Napoleon: A Concise Biography

by David A. Bell

This book provides a concise, accurate, and lively portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte's character and career, situating him firmly in historical context. David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility--for both good and ill--that Napoleon represented. By his late twenties, Napoleon was already one of the greatest generals in European history. At thirty, he had become absolute master of Europe's most powerful country. In his early forties, he ruled a European empire more powerful than any since Rome, fighting wars that changed the shape of the continent and brought death to millions. Then everything collapsed, leading him to spend his last years in miserable exile in the South Atlantic. Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued, and his success in mobilizing human and material resources. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have fought his wars. Without the wars, he could not have seized and held onto power. Though his virtual dictatorship betrayed the ideals of liberty and equality, his life and career were revolutionary.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, France, European History, Biography Memoir, Audiobook

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2015

About the author

Librarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

David A. Bell is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the Era of North Atlantic Revolutions at Princeton University and the author of several previous books, among them The First Total War and Shadows of Revolution.

Reviews

[od1_40reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant in its conciseness, David A Bell manages to take us through the French Revolution and all of Napoleon’s reign in just 113pp!

However, don’t be fooled by the extent or the word ‘concise’. There is a lot of information packed in here. And Bell offers a wonderfully balanced and unbiased insight into the French leader, his life and conquests.

Due to the extent, I had expected to read this in an evening, but there is so much detail that it actually took me a couple of days.

Few facts I didn’t know:

- When Robespierre was arrested and guillotined at the end of The Terror, Napoleon was also imprisoned, but was instead released two weeks later. (Imagine if that had gone differently!)
- In 1803 Napoleon reestablished slavery in the Caribbean colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe - which the French revolutionaries had abolished in 1794. Definitely one of his greatest crimes.
- In 1810 he divorced Josephine (she was actually called Rose, but Napoleon insisted on calling her by her middle name); and married the grandniece of Marie Antoinette. How’s that for supporting the revolutionary ideology!

It’s a great read, and perfect for anyone wants to brush up on their historical knowledge prior to Ridley Scott’s forthcoming movie!

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, short biography of Napoleon.

If you've ever been interested in reading a biography of Napoleon, but you don't want to wade through the large, sometimes multi-volume, 1000-page biographies, this is the best option. (Yes, there is actually a biography of Napoleon that is in two volumes, with each volume over 1000-pages long, the first half of which doesn't even take you to 1806.)

There isn't much more to say about this book beyond that. The book is extremely well-researched, as you'd expect from a Princeton professor. It is also very dramatic: there are a lot of well-placed quotations, and the biographer never takes a step back from the story to survey disputes among historians. Presumably, he felt that this would have taken away from the 'concise' part of the title -- and it would have made the book much worse. The author really leans into making this biography one giant story of Napoleon's life. The introduction gives the reader a sufficient amount of background on the French Revolution that I never felt like I didn't know what was going on.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life of Napoleon Bonaparte, as David A. Bell notes in this book, is one of the best documented in history. The emperor managed his vast domain by pen, which required him to write tens of thousands of letters, orders, and dispatches over the course of its existence. While in exile he dictated his memoirs, which were supplemented by numerous personal accounts of the people who fought and worked alongside him. These have been supplemented over the years by the recollections of ordinary soldiers and civilians, who lived through an era so momentous that recording their experiences seemed worthwhile. All of this has served as fodder for a host of biographies over the years, many of which require multiple volumes to do justice to their subject’s life.

Given all this, it almost seems folly to summarize Bonaparte’s life with any utility in the span of barely a hundred pages. Yet this is exactly the feat that Bell has pulled off. Drawing upon both published sources and the enormous literature on the era, he has constructed a sprightly account that efficiently summarizes Napoleon’s activities and achievements. In five short chapters, he covers everything from Bonaparte’s youth in Corsica through his embrace of the Revolution, his ascent to military glory and political power, and his efforts to build an empire that spanned Europe. To accomplish this, he eschews detail for analysis, preferring to explain rather than simply recount the events of his subject’s life. This he does with both insight and wit, both of which help to make his subject comprehensible to the reader.

