A Life of Napoleon Bonaparte by Ida M. Tarbell is a must portable read. Ida Minerva Tarbell is the most fabulous autobiographer on the world. The definitive biography of Napoleon, revealing the true man behind the legend and his tragedy, his unhappy end of life. "What a novel my life has been!" Napoleon once said of himself. Born into a poor family, the callow young man was, by twenty-six, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The Pope crowned him as Emperor of the French when he was only thirty-five. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic. The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Ida Tarbell, a famous autobiographer, wrote down Napoleon's whole life carefully, calmly and objectively.