoleon’s Legacy: Problems of Government in Restoration Europe. Oxford: Berg, 2000.
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A collection of essays that looks at the aftermath of the empire and its impact on Europe.
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Ménager, Bernard. Les Napoléon du peuple. Paris: Aubier, 1988.
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An examination of the persistence of Bonapartism after Napoleon, throughout the 19th century.
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