| Napoleon I., Emperor of the French | J. L. David | Frontispiece |
| PAGE | ||
| Napoleon at Brienne | Réalier Dumas | 24 |
| “It is the Emperor!” | H. de T. Glazebrook | 86 |
| Installation of Napoleon as First Consul | L. Couder | 108 |
| The Death of General Desaix | A. Le Dru | 118 |
| On the Sands at Boulogne | A. C. Gow, R.A. | 132 |
| Napoleon giving the Eagles to his Army | L. David | 140 |
| Napoleon Decorating his Soldiers at Boulogne | F. G. Roussel | 146 |
| The Night before Austerlitz | A. Dawant | 152 |
| The Battle of Friedland | Horace Vernet | 176 |
| The Retreat from Moscow | V. Werestchagin | 266 |
| After Moscow: “Advance or Retreat?” | V. Werestchagin | 280 |
| Marshal Ney defending the Rear-Guard | Adolphe Yvon | 288 |
| 1814 | J. L. E. Meissonier | 302 |
| The Flight from Waterloo | A. C. Gow, R.A. | 308 |
| Napoleon on Board the Bellerophon | Sir W. Q. Orchardson, R.A. | 312 |
About This Book
The book chronicles the life and career of Napoleon, following his schooldays and formative years through his rapid military rise, political consolidation, and continental domination. It emphasizes his talent for organisation, detailing reforms in administration, law, the army, and church‑state relations that reshaped societies emerging from revolution. Campaigns, diplomatic initiatives, and pivotal decisions are recounted alongside the varying and partisan memoirs of contemporaries, with the author weighing conflicting accounts. The narrative traces how expansive ambition produced both triumph and eventual exile, inviting a balanced appraisal of achievements and faults.