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Historical person

Napoleon

1769–1821

Napoleon Bonaparte rose from Corsican artillery officer to general, first consul and emperor of the French. He preserved and reshaped many gains of the Revolution through legal, administrative and educational reform while establishing authoritarian personal rule. His armies dominated much of Europe, but the invasion of Russia, coalition resistance and prolonged war brought defeat. Exiled first to Elba, he returned for the Hundred Days before Waterloo and died on Saint Helena in 1821.

Napoleon is a major character in Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace and in Simon Scarrow’s Revolution quartet, while Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey–Maturin series depicts the global war created by his ambitions. Historical fiction alternates between genius, liberator and tyrant. The strongest portrayals connect personal charisma and battlefield skill to conscription, occupation and enormous human loss.

In non-fiction, Napoleon is discussed in Ian Rutledge’s Sea of Troubles. Ian Rutledge’s Sea of Troubles approaches the subject through empire, conquest and resistance, political ambition and government, and exploration, travel and cultural encounter.

Historical context

Historical periods linked to Napoleon

Battle of Waterloo 1815-06-18 French Revolution 1789–1799 CE Liberation of Spain & Invasion of France 1813–1814 CE Napoleonic Era 1798–1815 CE Post-Napoleonic France 1814–1848 CE Resumption of War with France 1803–1805 CE Royal Navy in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1793–1815 CE Spanish American Wars of Independence 1808–1833 CE War of the Second Coalition 1798–1802 CE War of the Sixth Coalition 1813–1814 CE Waterloo Campaign 1815-06

Series

Series featuring Napoleon (15 series)

Aubrey–Maturin Novels in Order

by Patrick O’Brian 21 books 4.5

The Aubrey–Maturin novels follow Royal Navy officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon, naturalist and intelligence agent Stephen Maturin from the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France through the War of 1812 and the first years after Waterloo. Across twenty completed novels, their friendship links shipboard command, espionage, science, domestic…

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Master and Commander

4.4

Post Captain

4.4

HMS Surprise

4.6

The Mauritius Command

4.6

Desolation Island

4.6

The Fortune of War

4.6

The Surgeon’s Mate

4.6

The Ionian Mission

4.5

Treason’s Harbour

4.6

The Far Side of the World

4.6

The Reverse of the Medal

4.6

The Letter of Marque

4.7

The Thirteen-Gun Salute

4.6

The Nutmeg of Consolation

4.6

Clarissa Oakes

4.6

The Wine-Dark Sea

4.5

The Commodore

4.6

The Yellow Admiral

4.6

The Hundred Days

4.6

Blue at the Mizzen

4.5

The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey

4.0

Wellington and Napoleon Quartet in Order

by Simon Scarrow 4 books 4.6

The quartet traces the parallel lives of Arthur Wellesley and Napoleon Bonaparte from their births in 1769 to the Battle of Waterloo. It follows their military education, political ambition and campaigns across Europe, India and the Mediterranean as two very different officers become the defining commanders of the…

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Young Bloods

4.4

The Generals

4.6

Fire and Sword

4.6

The Fields of Death

4.6

Napoleonic Horseman in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.4

Napoleonic Horseman follows a cavalryman through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The series moves between French and British service, espionage, the Peninsular War, sieges and Waterloo, using mounted warfare to show how individual soldiers are pulled through the largest conflicts of the age.

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Chasseur À Cheval

4.2

Napoleon’s Guard

4.3

British Light Dragoon

4.4

Soldier Spy (the Napoleonic Horseman Book 4)

4.4

1808

4.5

Talavera

4.5

The Lines of Torres Vedras

4.6

Bloody Badajoz

4.5

The Road to France

4.5

Waterloo

4.6

Poldark in Order

by Winston Graham 12 books 4.4

The Poldark novels follow Ross, Demelza and their family in Cornwall from the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and into the Regency aftermath. The series combines mining, gentry politics, coastal smuggling, marriage, family conflict and the pressure of war on…

