Napoleon I – the key books

We have selected here for you a list of books (all currently available) which we consider key works on the life and works of Napoleon Bonaparte and the First Empire in general – all are currently available in the shops.

INDISPENSABLE

  • Dictionnaire Napoléon, ed. Jean Tulard, Paris: Fayard, 2ème édition, 1999, 2 volumes
    In French but worth the effort.
    See also: Pope, S., Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars, New York: Facts on File, 2000, 572 p.

BIOGRAPHIES OF NAPOLEON

  • Tulard, J. (trans. T. Waugh), Napoleon: the myth of the saviour, London: Methuen, 1985, 470 p.
    The key text – the translation is however occasionally not up to the task.
  • Ellis, G., Napoleon, Longman Higher Education (Profiles in Power series), 1997, 304 p.
    Key basic introduction.
  • Woloch, I., Napoleon and His Collaborators: The Making of a Dictatorship, New York: W. W. Norton, 2001
    Fascinating discussion of Napoleon’s right- and left-hand men.

ON THE CONSULATE AND EMPIRE

  • Blanning, T. C. W. (ed.), The Eighteenth Century: Europe 1688-1815, London, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 301 p.
    Incisive overview.

ON BRITISH POLITICS

  • Ehrman, J., The Younger Pitt, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997, 914 p.
    The principal work on Pitt.

ON NAPOLEONIC GERMANY

  • Nipperdey, T., Germany From Napoleon to Bismark 1800-1866, Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 1996, 760 p.
    The key work for the 19th century history of Germany.

MILITARIA

  • Smith, D., Napoleon’s Regiments: Battle Histories of the Regiments of the French Army, 1792-1815, London: Greenhill Books, 2000
    Key book for history of the Napoleonic army.
  • Smith, D., The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars data book, London: Greenhill Books, 2000, 582 p.
    All those military facts at your fingertips.

ART HISTORY

  • Wilson-Smith, T., Napoleon and His Artists, London: Constable, 1996, 306 p.