Volume I: Les apprentissages, 1784-1797

This first volume of the Correspondance générale de Napoléon, published by the Fondation Napoléon, contains 2283 letters written between 1784 and 1797. As a result of three years of searching in French and other national archives, not to mention the collaboration of private collectors, Napoleon students and enthusiasts can now read either previously unpublished letters or letters previously published in expurgated fashion during the Second Empire. Since each letter is annotated, this  edition can rightfully be considered as the latest word on the subject.

Thierry Lentz (ed.), working with Gabriel Madec, assisted by Emilie Barthet and François Houdecek, preface by Baron Gourgaud, President of the Fondation Napoléon, Paris: Éditions Fayard 2004, 1469 pages.

The 2,283 annotated letters of this volume, augmented with an additional 300 or so previously unpublished letters, are now online on the Napoleonica® les archives website.