Napoleon Bonaparte, the most notorious French general and dictator in modern European history, was born the son of a court assistant and rose to rule over nearly all of Western Europe. His military successes, his ascension to Emperor, his inevitable fall all marked a great and brilliant leader given to grandeur and overreach. Like all emperors with an expansionistic bent, Napoleon overstretched his forces, his empire, and as a result, lost it all. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the life of Napoleon Bonaparte through the eyes of the biographer, Robert B. Asprey and his work, The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.
