'What a novel my life would make!' Napoleon used to exclaim.

Napoleon is thirty years old in November 1799. He has played and won. Brumaire and the Consulate have put paid to the Directory. In five years at Notre Dame, the First Consul will be crowned Emperor of France. One year after that, in the sun of Austerlitz, he will be declaring, 'Soldiers, I am happy with you!' The legendary journey has begun. Conspiracies are rife. All - or almost all - the nations want to destroy him. He must be victorious, otherwise everything will collapse. 'Conquest has made me what I am. Conquest alone can preserve me.' But for how long?

Max Gallo follows Napoleon's every step, intimately revealing him in all his extraordinary intelligence and genius.

Thousands of books have been written about this mythical figure, undoubtedly one of the most illustrious in the world's history. But none like this, since Max Gallo, as both historian and novelist, is able at every moment to put himself on the most intimate of footings with Napoleon and to attune his account to the very pulse of his fabulous existence.