To do all this within the pages of such a short book is no small feat. Yet Bell pulls it off with considerable aplomb. Though he cannot resist the opportunity to promote his somewhat controversial argument that the wars of the era were the first “total wars” of our age, and the text would have benefited from more careful copy-editing, this book is nonetheless an impressive achievement. For any readers seeking an introduction to Napoleon Bonaparte’s life that covers the basics while he matters to history, it will be difficult to improve on what Bell offers here.

[Mel Bossa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five things I hate about you Napoleon:

- You restored slavery in the Caribbean
- In your famous Napoleon Code, you declared that married women should seek out their husband's approval before they wrote a novel.
- You preached democracy and revolution but as soon as you could do so, you put your brothers, sisters and stepson on various thrones across Europe and formed your own little monarchy
- You probably had an incestuous crush on your brother Joseph and asked your mesmerizing and older wife to change her name from Rose to Josephine and then wrote her countless whining and pathetic letters in which you threatened to go all Othello on her
- You said you weren't all that into religion but you made sure you got your inaugural religious ceremony , reacting a scene right out of Charlemagme's life

Three things I sort of admire about Napoleon:

- You sure knew how to make a come back after Elba.
- You never abandoned your men, even when you were on your way back from burning Moscow and death was on your heels
- You were no Stalin or Hitler

That being said... We have you to thank for Total War and every time a new narcissist is born, they either want to be you or Alexander the Great.

You were a product of your times. A perfect storm.

Another emperor, conqueror, let's make Europe great again man.

Side note: You and the young tortured Tsar Alexander of Russia would make a sexy friends to enemies gay romance...

[Lois · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fast easy listen. The biographer was too in awe of Napoleon for my tastes.
Also this primarily focused on military actions. That's inevitable with Napoleon but there was nothing of the personal at all

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

For historical era I'm particularly interested in I don't mind reading at length on. For others, concision is optimal and so this book was a perfect way of learning a good amount about incredibly significant time in history without plodding through a seemingly boundless tome. Bell has an admirable knack for making a history exciting and he remains notably impartial, if not favorable to a degree, to his controversial subject. The sheer competence of Bell's comprendium of the time, his grasp of its capricious politics and ever changing loyalties makes for a fascinating and enlightening read, perfect for armchair historians and autodidacts such as myself. Excellently written, intelligent, interesting book. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

[A. Oosthoek · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Napoleon has made the crossing wrapped in furs and riding a donkey, but the preeminent French artist of the day, Jacques-Louis David, painted him in a dashing red cape atop a magnificent rearing white charger in the single greatest and most memorable image of Napoleon ever executed"

[Phillip Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know that I’m qualified to say whether or not this is a good introduction to the life of Napoleon as I’m not familiar with most of the considerable work written on him. It certainly was concise and informative. It was a little dry, probably at the expense of keeping it short and full of content. I may have preferred something a little longer with more personality. Nevertheless, I think the author achieved his goal in writing a concise, informative, and accessible introduction to the life of Napoleon.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a reader of history generally, the latest film of Napoleon prompted me to find this one. A near perfect book for me which taught me more than two years of studying the same period at A level in the 1970s!

[AC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good quick read, well done.

[me · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine but I'm just not interested in military things, which of course there's a lot of in the life of a famous general. I was just wanting a brief overview so I could learn the basics since he's one of those historical figures who is oddly popular so it felt like I should know something. It felt like a good intro the topic for people who may not want to commit to a longer book full of battle tactics but I found it hard to get through at times and yet sometimes things seemed to be dealt with a bit quickly.

[Ben Gutteridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

good short biography for losers like me who are way behind on their reading goals. I thought I'd bosh this out before watching Ridley Scott's biopic, which was not good and looks even worse now.

To portray him as merely a freaky little pissboy (though he surely was one) is frustratingly reductive, when there are so many instances of genuine, brutal cruelty and political brilliance to draw upon

[Chris Bo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It does exactly what it says it’s supposed to do. I really don’t know a lot about the guy, but this book made me willing to read more about him. His life really was insane, and very worthy of the historical discourse that surrounds him.

[Bartholomew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging, touching on many dimensions of both Napoleon himself and the time period. Very well contextualized. Needs a new editor, the frequency of type errors is below the standard of the content itself.

