The Second Empire

by Philip Guedalla

1922. Illustrated. Empire Guedalla, historian and irreverent biographer, examines how Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was able to secure election as President of the Republic and subsequently to launch a coup d'e tat to establish a Second Empire. Contents: Bonapartism; The Prince; The President; and The Emperor. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

510 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Philip Guedalla was an English barrister, and a popular historical and travel writer and biographer. He was educated at Rugby and at Balliol College in Oxford, where he was the President of the Union. In 1913, he qualified as a barrister and practised for ten years, retiring to stand for Parliament five times as a Liberal candidate (he was never elected, however), and to write a series of travel books and historical biographies, often reflecting his interest in the Empires of both Napoleons. His final book, written at the height of the Second World War, was Mr. Churchill, A Portrait.

His wit and epigrams are well-known. He also was the originator of a now-common theory on Henry James, writing that "The work of Henry James has always seemed divisible by a simple dynastic arrangement into three reigns: James I, James II, and the Old Pretender".

Reviews

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ordinarily I'd have given this probably a four and a half, but I've docked half a star due to the author's somewhat annoying practice of leaving all the French quotations and so on untranslated. Still, that aside, this is beautifully written, insanely readable and quite witty too.