Napoleon and Wellington: The Long Duel

click here for more details, find new or used items	Andrew Roberts Our price £6.59 (£9.99) New from £3.35 Used from £0.50 Pages: 384 (Paperback) ISBN: 1842124803 Pub: Weidenfeld & Nicolson History Pub date: 2002-06-06 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 192606

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If you have even the most cursory interest in either subject (6/6 people found this helpful)

Roberts sets out his ideas in a lucid and impartial fashion, allowing events to speak for themselves. Beginning with a brief outline of the two men's similarities - we then discover the fateful steps which demand that their fates must intersect. Waterloo is the venue of that junction - with Wellington's star still in its ascendancy, and Napoleon's upon the wane. On the day, Roberts shows us Wellington as a man who's militaristic skills have been honed directly by confrontation with the best marshals and generals Napoleon had previously mustered against him in Spain. Napoleon himself described the Peninsular War as a 'school for British soldiers'.

Wellington is obsessed with tiny details, and so respectful of Napoleon's tactics, that he anticipates wide flanking manoeuvres and plans pre-emptive measures against them. Napoleon, by contrast, is a man in ill health. Perhaps unaware of the number of Wellington's true force, delegating responsibility to a level that he has never before adopted. A man of previously great strategies, wearily repeating himself - the best of his army lost in Russia, three years earlier. On the day, Roberts shows us Wellington as the man prepared. The aftermath of Waterloo sees a profound change in both men. Napoleon, wrongly believing Wellington responsible for his exile, becomes bitter and mean-spirited towards the man he once respected. So petty that he even bequests 10,000 francs to Wellington's failed assassin. Wellington, the man actually responsible for Napoleon's continued existence, becomes a somewhat ghoulish collector of Napoleonic ephemera - and spends the rest of his life referencing his greatest battle, either as a 'party piece' or correcting the mistakes of an antagonistic press.

Roberts paints an equally vivid portrait of the environments these two men inhabited. Napoleon, becoming an icon within his own lifetime, invulnerable to criticism - controlling the domestic press. Whilst Wellington is often undone by the actions of his own countrymen - whether it be the leaked dispositions of British troops or Napoleon deriving ceaseless encouragement from his British 'fan club' of Whigs. Ultimately, Wellington seems well aware of his subordinate place in history. And, astonishingly, in the later years of his life, even questions the benefit of Napoleon's removal - over the continuance of the Bourbon thrones. Such is the power of Robert's writing, the reader may ask themselves the same question.

Interesting Viewpoint of Napoleon and Wellington (12/13 people found this helpful)

The popular viewpoint of these famous foes is that Napoleon totally underestimated Wellington therefore his defeat at Waterloo was inevitable. Author Roberts examines their relationship in great detail and his conclusions regarding their opinion of one and other will startle most readers.

Although most of what's written here is of a highly conjectural nature, there is little doubt that there was much more of a psychological battle brewing between these rivals than most historians will care to admit. Was Napoleon's "bad-mouthing" of Wellington merely "sour grapes" after Waterloo? Roberts points out that Napoleon was certainly saved from execution after the battle by Wellington, but the Duke probably had alterior motives besides humanitarian reasons.

Roberts gets some good mileage out of the fact that the Europe of today is much more in line with the vision that Napoleon had two-hundred years ago.
Wellington's old-school aristocracy is merely a remnant of the past now. That shouldn't prejudice the reader, however, to favor the Emperor over the Duke. Wellington did have the distinct advantage of out-living Napoleon by nearly forty years although his own political career as Prime Minister of Great Britain was less than successful. Political and military accomplishments aside, Wellington made it a point during his long life to at least publicly admire Napoleon "the general" even if he regarded the ex-Emperor's reforms with distaste. To his credit, despite all the honors and glory heaped upon Wellington after Waterloo, he never bragged about the victory or used it, either publicly or privately, to insult the vanguished prisoner on St. Helena. His real true opinion of Napoleon, like Napoleon's own viewpoint, will never be known. Roberts at least gives us an insider's view on what might have been. It makes one inevitably sorry that these two titans of the 19th Century never had the opportunity to sit down for a nice long chat.

Poor attempt to add a new flavour to this well troden subjec (14/39 people found this helpful)

Andrew Roberts has attempted to link the lives of Wellington and Napoleon by examining their personalities and tastes. In doing so he wants to illustrate the parallel nature of their lives, seizing on the fact they were born in the same year. The at times preposterous attempts to link Napoleon and Wellington are truly awful. This is a bad historical idea. The clear answer to the central tenent of this book is that, Napoleon and Wellington only ever had an impact upon each others lives once and that was on the 18th of June 1815 on the field of Waterloo. The author's attempts to create a deeper relationship totally fail. The failure of the central idea of this book is reason enough not to read it, but I must add that the authors Tory writing style does not offer any kind of perceptive analysis. Therefore if you enjoy well written History avoid this book.

Fairly easy to read comparison of the 2 'great' men. (9/11 people found this helpful)

One of the most helpful pieces of information in this dual Biography is the date by date list of key events in the lives of the protagonists which forms a useful and easy to follow reference at the front of the book.
The information is handled well and with a degree of challenge to the popular views of the great men. For instance it seems that there was some respect between each regarding their respective military abilities despite all the propoganda and the post event rationalisations.
It did leave me wondering whether Wellington was able to learn from all his involvement in the great events of the time, the subjct of another book, perhaps?
As for the Emperor he 'lost' but eventually ended up with a much more impressive funeral and final resting place in Paris.
Roberts also offers us a tempting glimpse of the sexual morality of the 2 great men, both were inveterate womanisers and Wellington went out of his way to collect Napoleon's former lovers when he was in Town!
The final conclusion is thought provoking, Napoleons vision of a European state, run by a central legistlative body, dominated by the French,with a central HQ 15 miles from Waterloo!
Mon Dieu, Wellington would be turning in that elegant final resting place in St Pauls.

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