Waterloo: Four Days that Changed Europe’s Destiny - Rilegato

Clayton, Tim

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1408702487 ISBN 13: 9781408702482

Casa editrice: Little, Brown, 2014

Riassunto

'The best of the many books commemorating next year's 200th anniversary of Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo' Evening Standard

The bloodbath at Waterloo ended a war that had engulfed the world for over twenty years. It also finished the career of the charismatic Napoleon Bonaparte. It ensured the final liberation of Germany and the restoration of the old European monarchies, and it represented one of very few defeats for the glorious French army, most of whose soldiers remained devoted to their Emperor until the very end.

Extraordinary though it may seem, much about the Battle of Waterloo has remained uncertain, with many major features of the campaign hotly debated. Most histories have depended heavily on the evidence of British officers that were gathered about twenty years after the battle. But the recent publication of an abundance of fresh first-hand accounts from soldiers of all the participating armies has illuminated important episodes and enabled radical reappraisal of the course of the campaign. What emerges is a darker, muddier story, no longer biased by notions of regimental honour, but a tapestry of irony, accident, courage, horror and human frailty.

An epic page turner, rich in dramatic human detail and grounded in first-class scholarly research, Waterloo is the real inside story of the greatest land battle in British history, the defining showdown of the age of muskets, bayonets, cavalry and cannon.

Su questo libro

Recensione

Magnificent and magisterial (Literary Review)

A quite brilliant piece of meticulous historical detective work . . . I have no doubt that this book will become a classic (Scotland on Sunday)

Clayton makes the fog of war central to the narrative; we are pitched into the chaos and din of Waterloo . . . We experience it as Wellington or Napoleon or an ordinary soldier would have done (Daily Telegraph)

Stirring . . . a fabulous story, superbly told (Max Hastings Sunday Times)

Tim Clayton not only gives a masterful account of the battle that changed the face of Europe but also sets it in its proper context . . . Clayton manages the difficult trick in military history of providing a blow-by-blow account without losing the flow of the narrative (Express)

An incisive analysis of how the battle unravelled and why (The Times)

Nuanced, broad, searching and elegant . . . the overall integrity of his scholarship is undeniable. The book may well become the most authoritative account of the four-day campaign (Spectator)

Tim Clayton's book is the best overview of the meeting of the three armies (Simon Heffer New Statesman)

Descrizione del libro

An epic page-turner about Waterloo, one of the greatest land battles in British history, rich in dramatic human detail and grounded in first class research.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Little, Brown
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1408702487
• ISBN 13: 9781408702482
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 608