HISTORY
ALM Mikael, JOHANSSON Britt-Inger (eds.), Scripts of Kingship. Essays on Bernadotte and Dynastic Formation in an Age of Revolution
“When French Marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte was elected heir to the Swedish throne in 1810, a dramatic dynastic venture commenced […] In nine illustrated essays, the formation of a dynasty is explored as it unfolded in media such as state ceremonies, spatial arrangements, opera performances, publicity and panegyrics.”
BOUDON, Jacques-Olivier, Ordre et désordre dans la France napoléonienne (in French)
“When Napoleon Bonaparte took power in November 1799, he hammered home his intention to restore order in France and to re-establish a country scarred by a crisis that had lasted for ten years […] However, this nouvel ordre was not always popular with certain members of the French people.”
DE WARESQUIEL Emmanuel, Les Cent-jours ou la tentation de l'impossible (in French)
“Les Cent-jours won't go away. For some, that's the way it should be. For others, it is a topic that has been done to death. [However,] Waresquiel's alert pen takes us elsewhere, into the ranks of History's “forgotten” or, if you prefer, “defeated” figures. Here, much to the reader's surprise, the saga unfolds differently.”
FRASCA Francesco, Cartografia napoleonica (in Italian)
“This book is dedicated to cartography and the effects Napoleon's campaigns had on the representation of terrain. The reader is invted to consider Napoleon's particular style of cartography and its way of representing geographical features visually, as well as its establishment of the norms for modern cartography.”
GRIFFITHS, Ralph A. (ed.), In Conversation with Napoleon Bonaparte: J. H. Vivian's visit to the island of Elba
“John Henry Vivian (1785-1855) was a leading British copper-master and one of the makers of modern Swansea. As a young man, in 1814-15 he made a tour of the Continent of Europe during which he met the deposed Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Vivian kept a journal of his travels [which, amongst other things,] paints a portrait of Napoleon and his state of mind in the months before he escaped and was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo.”
JOURDAN Annie, La Révolution batave entre la France et l'Amérique (in French)
“This thoroughly-researched study explains and relates the little-known events that form part of the revolutionary history of the 18th century, a large part of which has been overshadowed by the French Revolution. The author pays particularly close attention to the revolutions that shook North America (1776-1801) and the Dutch Republic (1781-1801), and the modern transformation undergone by these countries as they entered the era that would henceforth belong to the Nation.”
KERAUTRET Michel, MADEC Gabriel (eds.), La Correspondance générale de Napoléon Bonaparte, volume 5: Boulogne, Trafalgar, Austerlitz 1805 (in French)
“Volume five […] contains 1764 annotated letters […] and includes six detailed studies, nine maps, a timeline and three indexes. Unlike previous volumes, volume five is concerned with just one year: 1805. This particularly busy year covers the camps at Boulogne, the battle of Trafalgar and the French victory at Austerlitz.”
LENTZ Thierry (ed.), Quand Napoléon inventait la France: Dictionnaire des institutions administratives et de cour du Consulat et de l'Empire (in French)
“Prefects, Council of State, Legion of Honour, Garde champêtres, Public Treasury, National Stud (Dépôt d'étalons), Palmes académiques (Academic palms), Grand Maréchal du Palais… Napoleon modernised some institutions and administrative structures and created other from scratch, changing the face of the country and paving the way for modern France. Whilst there are many dictionaries on the Empire, this is the first which is exclusively dedicated to the institutions of the Napoleonic empire and also the first to describe in detail the political and administrative bodies of the court.”
O'CONNOR Hubert, The Emperor and the Irishman
“In 1815, after an adventurous war, the young Irish doctor Barry O'Meara accepted the opportunity of a lifetime to look after Napoleon in his banishment on St Helena. In one of the most isolated places in the world, Napoleon and his entourage fought a constant battle with the security-obsessed British military who were his jailers.”
STRATHERN Paul, Napoleon in Egypt
“In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, mounted the most audacious military campaign of his already spectacular career […] Like everything Napoleon ever attempted, it was a plan marked by unquenchable ambition, heroic romanticism, and not a little madness.”
MILITARY HISTORY
ANDERSON Mark, Blue Berg – Britain takes the Cape
“The 72nd Seaforths and 93rd Sutherland landed in Melkbos Bay on 6 January 1806 and in a lightning charge took the beach. Then General Sir David Baird unleashed his van, a full brigade of Highlanders, the 71st, 72nd and 93rd, in an exhilarating charge over the hot South African sands at the Batavian Dutch line. The result was an indelible British (even Scottish?) footprint on Cape Town, and this was the precursor for British imperial expansion in Africa.”
DODGE Theodore Ayrault, Napoleon's Invasion of Russia
“[…] Dodge's work on Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 [recounts] Napoleon's doomed march on Russia […] This is a republication of parts of the third volume of Dodge's Napoleon. A History of the Art of War, From the Beginning of the French Revolution to the End of the Eighteenth Century, with a Detailed Account of the Wars of the French Revolution [and] includes an introduction by George Nafziger.”
FERMER Douglas, Sedan 1870: The Eclipse of France
“Douglas Fermer's Sedan 1870 deals with an old battle which led to the collapse of an imperial dynasty and the appearance of a new power in European politics. The author focuses on two battles to set the stage for Sedan: Froeschviller on August 6, 1870, which compelled Marshal Patrice de MacMahon's army to abandon Alsace, and the battle of Baumont on August 30, which also forced MacMahon to retreat to the fort of Sedan.”
