Napoleon 3 biography books

We have selected here for you a list of books (all currently available) which we consider key works on the life and works of Napoleon III and the Second Empire in general.

INDISPENSABLE

• Dictionnaire du Second Empire, ed.

  Jean Tulard, Paris: Fayard, 1995, 1347 p.
  In French, but worth the effort.

ON NAPOLEON III

• Smith, W.H.C., Napoleon III: the Pursuit of Prestige, London: Collins and Brown, 1991, 144 p.
  Brief but very useful – the only work in English by the Irish specialist on all things Second Empire – his biography of Napoleon III (in French, Hachette, 1983) is the standard work.
• McMillan, J.F., Napoleon III, London: Longman (Profiles in Power), 1991, 208 p.
• Guest, I., Napoleon III in England, London: British Technical and General Press, 1951

ON THE EMPRESS EUGÉNIE

• Kurtz, H., The Empress Eugénie, 1826-1920, London: Hamish Hamilton, 1964, 407 p.
  A useful biography – see also that by William