History About Napoleonic Wars, 5 Volumes, Napier 1856. This five-volume set by W. F. P. Napier is about Napoleon’s campaigns to take over the continent of Europe in the early 1800’s, and the set is titled “History Of the War in the Peninsula And In The South Of France From A.D. 1807 To A.D. 1814”, by Major-General Sir W. F. P. Napier, K. C. B., Colonel Twenty-Seventh Regiment, Member Of The Royal Swedish Academy Of Military Sciences, In Five Volumes, With Portraits And Plans, published by Redfield of 34 Beekman Street, New-York, in 1856. General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier KCB (1785 - 1860) was a British soldier in the British Army and a military historian. Napier was born in County Kildare, Ireland and became an ensign in the Royal Irish Artillery in 1800. He served in Denmark and other theaters of war, and the years he spent in France helped improve his general education, for, incredible as it seems, the author of this history of the Napoleonic wars could not spell or write respectable English till that time. The Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, gave Napier assistance himself and handed over all of Joseph Bonaparte's correspondence that was captured at the battle of Vittoria; Joseph Bonaparte was Napoleon’s older brother who became King of Naples and King of Spain, and the correspondence was all in cipher, but Napier’s wife, with great patience, discovered the key to the writing, and Marshal Soult, a French general under Napoleon, took an active interest in arranging for a French translation. The first volume of Napier’s History appeared in 1828; it was published by John Murray, who was disappointed in the sales of the first volume, so Napier published the rest himself. In 1840 the last volume of the History came out, and Napier’s fame was not only established in England, but in France and continental Europe as well. The Encyclopedia Britannica considered his military history to be "incomparably superior to any other English writer” at the time, and they compared him to three other soldier-writers: Thucydides, Julius Caesar and Enrico Caterino Davila, an Italian historian who wrote about the civil wars in France in the 1600’s. So good company to keep. But Napier’s History also divided opinions. Some felt his work was perfect, including Marshal Soult, but others felt it was too pro-French, and as a result, Napier included “justificatory notes” in some of the works, and Napier retains his place as a great military historian. Napier was also a Knight of the Bath - that is what K. C. B. stands for - and this honor was started by George I in 1725 as part of a medieval ceremony of appointing a knight; bathing was an element of the ceremony, which signified purity, hence the title Knight of the Bath. The five volumes are 3/4 bound, with five slightly raised bands, six compartments with gilt titles and gilt devices on the spines, marbled covers, marbled endpapers with the bookplate of William B. Rice, an American industrialist who founded a shoe company headquartered in Boston, and all the edge are marbled; there are frontis portraits at the beginning of each volume - Volume I has the frontis portrait of Napier, Volume II has the frontis portrait of Napoleon, the third volume has a frontis portrait of Sir Arthur Wellesley, also known as the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, the fourth volume has the frontis portrait of Marshal Soult, and the last volume has a frontis portrait of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother. All the books have a List of Plates, a long Table of Contents, and a lengthy Appendix, and the last volume has a forty-three page General Index at the end, and there are numerous illustrations of battles and battle plans throughout the books. The books are 8vo. and measure 7 3/8 x 5 1/4 in. wide, the bindings are tight, with no loose pages, and the maps and illustrations are relatively clean, there is wear on the crowns, heels, along the edges of the spines and at the tips, as well as on the leather, with occasional offset. The first edition was published in 1828 and the last volume of the first edition was published in 1840, and first editions run from $600 to $3500, and this Redfield edition from 1856 is reasonably priced for someone looking to explore the history of the Napoleonic wars without being overwhelmed by price. #170 #1631