Napoleon should have realized that just because you can do something doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. I agree with McLynn, Napoleon’s invasion of Spain in 1808 was a classic example of overreaching. McLynn sees the “Spanish ulcer” as being the moment when things began to go wrong for Napoleon. McLynn is not as strong a military historian as Roberts, but McLynn focuses more on Spain and the Peninsular War, and those chapters are excellent. But the pace picks up once Napoleon’s life becomes more interesting. The book starts slowly, as McLynn spends a lot of time on Napoleon’s childhood. McLynn’s constant psychoanalyzing of Napoleon became tiring as the book went on, and I could have used a little less psychoanalytic theory. McLynn is a psychological biographer who published a biography of Carl Jung the same year Napoleon: A Biography came out. McLynn’s book isn’t as good as Roberts’, but it’s still an excellent treatment of a fascinating figure. So I’ve been a little immersed in the Napoleonic era as of late, and I might be suffering from Napoleon overload. While I was reading Andrew Roberts’ excellent 2014 biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon: A Life, I was also reading Frank McLynn’s 1997 book Napoleon: A Biography on my Kindle.
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