NAPOLEON'S MARSHALS

by R.F. Delderfield ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 20, 1966

The title alone is enough to exert the usual pull on students and buffs of Napoleon's life and era. However, Mr. Delderfield has not reduced his material to a form easy to follow. He has elected to tell the whole story at once and traces the careers and personal lives of Napoleon's military leaders chronologically as a group rather than individually. Since the book was submitted without an index, it allowed specific insight into the dilemma of a general reader attempting to follow and absorb too much at once and also allows for an educated guess at how much time those seeking specific information would have to spend hopping pages with an index at hand. Nevertheless, a little determination adds another viewpoint from which to survey the epic of Napoleon, whose story, whether it is approached through his wives or his mistresses, or his son, or his siblings (Delderfield did The Golden Millstones- 1965) always has the wild swings of the sublime, opposing the ridiculous, and grandeur barely covering shabbiness. Some of the marshals he created helped bring him down, but their machinations are hard to keep track of in his account and so are their maneuverings in the field.

Pub Date: March 20, 1966

ISBN: 0815412134

Page Count: -

Publisher: Chilton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION