“... To show a person’s face, to give a look into his soul - this is the goal of any biography, “the life of a hero,” according to Plutarch. Napoleon, in this sense, was not lucky. It’s not that little has been written about him – on the contrary, as much has been written about him as about any other person of our time. It seems that forty thousand books have already been written, but how many more will there be? And it cannot be said that it was without benefit. We know an infinite amount about his wars, politics, diplomacy, legislation, administration; about his ministers, marshals, brothers, sisters, wives, mistresses and even something about himself. And here’s what’s strange: the more we learn about him, the less we know him. “This great man is becoming more and more unknown,” says Stendhal, his contemporary. “The story of Napoleon is the most unknown of all stories,” says our contemporary Leon Blois. This means: for more than a hundred years, Napoleon’s “obscurity” has been increasing. ..."