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

Extra:

Eroica (2003) [TV movie]: 

Beethoven’s Symphony Eroica: