NAPOLEON: Correspondance générale de Napoléon Bonaparte: Tome 2: la campagne d'Egypte et l'avènement, 1798-1799
What better present for the Napoleon enthusiast than the new correspondance? Lots of previously unpublished letters and essays on specific isues setting the correspondence in context. This, volume two, deals with 1798-1799, the Egyptian Campaign and the accession to power, general Bonaparte getting to grips with his dream of the Orient: a region with a difficult climate, complicated daily organisation, popular revolts, war. The perfect moment for Napoleon to show his sense of organisation and his remarkable ability to improvise, his obstinacy, but also his implacable toughness: an apprentice head of state, whom the Brumaire coup d'etat catapulted to power in France. In French.
DANCOISNE-MARTINEAU Michel (ed.), CHEVALLIER Bernard (ed.), LENTZ Thierry (ed.), Sainte-Hélène, île de mémoire
This is a fine book, containing not only detailed articles by the best specialists but a huge number of illustrations, many previously unpublished. It may be in French but it is THE reference on the subject. Includes articles on the history of the island, why St Helena was chosen as the place of detention for Napoleon, a study of the lesser figures of the St helena episode, an essay on Hudson Lowe, discussion of the St Helena Napoleonic legend, not forgetting the biggest ever St Helena bibliography.
GOETZ Robert, 1805: Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Destruction of the Third Coalition
This excellent book by independent scholar, Robert Goetz, tracing the historical route from Amiens to Pressburg, won the Fondation Napoléon's 2005 history prize for a book in a language other than French, and it gives even non-military historians a clear and measured view of the battle. Great value and eminently readable.
KNIGHT Roger, The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson
Reviewed by N. A. M. Rodger the TLS (21 September, 2005), this book is at present without doubt “the only complete and fully scholarly life of Nelson ever to have been published”. If you're going to have only one book about Nelson, this is probably the one to get!
WHITE Colin, (ed.), Nelson – The New Letters
In this year marked by the publication of volume two of the correspondence of Napoleon, the supplmement to Nelson's 19th-century, six-volume letters finally came out, excellently edited by Colin White. Lots of new material on England's most famous admiral.
For a wider selection of recently published books, go to our Just Published page, select '2005', and then click on OK.
Peter Hicks, December 2005