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Ross Poldark

4.4

Demelza

4.4

Jeremy Poldark

4.3

Warleggan

4.4

The Black Moon

4.4

The Four Swans

4.5

The Angry Tide

4.5

The Stranger from the Sea

4.4

The Miller’s Dance

4.4

The Loving Cup

4.5

The Twisted Sword

4.5

Bella Poldark

4.5

Thomas Kydd in Order

by Julian Stockwin 27 books 4.2

The Thomas Kydd series follows a Guildford wig-maker pressed into the Royal Navy in 1793 and traces his rise from inexperienced landsman to admiral. Across twenty-seven novels, Kydd learns the work of the lower deck, crosses to the quarterdeck and commands increasingly important ships during the French Revolutionary…

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Kydd

3.9

Artemis

4.1

Seaflower

4.2

Mutiny

4.1

Quarterdeck

4.2

Tenacious

4.3

Command

4.2

The Admiral’s Daughter

4.0

Treachery

4.2

Invasion

4.0

Victory

4.3

Conquest

4.2

Betrayal

4.0

Caribbee

4.3

Pasha

4.2

Tyger

4.5

Inferno

4.1

Persephone

4.2

The Baltic Prize

4.2

The Iberian Flame

4.3

A Sea of Gold

4.3

To the Eastern Seas

4.3

Balkan Glory

4.5

Thunderer

4.4

Yankee Mission

4.3

Sea of Treason

4.2

Admiral

4.4

The Kingsbridge Novels in Order

by Ken Follett 5 books 4.4

The Kingsbridge novels trace the development of a fictional English community across nearly nine centuries. Builders, merchants, clergy, landowners, labourers and reformers repeatedly contest who controls work, worship, law and education, while the town changes from an impoverished Anglo-Saxon settlement into a cathedral city and industrial centre. Chronologically,…

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The Evening and the Morning

4.5

The Pillars of the Earth

4.4

World without End

4.4

A Column of Fire

4.4

The Armour of Light

4.4

Birds of Prey Sequence in Order

by Wilbur Smith 10 books 4.4

The extended Birds of Prey sequence follows successive Courtney generations from the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the Indian Ocean trading world through the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic era and the rise of the Zulu kingdom. Its ten books connect maritime commerce, piracy, colonial…

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Birds of Prey

4.6

Golden Lion

4.0

Monsoon

4.6

The Tiger’s Prey

4.4

Blue Horizon

4.6

Ghost Fire

4.4

Storm Tide

4.5

Nemesis

4.4

Warrior King

4.4

Vengeance

4.5

The Nicholas Cruwys Naval Series in Order

by Adrian Westbrooke 9 books 4.5

The Nicholas Cruwys Naval Series follows Nicholas Cruwys from his entry into the Royal Navy as a fourteen-year-old in 1774 to senior command during the wars with Revolutionary France. His career begins aboard Captain James Cook’s HMS Resolution and carries him through the closing years of the American…

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Soundings Edge

4.5

Latitudes Edge

4.5

Longitudes Edge

4.5

Crescents Edge

4.5

Liberty’s Edge

4.6

Northern Edge

4.6

Revolution’s Edge

4.6

Burning Harbour

4.4

First of June

4.7

Sharpe in Order

by Bernard Cornwell 26 books 4.3

The Sharpe series follows Richard Sharpe from service as a private soldier in India to command in the British Army during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The novels place him at the Siege of Seringapatam, Battle of Assaye, Siege of Gawilghur, Battle of Trafalgar, British attack on Copenhagen,…

