1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow
By Adam Zamoyski
Harper Perennial $135
An image of heroic tragedy hangs over Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812 - the Emperor's Grande Armee fighting a losing battle with the winter as the remains of Tsar Alexander's army close in for the kill. Adam Zamoyski's brilliant history, which smashes nearly two centuries of myth, makes clear the pointlessness of the effort. Napoleon lost two-thirds of the 600,000-strong army he took into a war aimed solely at teaching Alexander a lesson. Unknown numbers of Russians died amid bungling by generals. This is an epic book that culminates in the Battle of Borodino, ranked as the greatest slaughter in military history until the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and trails the ragged retreat through an air of sparkling icicles that 'cut one's face drawing blood'. The story of 1812 is told simply through its participants, from lead players to the least literate foot soldier, from whose accounts Zamoyski 'is struck by how little food was required to stay alive'. It's harrowing, horrific and far from heroic.