A definitive biography of Bonaparte from his birth in Corsica to his death in exile on St Helena, this book details all aspects of Bonaparte′s spectacular rise to power and his dizzying fall.

It offers close examination of battlefield victories, personal torments, military genius, Bonaparte′s titanic ego and his relationships with the French government, Talleyrand, Wellington and Josephine.

Based on more than 10 years of exhaustive research, Schom illuminates Napoleon's important economic and social reforms, his reorganization of the French government and his tempestuous personal life and its effect on his political decisions.

Remarkably ambitious and compulsively readable, Schom's book is generously illustrated with halftones and maps and features startling new insights about Napoleon's key aides, ministers and generals. Schom portrays Napoleon with candor, exalting his ambition and undeniable genius, but also addressing his dark side - his failures and frailties, and the misery caused by his years of warfare across Europe.

Powerful, dramatic, colorful and impossible to put down, Napoleon Bonaparte is a biography as complex, challenging and fascinating as the legend himself.