Napoleon’s name became a household word even during his lifetime. Yet as a historical figure, he didn’t start from zero, but from minus infinity. After beginning to build his brand in France, he was not French by birth. His homeland—Corsica—became part of France literally a couple of months before Napoleon’s birth, and Corsica’s relations with France were extremely complicated. The exceptional quality of Napoleon’s figure is that these Arcole bridges, standards, deeds, and aphoristic phrases are simply impossible to separate from the real Napoleon… This real book is an attempt to show the Emperor of the French without embellishment, with all his flaws, weaknesses, and complexes. In the end, he was a living person, not a deity, and a person is an abyss of weakness. How was the Arcole bridge truly taken? Who is the author of the “Napoleon Code”? Thanks to whom was Napoleon able to seize power? Did he really die on Saint Helena Island?