A lot has been written about Napoleone Buonaparte, or as history knows the colossus, Napoleon Bonaparte. In fact, many say that Bonaparte may be the second most written about figure in history after Jesus Christ – understandable for a man who has a whole era named after him, the Napoleonic era. Any comprehensive reading list on the great general and his era would run into hundreds of books, not to mention academic papers, that cover individual battles, campaigns, family life, the arts, legal reforms, military tactics, Egyptology, the nation-state, religion, foreign policy, his opponents, and so on. In order to keep this list short, I have resisted the temptation to add books about several key figures in the turbulent early 19^th century. Most of his marshals surely deserve a book on their own, as do some of Napoleon’s admirals. There are also many other important figures on the battlefield and in the ballrooms like Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Horatio Nelson, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Arthur Wellesley, Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, Mikhail Kutuzov, Denis Davydov, and Louis-Alexandre Berthier.

This list is a mix of academic and coffee table books, a nice mix of facts, trivia, and argument. It is not purely about Napoleon but also a little about his era – I do not know how to separate the two given his imprint on close of the 18^th century and the bloody start of the 19^th. I should also confess that I am somewhat partial to Le Petit Caporal; to ensure a balance, I have included a few works that are clearly and unfairly against Napoleon along with a few that are effulgent towards him and most that are, on the whole, balanced. If you are only looking for a quick introduction, Ladybird has an audiobook by Lawrence du Garde Peach from 1968 that I used when I was four.

