Napoleon: A Biography

early 1793 makes no sense at all. Yet one of the reasons historians have so
violently debated 'Napoleon, for and against' is the conviction that
Napoleon, with his great intellect, must always have had sound reasons
for his actions. An examination of the dark recesses of the Napoleonic
psyche shows that this is not necessarily so and that self-destructive
psychological impulses usually played some part, and sometimes the
major part. This was not the last time in his life that Napoleon, pleading
ineluctable necessity, raison d'etat and 'there is no alternative', plunged
into reckless adventures that defy rational explanation.