Napoleon's Library: The Emperor, His Books and Their Influence on the Napoleonic Era

Napoleon Bonaparte held absolute political power in France and his influence stretched across Europe and beyond. Yet he remained – between leading his armies and ruling over a vast empire – an indefatigable reader who even carried libraries into battle.

Bonaparte’s love of the written word, birthed in childhood and nurtured as an adolescent and young adult, never left him. He was a lover of literature for its own sake – often swooning over melodramatic love stories – but he also understood t...