1. Adkins, Roy. Nelson’s Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World
2. Asprey, Robert. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte
3. —. The Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte
4. Barbero, Alessandro. The Battle: A New History of Waterloo
5. Bell, David. The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It
6. Bergeron, Louis. France Under Napoleon
7. Bertaud, Jean-Paul. The Army of the French Revolution: From Citizen-Soldiers to Instrument of Power
8. Beyle, Marie-Henri (Stendhal). The Red and the Black
9. Black, Jeremy. The Battle of Waterloo
10. —. The War of 1812 in the Age of Napoleon
11. Blanning, Timothy CW. The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787-1802
12. —. The Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars
13. Boime, Albert. Art in the Age of Bonapartism, 1800-1815
14. de Bourrienne, Louis Antoine Fauvelet. Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte
15. Broers, Michael. Europe Under Napoleon, 1799-1815
16. —. Napoleon’s Other War: Bandits, Rebels, and Their Pursuers in the Age of Revolution
17. Carlson, Marvin. The Theatre of the French Revolution
18. Caulaincourt, Armand Augustin Louis de. With Napoleon in Russia: The Memoirs of General de Caulaincourt, Duke of Vicenza
19. Chalfont, Alun Arthur Gwynne Jones. Waterloo: Battle of Three Armies
20. Chandler, David. The Campaigns of Napoleon
21. —. Napoleon’s Marshals
22. Chrisawn, Margaret. The Emperor’s Friend: Marshal Jean Lannes
23. Connelly, Owen. Blundering to Glory: Napoleon’s Military Campaigns
24. Cronin, Vincent. Napoleon
25. Davydov, Denis. In Service of the Tsar Against Napoleon: The Memoirs of Denis Davydov, 1806-1814
26. Dawson, Anthony. Napoleonic Artillery
27. Duffy, Christopher. Austerlitz 1805
28. —. Borodino and the War of 1812
29. Dull, Jonathan. The Age of the Ship of the Line: The British and French Navies, 1650-1815
30. Dwyer, Philip. Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power
31. —. Napoleon: The Path to Power 1769–1799
32. —. Napoleon and Europe
33. Ellis, Geoffrey. The Napoleonic Empire
34. Elting, John. Swords Around A Throne: Napoleon’s Grande Armee
35. Englund, Steven. Napoleon: A Political Life
36. Epstein, Robert. Napoleon’s Last Victory and the Emergence of Modern War
37. Ermolov, Alexis. The Czar’s General: The Memoirs of a Russian General in the Napoleonic Wars
38. Esdaile, Charles. Napoleon’s Wars: An International History
39. —. Outpost of Empire: The Napoleonic Occupation of Andalucia, 1810-1812
40. —. The Peninsular War
41. Esdaile, Charles (ed). Popular Resistance in the French Wars: Patriots, Partisans, and Land Pirates
42. Falk, Avner. Napoleon Against Himself: A Psychobiography
43. Ferrero, Guglielmo. The Gamble: Bonaparte in Italy, 1796-1797
44. Finley, Milton. The Most Monstrous of Wars: The Napoleonic Guerrilla War in Southern Italy, 1806-1811
45. Fisher, Todd. The Napoleonic Wars: The Rise and Fall of an Empire
46. Franceschi, Michel. Wars Against Napoleon
47. Furet, Francois. The French Revolution, 1770-1814
48. —. Interpreting the French Revolution
49. —. Revolutionary France, 1770-1880
50. Gallaher, John. The Iron Marshal: A Biography of Louis N. Davout
51. Gates, David. The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War
52. Geyl, Peter. Napoleon: For and Against
53. Gill, John H. Thunder on the Danube: Napoleon’s Defeat of the Habsburgs (three volumes)
54. Goetz, Robert. 1805, Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Destruction of the Third Coalition
55. Gould, Cecil Hilton Monk. Trophy of Conquest: The Musée Napoléon and the Creation of the Louvre
56. Hamilton-Williams, David. Waterloo: New Perspectives: The Great Battle Reappraised
57. —. The Fall of Napoleon: The Final Betrayal
58. Herbert, Robert. David, Voltaire, Brutus and the French Revolution: An Essay in Art and Politics
59. Herold, J. Christopher. The Age of Napoleon
60. —. Bonaparte in Egypt
61. Hippler, Thomas. Citizens, Soldiers, and National Armies: Military Service in France and Germany, 1789-1830
62. Holtman, Robert. Napoleonic Propaganda
63. Horne, Alistair. The Age of Napoleon
64. —. How Far From Austerlitz? Napoleon 1805-1815
65. —. Napoleon: Master of Europe
66. Ilari, Virgilio, and Giancarlo Boeri. Le Due Sicile nelle Guerre Napoleoniche, 1800-1815
67. Johnson, Paul. Napoleon: A Life
68. Jones, Richard Benjamin. Napoleon: Man and Myth
69. Jorgensen, Christer. The Anglo-Swedish Alliance Against Napoleonic France
70. Junot, Laure. At the Court of Napoleon: Memoirs of the Duchesse d’Abrantes
71. Kagan, Frederick. The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805
72. King, David. Vienna, 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna
73. Lefebvre, Georges. The Coming of the French Revolution
74. —. Napoleon 1: From 18 Brumaire to Tilsit 1799-07
75. Leggiere, Michael. The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France, 1813-1814
76. Lieven, Dominic. Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace
77. Ludwig, Emil. Napoleon
78. Lyons, Martyn. France Under the Directory
79. —. Napoleon Bonaparte and the Legacy of the French Revolution
80. Mahan, Alfred T. The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and Empire
81. Markham, Felix. Napoleon
82. Martin, Marc. Les Origins de la Presse Militaire, 1770-1799
83. Mason, Laura. Singing the French Revolution: Popular Culture and Politics, 1789-1799
84. McCranie, Kevin. Admiral Lord Keith and the Naval War Against Napoleon
85. McLynn, Frank. Napoleon: A Biography
86. Mikaberidze, Alexander. The Battle of the Berezina: Napoleon’s Great Escape
87. —. The Battle of Borodino: Napoleon Against Kutuzov
88. Moiret, Joseph-Marie. The Memoirs of Napoleon’s Egyptian Expedition
89. Moon, Joshua. Wellington’s Two-Front War: The Peninsular Campaigns at Home and Abroad
90. Muir, Rory. Salamanca 1812
91. —. Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon
92. Noli, Bishop Fan Stylian. Beethoven and the French Revolution
93. Nosworthy, Brent. Battle Tactics of Napoleon and His Enemies
94. Palmer, Robert Roswell. Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution
95. Parkinson, Roger. The Peninsular War
96. Pelet, Jean Jacques Germain. French Campaign in Portugal
97. Phipps, Ramsay Weston. The Armies of the First French Republic and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I (five volumes)
98. Popkin, Jeremy. Revolutionary News: The Press in France, 1789-1799
99. Quimby, Robert. The Background of Napoleonic Warfare: The Theory of Military Tactics in Eighteenth Century France
100. Riehn, Richard. 1812: Napoleon’s Russian Campaign
101. Riley, Jonathon. Napoleon and the World War of 1813: Lessons in Coalition Warfighting
102. —. Napoleon as a General: From Battlefield to Grand Strategy
103. Roberts, Andrew. Napoleon and Wellington
104. Warren Roberts. Jacques-Louis David, Revolutionary Artist: Art, Politics, and the French Revolution
105. Robinson, Andrew. Cracking the Egyptian Code: The Revolutionary Life of Jean-Francois Champollion
106. Rodger, AB. The War of the Second Coalition, 1798-1802: A Strategic Commentary
107. Rothenberg, Gunther Erich. The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon
108. —. The Napoleonic Wars
109. Schechter, Ronald. Obstinate Hebrews: Representations of Jews in France, 1715-1815
110. Sherwig, John. Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid in the War Against France, 1793-1815
111. Schmuel, Moreh. Napoleon In Egypt: Al-Jabarti’s Chronicle Of The French Occupation, 1798
112. Schom, Alan. One Hundred Days: Napoleon’s Road to Waterloo
113. —. Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life
114. Schneid, Frederick. Napoleon’s Conquest of Europe: The War of the Third Coalition
115. Schur, Nathan. Napoleon in the Holy Land
116. Schwarzfuchs, Simon. Napoleon, the Jews and the Sanhedrin
117. Scott, Samuel F. From Yorktown to Valmy: The Transformation of the French Army in an Age of Revolution
118. Ségur, Philippe-Paul de. Napoleon’s Expedition to Russia: The Memoirs of General de Ségur
119. Smith, Digby George. The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book: Actions and Losses in Personnel, Colours, Standards and Artillery, 1792-1815
120. Stuart, Andrea. The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon’s Josephine
121. Sugden, John. Nelson: A Dream of Glory, 1758-1797
122. Tombs, Isabelle. That Sweet Enemy: Britain and France – The History of a Love-Hate Relationship
123. Tone, John. The Fatal Knot: The Guerrilla War in Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain
124. Tulard, Jean. Napoleon: The Myth of the Savior
125. Urban, Mark. The Man Who Broke Napoleon’s Codes: The Story of George Scovell
126. Walter, Jakob. The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier
127. Weider, Ben. Assassination at St. Helena Revisited
128. Weller, Jac. Wellington in India
129. —. Wellington in the Peninsula
130. Woolf, Stuart. Napoleon’s Integration of Europe
131. Zamoyski, Adam. Moscow 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March
132. —. Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna

Extra:

Eroica (2003) [TV movie]: 

Beethoven’s Symphony Eroica: