Napoleon's invasion of Russia and the terrible retreat from Moscow were a military epic and a human tragedy on a colossal scale - history's first example of total war. But the war of 1812 was not just a war in defence of Russia: it was the climax to a long duel between two emperors for supremacy in Europe, and its outcome affected the course of the continent's history over the next two centuries.Napoleon's Grande Armee, the largest in the history of the world, had Spanish and Portuguese, Italians and Poles, Germans and Croats, Dutchmen and Swiss as well as Frenchmen in its ranks. He launched it into the huge expanses of Russia, where it could find neither food nor water. When the Russians finally made a stand at the gates of Moscow, the ensuing battle was a slaughter the like of which would not be seen again until the first day of the Somme in 1916. The sufferings of the soldiers and their camp followers on the wintry retreat from Moscow were almost unbearably poignant.In this account Adam Zamoyski has drawn on the latest Russian research, as well as a vast pool of first-hand accounts in French, Russian, German, Polish and Italian, to paint a vivid picture of the experiences of soldiers and civilians on both sides of the conflict. He shows how the relationship between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander came to distort their alliance and bring about a war that neither wanted. Read Less