[Miles Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the best short biography of Napoleon I’ve read. Paul Johnson is good but Bell just has the best mix of a true command of Napoleonic historiography and truly spritely writing.

[Michael Rollins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do feel slightly bad giving this a three as my main complaint is that it feels insufficient. It is labelled as a "conside biography," and that's very much what it is. I think what I'm really after is something in between this pamflet and the many 500+ page tombes available.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to an audio version of this, and it was well presented by Paul Heitsch. I had been looking for a concise, easy to follow history of Napoleon and the Napoleonic era. I knew of course that he was a major figure, a great general, and of course I had come across the tales of his captivity and the long shadow he cast across 19th century Europe, but I had never read a serious history of his life or understood his relationship to the French Revolution. This book fit the bill perfectly - it provided a concise but reasonably well-detailed account of Bonaparte's life, while staying close to the central pathways of historical thinking.

Napoleon was a ******. The basis of his great power was his successes on the battlefield, and his greatness as a general cannot be questioned. He used this, cleverly mixed with some leftist ideas that provided benefits to common people, to gain political power. Unfortunately for all concerned, his lust for power was insatiable and he quickly ran afoul of the aristocracy and other political leaders of Europe. Originally a man of the people, he had himself declared emperor and began putting his relatives on thrones all around the continent. Under his leadership, France was almost constantly at war (with Austria, Prussia, Germany, and Britain) for 15 years, until his arrogant, catastrophic invasion of Russia set up his final defeat. Bell describes with detail the horrible suffering of the soldiers whose lot it was to fight for and against Napoleon.

Despite all this, he was a complex figure who did do some good. Some of the innovations that occurred under his leadership - certain rights and bureaucratic arrangements - are still in use today. He originally supported many of the idealistic aims of the French Revolution and tried to export them to other nations. Ultimately I did not develop a great admiration for Napoleon Bonaparte - he was a gifted megalomaniac who belongs on the scrap heap of history, and he is not much admired in France today, as Bell points out.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non-recreational reading. May I say, this does exactly what it says on the tin, and admirably so. Bell manages to get through the entire biography of Napoleon in a lean, mean 113 pages. Meanwhile, other historians are writing a thousand pages (literally, it’s mentioned in the introduction) and only getting as far as 1803. And as a bonus, it avoids both hero-worshipping and vilifying the man– and skims lightly over the battles and focuses on why they were important, rather than giving us a play-by-play.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

All killer, no filler.

[Ben Kayser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating biography that’s a quick and easy read.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are countless volumes on Napoleon Bonaparte, some of which deal with a sliver of the man’s life. I plan on reading Michael Broers’s three-volume collection on Napoleon in the future, along with the two-volume work by Robert Asprey (It’s safe to say I have a fixation with this time period that borders on the unhealthy). With all that said, and with so much having been said about Napoleon, it begs the question: why read this book? Put simply, throughout the entirety of Napoleon: A Concise Biography, I was completely enraptured by David A. Bell’s writing.

Many reviewers have spoken at length about its concision, and that is a big plus for many. It was great being able to get a succinct timeline of Napoleon’s life from Corsica to St. Helena, and I have no doubt it would serve many new readers to this subject well. That is partly what I enjoyed about the book, but not the entirety.

As mentioned before, what hooked me about this book was the writing. David A. Bell has a gift in toeing the line perfectly between being analytical and accessible, distilling complex events down to their basic premise without omitting any crucial details. The Battle of Austerlitz was condensed to just a few paragraphs, yet the genius in Napoleon's strategy in baiting the Austrians and Prussians to attack his right flank, the luck in which French Troops found themselves camouflaged in the morning fog while marching up the Pratzen Heights, and the significance in a near flawless French victory as retreating forces stumble and drown across frozen lakes are all there. It’s detailed enough to give the reader a bird’s-eye view of what is happening without being too high to be shrouded by clouds of details. It’s exceedingly impressive.

Bell also makes sure to include original thoughts into this slim volume, making this not just another rehashing of events. He makes a point to direct the reader towards the context and attitudes of the times, driving home the point that, if not for the French Revolution and the introduction of mass conscription, Napoleon may well have become a forgotten name. The impact felt today by this peculiar Frenchman has as much to do with luck as it does with his genius and charisma.

