First published 2022
Napoleon Bonaparte stands on Corsican soil in 1769, born into a world he will reshape through ambition and military genius. As France convulses with revolutionary change, the young soldier sees opportunity where others see chaos. His strategic mind transforms battlefield defeats into political victories, propelling him from general to consul to emperor. The people of France rally behind him as he places family and allies in positions of power across a growing empire. At the Battle of the Nile in 1798, Napoleon learns the sting of defeat. Two years later at Marengo, he tastes redemption. But it is at Austerlitz in 1805 where he achieves his greatest triumph, crushing the third coalition of European powers in the battle of three emperors. Yet even as his influence spreads across the continent, the seeds of his downfall take root, leading inexorably to exile on the remote island of Saint Helena, where the man who conquered Europe faces his final defeat.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: rise-and-fall, strategic-mind
Setting: Corsica, Europe, France, Saint Helena
Period: 1769, 1798, 1800, 1805
158 pages · Paperback · Independently published