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Sharpe’s Tiger

4.1

Sharpe’s Triumph

4.2

Sharpe’s Fortress

4.3

Sharpe’s Trafalgar

4.1

Sharpe’s Prey

4.1

Sharpe’s Rifles

4.3

Sharpe’s Havoc

4.3

Sharpe’s Eagle

4.4

Sharpe’s Gold

4.2

Sharpe’s Escape

4.3

Sharpe’s Fury

4.2

Sharpe’s Battle

4.3

Sharpe’s Company

4.3

Sharpe’s Command

4.2

Sharpe’s Sword

4.3

Sharpe’s Skirmish

4.1

Sharpe’s Enemy

4.4

Sharpe’s Honour

4.6

Sharpe’s Regiment

4.4

Sharpe’s Christmas

4.1

Sharpe’s Storm

4.4

Sharpe’s Siege

4.3

Sharpe’s Revenge

4.2

Sharpe’s Waterloo

4.3

Sharpe’s Assassin

4.4

Sharpe’s Devil

4.1

Alastair-Audley in Order

by Georgette Heyer 4 books 4.5

The Alastair–Audley novels form a loose multigenerational sequence linking Georgian family drama with the Regency and the Battle of Waterloo. These Old Shades introduces Justin Alastair and Léonie, while Devil’s Cub follows the next generation through their son, Dominic. Regency Buck shifts to Judith and Peregrine Taverner under…

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These Old Shades

4.5

Devil’s Cub

4.6

Regency Buck

4.5

An Infamous Army

4.3

Napoleonic Wars in Order

by Adrian Goldsworthy 6 books 4.3

The Napoleonic Wars series follows officers and soldiers of the fictional 106th Regiment of Foot through Wellington’s campaigns. The novels move from the first British intervention in Spain through Moore’s retreat to Corunna, Talavera, Ciudad Rodrigo, Cádiz and Albuera, showing the war through ordinary officers rather than generals…

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True Soldier Gentlemen

4.2

Beat the Drums Slowly

4.3

Send Me Safely Back Again

4.3

All in Scarlet Uniform

4.3

Run Them Ashore

4.4

Whose Business Is to Die

4.4

Sherlock Holmes in Order

by Arthur Conan Doyle 9 books 4.2

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes canon follows the consulting detective and Dr John Watson through four novels and five principal short-story collections. Beginning with their meeting in A Study in Scarlet, the sequence establishes Holmes’s method of close observation, forensic experiment and deductive reasoning as he investigates murder,…

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A Study in Scarlet

4.1

The Sign of the Four

4.2

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

4.3

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

4.3

The Hound of the Baskervilles

4.1

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

4.3

The Valley of Fear

4.3

His Last Bow

4.2

The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

4.4

Hornblower Saga in Order

by C. S. Forester 12 books 4.3

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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Mr Midshipman Hornblower

4.2

Lieutenant Hornblower

4.4

Hornblower and the Hotspur

4.4

Flying Colours

4.4

Hornblower During the Crisis

4.1

Hornblower and the Atropos

4.3

Lord Hornblower

4.2

Beat to Quarters

4.3

Ship of the Line

4.3

Commodore Hornblower

4.3

Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies

4.2

Hornblower’s Temptation and the Last Encounter

4.1

Matthew Hervey in Order

by Allan Mallinson 14 books 4.2

The Matthew Hervey novels follow an English cavalry officer from the final campaign against Napoleon into the unsettled decades after Waterloo. Beginning as a young cornet in the 6th Light Dragoons, Hervey advances through command while trying to reconcile professional duty, personal honour, family obligations and the often…

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A Close Run Thing

4.1

The Nizam’s Daughters

4.1

A Regimental Affair

4.2

A Call to Arms

4.2

The Sabre’s Edge

4.2

Rumours of War

4.0

An Act of Courage

4.2

Company of Spears

4.2

Man of War

4.2

Warrior

4.3

On His Majesty’s Service

4.2

Words of Command

4.2

The Passage to India

4.3

The Tigress of Mysore

4.4

Aztec in Order

by Gary Jennings 6 books 4.2

The Aztec sequence follows Indigenous and mixed-ancestry protagonists through five centuries of Mexican history, from the height of Tenochtitlan to the wars that ended Spanish rule. The first novel gives Mixtli’s account of the empire under Ahuitzotl and Moctezuma II and carries his life into the conquest. Later…

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