This can easily be recommended to any reader new to Napoleon and his era. For any experts in the field, this would still be worth a read for the impressive synthesis and original analysis that Bell brings forth. An easy five stars can be given to Napoleon: A Concise Biography, and I look forward to reading Bell’s The First Total War.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

As promised in the title, this is truly a concise biography of Napoleon. It is beautifully written and eminently readable. I could hardly put it down.

And not concise in simple terms like a children's book - it is truly comprehensive in explaining his life and the evolving political situation of Europe at the time. The French Revolution in particular is elegantly explained.

At one point the author compares the stages of Napoleon's life to various Greek myths; heroic and victorious Hercules in his early years, Icarus flying too close to the sun at his zenith, and Prometheus chained to an island rock at the end. It was these early sections that made me fall in love with the book.

However, Napoleon's military genius and battle tactics are almost entirely glazed over. Obviously the goal is a concise volume, but most of us are drawn to Napoleon in the first place to understand how it was that he managed to win more battles - usually outnumbered - than any commander in history.

The Trachenberg plan is not even mentioned. Not only was it instrumental to his downfall, but it clarifies how the allies viewed him as nearly invincible - even after Russia.

I think this omission (and the conclusions toward the end) suggest much about the author: he is too much of a modernist to write an inspiring account of The God of War. He favors the "trends and forces" view of history and spills much ink on how Napoleon was allegedly pulled along by events outside his control. While the trends of the time certainly provided opportunities, Napoleon stunned the world for twenty years with the manner in which he continually capitalized on those opportunities.

This author is a brilliant writer, and this book is a quick, enjoyable read. That is no easy task on such a complex topic. I struggled with how to rate this book. Ultimately, I recommend it as the best one I have yet found describing Napoleon's life in a reasonable number of pages - but please don't make it the only one you read.

[Mark Einselen · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the subtitle says, this book is "A Concise Biography." David Bell's work captures the overarching themes and movements of the Napoleonic age. Rather than limiting the material to cover a few high points, Bell is intentional to connect various aspects of the time period to tell the broader story. History is not simply a timeline of successive dates, but rather a fluid convergence of various characters. Not satisfied to contain Napoleon's influence to his own time, Bell extrudes his impact throughout the centuries that followed his life and rule. While trying to maintain a centrists' perspective, Bell focuses on the alluring personality which has proven to be inescapable to historians and popular history.

I interpreted the conclusion of the book as a strong endorsement of critical analyzation of individuals, both past and present, without immediate alignment with "good" or "evil." The gray mixture of both bright and dark moments are what paint such an intriguing portrait that has proven to be an irresistible true myth of a man. To have boiled it down to an easily digestible concise biography is truly an achievement.

[James Rye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise and Insightful

This book really delivered for me for three reasons.

First, as the title suggests, it was concise. I wanted something that covered the ground with sufficient detail to be interesting, but without getting crushed by thousands of words. This book did that very successfully.

Second, the book did far more than tell a story. It set major events in historical context and helped explain the story. For example, the author explains why both Napoleon’s meteoric rise to power and his popularity after the escape from Elba were possible, despite opposing reasons and circumstances.

Third, it is well-written. The author is a scholar who can communicate his learning to a general audience.

I can thoroughly recommend the book. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot from it.

[Eoin Conroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been on a Napoleon buzz lately and I have a shelf full of books about him to get through, and I thought I should start reviewing them just as a way to really think about them.

I’m still a novice in this area of history, but David Bell has managed to make a short and concise overview which doesn’t feel like an endless list of names and dates and lays the ground well for where the reader can go from here. My only criticism is that he’s a bit keen on pushing the idea of the Napoleonic Wars as the first ‘total war’(as opposed to WW1 as conventional wisdom has it). Bell wrote a book on the topic so it’s understandable that he sees this as a key insight to Napoleonic warfare but it does just feel like his pushing his pet theory onto what is otherwise an effective introduction to the topic.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Napoleon: A Concise Biography" by David A. Bell offers an accessible and engaging overview of one of history's most complex and controversial figures. Bell masterfully condenses Napoleon Bonaparte's tumultuous life and career into a compact narrative without sacrificing depth or nuance. The biography covers his meteoric rise from an obscure Corsican soldier to the Emperor of France, his military genius, and the sweeping reforms he instituted.

