Russia 1812 The Duel between Napoleon and Alexander

Moving from the arrogant magnificence of St Petersburg to the gaudy vulgarity of Napoleonic Paris - from the splendid assemblage of crowded heads at Dresden in May 1812 to the frozen hecatombs of common soldiers at Vilna in December - Cate revistis the war and examines what had gone wrong. How did Napoleon misplay his Polish card? Why, once in Russia, did he repeatedly refuse to turn back when it became clear that he was being drawn into a trap of his own making? How was he tricked into staying extra weeks in the burned-out shell of Moscow - weeks that might have saved his army? And why, once the retreat began, did he choose the worst route possible? In a day-by-day account, Curtis Cate depicts a disaster, which never should have happened.