This fresh and groundbreaking biography illuminates the life and analyzes the fabled reputation of Britain's most famous admiral and naval hero. The controversial aspects of Horatio Nelson's life and career, such as his involvement in the defeat of the Napoleonic revolution and his notorious love affair with Lady Hamilton, are comprehensively explored and new research reveals fresh insights into the character of this complex man and the way his image was developed by successive generations of biographers and naval historians.

Czisnik also traces how the figure of Nelson has evolved in the popular imagination during the past two hundred years, examining imagery, propaganda and fiction, as well as the perception of the admiral from French, Spanish and German perspectives. This distinctive contribution to biography expertly reveals how the real man has been obscured, distorted and misunderstood by those who promoted image over reality.