NAVAL HISTORY
FRASCA Francesco, Il potere marittimo in età moderna. Da Lepanto a Trafalgar (in Italian)
“This book looks at naval power as a key component policy and national life. It aims to analyse to what extent, and how, naval power shaped the development of Europe, both in war and peace.”
ORDE Denis, In the Shadow of Nelson: The Life of Admiral Lord Collingwood
“Many “great captains” in military history were well served by distinguished lieutenants, and Lord Horatio Nelson was certainly one of them. Denis Orde, author of Nelson's Mediterranean Command, now turns to one of the quintessential British admiral's closest friends and contemporaries, Vice Admiral Cuthbert “Cuddy” Collingwood.”
TRACY Nicholas, Nelson's Battles
“This book studies [Nelson's] career as an admiral, examining not just Trafalgar but the battles of St Vincent, The Nile and Copenhagen, in order to give a fuller picture of how the legendary leader developed his tactics and gained experience against the French.”
BIOGRAPHY
BOUDON Jacques-Olivier, Le roi Jérôme, frère prodigue de Napoléon (in French)
“Until now, very little study has been dedicated to Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia and the only Bonaparte brother to have witnessed the restoration of the empire under Napoleon III. Jacques-Olivier Boudon's new book […] aims to redress this state of affairs and provide the reader with a detailed study of this multi-faceted and complex character.”
GALLAHER John G., Napoleon's Enfant Terrible: General Dominique Vandamme
“In this first book-length study of Vandamme in English, John G. Gallaher traces the career of one of Napoleon's most successful midrank officers. He describes Vandamme's rise from a provincial youth with neither fortune nor influence to an officer of the highest rank in the French army. Gallaher thus offers a rare look at a Napoleonic general who served for twenty-five years during the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire.”
NOVEL
CABASSON Armand, Wolf Hunt
“In 1809, the forces of Napoleon's Grande Armee are in Austria. For young Lieutenant Lukas Relmyer, it is hard to return to the place where he and fellow orphan Franz, were kidnapped four years previously. Franz was brutally murdered and Lukas has vowed to avenge his death. When the body of another orphan is found on the battlefield, Captain Quentin Margont and Lukas join forces to track down the wolf that is prowling once more in the forests of Aspern…”
MULTIMEDIA
SLITHERINE STRATEGIES, Commander: Napoleon at War
“For all those who think that they could have done a better job on the battlefield than Napoleon, Slitherine Strategies have released Commander: Napoleon at War, a turn-based strategy game for the PC. The game offers budding Napoleonic generals the opportunity to take control of la Grande Armée in the major campaigns between 1805 and 1815, including the Cent-jours.”
NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE
“Napoleonica. La Revue is an online review which aims to promote research on the history of the First and Second French Empires. Why not treat someone to a full-year subscription? An annual subscription gives you access to all of the articles that appear during the course of the year (three issues of Napoleonica. La Revue) as well as the book reviews.”
FOR THE COFFEE TABLE
CHEVALIER Bernard, WALTER Mark, Empire Splendor
“The lavish art and lifestyle of the French aristocracy, so violently interrupted by the Revolution in the late eighteenth century, was transformed with Napoleon's arrival at the dawn of the nineteenth. And once he declared himself Emperor, he never ceased in his quest to make Paris into the showcase of the civilized world. There was no member of the imperial family, no marshal of the Empire, no bourgeois gentilhomme who did not aspire to live in one of the great houses abandoned by the flight of their former owners.”
FIADINO Adele, Architects and artists at the court of Naples in the Napoleonic period (in Italian)
“During the French decade 1806-1815, Naples was once again in direct contact with European civilisation. King Joseph Bonaparte and Joachim Murat here played an important role with their programmes of architectural and artistic commissions. Royal projects once again became key centres of artistic production: local architects, painters and sculptors collaborated directly with French, Roman and Lombard counterparts.”
HEWAT-JABOOR Philip, WATKIN David (eds.), Thomas Hope: Designer and Patron in Regency London
“This book is the most comprehensive study to date of Thomas Hope, focusing on his multifaceted role as designer and patron. The contributors examine his wide-ranging contribution to the arts as well as his extensive writings. Richly illustrated with new photographs, the volume presents a vast array of paintings, furniture, sculpture, and works of art, many of which have never been published before.”
MAJEWSKI Lech, NIEUWAŻNY Andrzej, OSTROWSKI Krzysztof, STĘPIEŃ Tomasz, Napoleon's 200 Days (in Polish)
“Commemorating Napoleon's 200-day campaign in Poland and eastern Prussia from 1806-1807, this book brings together photographs of the surrounding area, contemporary eye-witness accounts as well as commentaries, tables, maps, battle-plans and napoleonic postcards and illustrations, all detailing the various stages and battles of the campaign. Of particular interest is the extraordinary series of aerial photographs of the progress of the campaign through Poland.”
RICHARDSON Paul, Vilnius 1812: From Beyond The Grave
“Paul Richardson offers a report of the discovery and subsequent analysis of two mass graves found in Vilnius, Lithuania. Beginning with a concise introduction and description of Napoleon's ill-fated Russian campaign of 1812, [he] proceeds to detail the nature of the discovery, including the process involved in dating the remains and attributing them to the Grande Armée's 1812 retreat.”
H.D.W. December 2008