Bell also critically examines Napoleon's ambition and the consequences of his relentless pursuit of power, providing balanced insights into his enduring legacy. While the book is brief, it is rich in detail and analysis, making it an excellent introduction for those new to the subject and a refreshing synthesis for those already familiar with Napoleonic history.

[Matt Blanchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook. An excellent short biography of one of history’s most fascinating figures. For someone who wants to get an idea of the life of Napoleon, Bell’s book is a great choice. The shorter length of the book makes it very easy to follow, and covers most of the most salient points of his career. Certainly, more can be said, but that is the entire point: most biographies of Napoleon are large scale, magisterial works, and this one is eminently readable.

There is a great amount of myth surrounding Napoleon. He is one of the most famous figures to ever live. He accomplished many heroic deeds that boggle the imagination, and yet also was responsible for horrific atrocities which defy explanation. Bell presents both sides of the coin, and leaves the reader with a more nuanced view of the General, albeit with much less of the glory that he surrounded himself with.

[Ultan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book, it really captures the pomp and grandeur of a general who arose from a relatively small island off the cost of Italy to become emperor of France. Regardless of your opinion on Napoleon nobody can ever say his life was dull, it is in fact an amazing read which kept me captivated for hours. The book tells of Napoleon's early days on Corsica, his admission to a military school in France, and his rise to become a top military official and then emperor of France. I highly recommend this book for anyone eager to know about Napoleon's life and background. I also enjoyed the epilogue in this book as it explores Napoleon's influence on the present day, in short this book is a must read.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Bell offers a succinct overview of the remarkable life of Napoleon, highlighting the most important aspects of his character, the critical historical events, and his enduring legacy. I have great respect for historians who are able to part with the minutiae and distil the key concepts for non-historians like me – as Bell writes in the introduction, the motivation behind his book is that “while the current crop of biographies has many virtues, concision is not among them”.

I was particularly impressed that, despite the emphasis on brevity, David Bell not only narrates Napoleon’s life but advances a thesis of the historical circumstances that made Napoleon possible. He believes that while Napoleon was indeed a man of great talent (exceptionally intelligent, industrious, and politically savvy), his rise was catalysed by the social tumult of the French Revolution (”chaos is a ladder”), the newly-free press, and the evolution of warfare. For example, Napoleon was a master of the media, carefully managing his image and using the press to rally the populous, a tactic that has been repeated many times in history: Mussolini and Nasser with radio, the Nazis with film, Khomeini and the cassette tapes, etc.

The biography is well-written – the language is pretty without being ornate – and within the constraint of concision, Bell does a commendable job of introducing other characters and themes. I now want to read more about Talleyrand, who was Napoleon’s foreign minister for a time, before ultimately resigning and plotting against Napoleon. Notably, Talleyrand features more in The 48 Laws of Power than Napoleon!

Napoleon is certainly not presented as a role model, especially with his general disregard for human life (“A man like me troubles himself little about a million men”), but Bell does not think he is a tyrant either, especially when compared to 20th-century fascist leaders. Moral considerations aside, in my eyes the principal value of his story (and that of other “Great Men” like Churchill, Alexander the Great, and Caesar Augustus), is to make us dramatically expand our view of what is achievable in a lifetime.

For all his crimes and errors, his life also incarnated a sense of sheer human possibility that quite rightly fascinated onlookers at the time and has continued to do so ever since. We look at his life and recoil from parts of it in horror. But at the same time, inescapably, there is something that takes the breath away.

My highlights here.

[Michael Jolls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly, I only read this for some context for the upcoming Ridley Scott, Joaquin Phoenix movie. No disrespect to the author, but a crucial element of history is understanding context. While the book is well written and good for a detailed summary, the constant conflicts between all these countries is a lot to take in, even in a shorter book. Can you learn something from it? Yes. But don’t ask me to explain why he was in Egypt, or what France & Italy were fighting over. If I was doing a deep dive into Napoleon, I would start with a monster biography first, and then this would be a perfect SECOND book to read.