Napoleon: A Sketch of His Life, Character, Struggles, and Achievements

Chapter 2: PREFACE

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About This Book

A compact biography traces the life, character, military campaigns, political maneuvers, personal relationships, reforms, exiles, and final years of the French leader, presenting vivid sketches of Corsican origins, early military service, rise during the Revolution, Italian and Egyptian campaigns, the consulship and imperial rule, legal and administrative reforms, wars across Europe culminating in Waterloo, and exile on remote islands. It balances campaign narrative, portraits of habits and temperament, and excerpts from correspondence, aiming for an accessible, nontechnical account grounded in standard authorities rather than fresh archival research.

PREFACE

In this volume the author has made the effort to portray Napoleon as he appears to an average man. Archives have not been rummaged, new sources of information have not been discovered; the author merely claims to have used such authorities, old and new, as are accessible to any diligent student. No attempt has been made to give a full and detailed account of Napoleon’s life or work. To do so would have required the labor of a decade, and the result would be almost a library. The author has tried to give to the great Corsican his proper historical position, his true rating as a man and a ruler,—together with a just estimate of his achievements.

Thomson, Georgia,
Dec. 24, 1901.