First published 2005
Andrew Roberts examines the complex rivalry between Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington, two military giants born in the same year who shaped European history. Roberts challenges the conventional wisdom that Napoleon underestimated his opponent at Waterloo. The author reveals how Napoleon had studied Wellington's tactics for years through their indirect conflicts in the Peninsular War. While Napoleon publicly dismissed Wellington as merely a colonial commander, he privately acknowledged his opponent's brutal effectiveness. Wellington took the opposite approach, praising Napoleon in public while writing detailed critiques of his strategic methods in private correspondence. Roberts traces their psychological warfare and mutual respect through decades of conflict. The relationship continued even after Waterloo, where Wellington intervened to save Napoleon from execution, yet Napoleon's final act of spite was leaving money to Wellington's would-be assassin. This dual biography reveals how two brilliant minds approached the same art of war from entirely different angles.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, military-fiction, military-history, 19th-century
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, psychological-warfare
Setting: Europe, Waterloo
Period: 19th-Century
28 pages · Paperback · Univ.Southampton