Napoleon Symphony: A Novel in Four Movements

By Anthony Burgess

Publisher Description

Anthony Burgess draws on his love of music and history in this novel he called “elephantine fun” to write.

A grand and affectionate tragicomic symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte that teases and reweaves Napoleon’s life into a pattern borrowed—in liberty, equality, and fraternity—from Beethoven’s Third “Eroica” Symphony, in this rich, exciting, bawdy, and funny novel Anthony Burgess has pulled out all the stops for a virtuoso performance that is literary, historical, and musical.

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7 Reviews

3.5

Will

Created 6 months ago

“In many moments this novel seems to assume that a prior knowledge of napoleon and his antics is within the readers mind. It was not in mine. This lead to painful passages and made it a much tougher read than it could have been. Some of the passages and interactions were fun and funny, but most of it fell flat”

K.m.dunne

Created over 1 year ago

Max Reyna

Created over 2 years ago

Tyson Peveto

Created about 3 years ago

Sofia Ashford

Created almost 5 years ago

“Either Anthony Burgess is not as good as I'd heard, or he's just not equipped to be a historical writer. Not great. Would not recommend.”

About Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) is the author of many works, including The Wanting Seed, Nothing Like the Sun, and Re Joyce. A Clockwork Orange is one of the "100 best novels" of both Time magazine and Modern Library and is on David Bowie's Book List.