221 pages, Greenhill
Books/Lionel Leventhal, ISBN-13: 978-1853673887
Another alternative history book, this one
featuring Napoleon and his shenanigans across the length and breadth of Europe.
Edited by Jonathan North, The Napoleon
Options: Alternate Decisions of the Napoleonic Wars features everyone’s
favorite diminutive Corsican and the myriad What
Ifs? that surround his unlikely life and career as ten different authors
paint ten different scenarios from the period 1796-1815 that could have been
oh-so-different if only this or that had happened…or didn’t, as the case
may be. Paddy Griffith examines a victorious French expedition to Ireland in
1796 and the subsequent peace that it brought to Europe; Charles S. Grant
further studies the 1790s with a look at Bonaparte’s campaign in Egypt; Philip
J. Haythornthwaite describes Junot’s victory in Portugal in 1808; John Gill looks
at the manner in which the Austrians were defeated and how Napoleon came to
dictate peace in Vienna; Digby Smith imagines the Battle of Borodino differently;
Jonathan North describes the action on the road to Minsk where the French are
victorious over the Russians; John Gallaher imagines 1813 turning out for the
better for Napoleon; Peter Hofschroer examines what would have happened if Quatre
Bras had been abandoned as Wellington had ordered; Andrew Uffindell continues
the Waterloo theme where Wellington is defeated and forced to retire to the Forest
of Soignes; John Elting reimagines Waterloo as well that turns out better for
the L’empereur. Like all alternative history books, The Napoleon Options is certainly food for thought and each chapter
will make you think about the events as they really happened (to assist in this,
each author includes some notes about the reality of each event they describe).
I don’t think that a work of this sort works if only one author writes
it; as it is, we are treated to a work of fiction based very heavily on fact that
makes for an entertaining and thought-provoking read.
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