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Historical person

Napoleon III

1808–1873

Napoleon III, born Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, was elected president of the French Second Republic in 1848, seized power in a coup in 1851 and proclaimed the Second Empire. His government combined authoritarian control with economic development, railway expansion and the rebuilding of Paris under Haussmann. Foreign adventures brought mixed results, and defeat by Prussia at Sedan in 1870 ended the empire.

He died in exile in England. Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart novels, including His Excellency Eugène Rougon and The Kill, portray the society, speculation and political patronage of the Second Empire. Napoleon III often remains a distant source of favour and authority rather than a rounded protagonist.

Captivating History’s The Franco-Prussian War follows Napoleon III from the diplomatic crisis of 1870 to the defeat at Sedan that destroyed the Second Empire. Christopher Clark’s Revolutionary Spring explains how the upheavals of 1848 created the political opening through which Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte became president and then emperor. Eric Hobsbawm’s The Age of Capital treats his regime as one of the characteristic political experiments of mid-nineteenth-century Europe, combining authoritarian rule, economic development and mass politics. Lawrence James’ Empires in the Sun places Napoleon III’s colonial and overseas ambitions within the wider expansion of European imperial power. Ian Knight’s With His Face to the Foe, a biography of the Prince Imperial, shows Napoleon III in the dynastic role that mattered most after 1870: the deposed emperor trying to preserve a Bonapartist future through his only son.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Napoleon III (3 series)

Morland Dynasty in Order

by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles 36 books 4.4(27,265)

The Morland Dynasty is a thirty-six-book family saga tracing the fictional Morlands of Yorkshire from 1434 to the approach of the Second World War. Beginning with the marriage of Robert Morland and Eleanor, a ward of the Beaufort family, the sequence follows successive generations as Morland Place grows…

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Spangle in Order

by Gary Jennings 3 books 4.7(63)

Spangle follows Florian’s Flourishing Florilegium of Wonders from the devastated American South at the end of the Civil War to the courts, capitals and battlefields of Europe. Former Confederate colonel Zachary Edge and veteran Obie Yount join a struggling travelling circus whose performers become a surrogate family. As…

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Hornblower Saga in Order

by C. S. Forester 12 books 4.3(138,286)

The Horatio Hornblower novels follow a Royal Navy officer from his first service as a midshipman during the French Revolutionary Wars to senior command after the defeat of Napoleon. The books combine shipboard life, naval combat, intelligence work, diplomacy and the practical burdens of command with Hornblower’s private…

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Standalone books

Standalone books featuring Napoleon III (2 books)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Napoleon III (5 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.