The author explores the Promethean legend from his Corsican roots, through the chaotic years of the French Revolution and his extraordinary military triumphs, to the coronation in 1804, his fatal decision in 1812 to add Russia to his seemingly endless conquests, and his ultimate defeat, imprisonment, and death in Saint Helena. Napoleon the man emerges as an even more fascinating character than previously imagined, and McLynn aptly reveals the extent to which he was both existential hero and plaything of fate; mathematician and mystic; intellectual giant and moral pygmy; great man and deeply flawed human being.
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