In the Anglo-Saxon world, Napoleon Bonaparte tends to be depicted as a chippy Mediterranean upstart who terrorised Europe for 20 years before getting his comeuppance at Waterloo. In France, he’s a divisive but historically omnipresent figure, and even his biggest critics there will readily admit his genius for organisation and statecraft. No Napoleon, no modern France as we know it, and for many of his countrymen, the little corporal encapsulates their nation’s strengths and weaknesses.

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