Every year sees the publication of still more books, generally rapturous, about his life and times, to add to what is probably already the largest pile in the French language devoted to a single subject. In the case of no other historical figure does opinion diverge so widely, accept so extensive a set of possible judgments, or differ so radically from country to country. Almost the only exception to this rule is the first of the great modern one-namers, Napoleon, Emperor of the French. Though Churchill has his doubters and Mussolini his apologists, reputations are for the most part like summer rentals: an agreeably solid front, with the termites gnawing down below, unseen. People who are famous enough to be known by one name usually have one verdict attached to it.
