Monday, April 16, 2012

Napoleon by Emil Ludwig

After a long time I read some biographical book (after Mein Kempf). It was good read and a lot of information was there. The best part is the author Emil Ludwig doesn't seem to be giving any judgement. He writes with a flow and without any prejudice. He leaves this task for the reader and I think that was a neat writing.
I was not much aware of Napoleon other than some famous quotes and historical milestone he set. But the book gave more than that and I realized that the things are pretty much clear and the author has done some good research for all the figures and illustrations, he quotes the real letters and other literary material to back up the facts.
Now what I came to know that Napoleon was not exactly a tyrant. He was ambitious and a bit pessimist but he changed everything in his favour by his skills and a bit of luck. He was in wars for most of his life and never had a good family life for his own. He tried his best to favour his relatives and helped them by all means but never got anything in return, not even the loyalty.
Napoleon was a man of character but he also had an other side. He didn't want the old monarchy system but he wanted to be the king with appointing his son as a future king.
He was a man of discreet tendencies but he always wanted to please everybody. This thing finally cost him his life when he was taken as a prisoner of England.
There was an incident where he left his army in Russia and it was said that there were dead soldiers and horses all over the way and he ran out of it to save himself. I'm not sure about it because he doesn't sound like having such character, but I am not the historian.
There was one more incident when he ordered to kill the twenty thousand soldiers of enemy because he was not able to feed all of them and couldn't take them as prisoners. I'm not sure what others would have decided but this was not the right thing to do.
One thing that I want to add here is that England was not right in his conduct when they took Napoleon as a prisoner. I agree that he was always against England but he deserved a fair trial and it would have helped England to keep its hands clean.
For the book I'll say that it is a good read for sure for the readers who want to read history in an unbiased and entertaining manner with the correct details and later on you can have your own views on Napoleon (great or not).

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