Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete

About the book

Bourrienne's memoirs approach Napoleon through proximity: meetings, correspondence, administrative work, and recollected conversation give the account its distinctive texture. The narrative moves across the rise of military and political authority, the imperial years, and their aftermath. Intimate access does not make a memoir impartial, however, and the writer's later perspective shapes both emphasis and judgment. R. W. Phipps's editorial interventions add another voice, so the volume is best read as a layered historical source rather than a single uninterrupted eyewitness statement. Its appeal lies in the contrast between large public events and the routines or personal decisions through which they are narrated. Readers can ask when an anecdote illuminates an institution, and when it mainly reveals the memoirist's interpretation of a powerful acquaintance.

• Power and memory
• Political ambition
• Witness and interpretation

Why read it

For a close, contested perspective on the relationship between Napoleon's public career and private working life.

English memoirs · complete collection edited by R. W. Phipps, 1891