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Media Notes / The Napoleonic Era in Fiction

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Napoléon Bonaparte, later Napoleon I, Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815, has become a worldwide cultural icon generally associated with tactical brilliance at war, ambition and political power. His distinctive features and outfit have made him an instantly recognizable figure in popular culture way beyond the realms of history buffs and war gaming enthusiasts.

This page lists works featuring him, his era and the wars he fought, as well as works set in this era that don't necessarily feature him.

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Live-Action Films

According to Guinness, Napoleon has been portrayed more times than any other historical figure on film (in as many as over 700 films, apparently). The actor who has portrayed him the most is Frenchman Émile Drain — ten times in total, in French and American films alike, from 1921 to 1953.

    Biopics covering Napoleon's whole life (or large parts of it) 
  • Napoléon (1927). Silent film by French director Abel Gance, starring Albert Dieudonné in the title role. Depicts 15 years of Napoleon's life from his days at the military school of Brienne to the start of the campaign of Italy in 1796. Gance envisioned follow-ups but couldn't make them in the end, and he reworked this film on several occasions, including a sound version in 1935. That said, Gance put some of the ideas he had in store for the follow-ups in the later Austerlitz.
  • Napoléon (1955). A duology by French director Sacha Guitry. Depicts Napoleon's life from his birth in 1769 to his death in 1821, narrated with much wit by Talleyrand (Guitry himself) and others. He's played by two actors, Daniel Gélin for his pre-emperor years and Raymond Pellegrin for his emperor years. Perhaps the film that has included the most events of Napoleon's life in its runtime to this day.
  • Napoleon (2023). American/British production directed by Ridley Scott and starring Joaquin Phoenix in the role. Broadly (and very loosely) depicts Napoleon's life from the siege of Toulon amidst The French Revolution in 1793 to his death in 1821, with some major battles in-between and particular focus on his relation with Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby).

    Focus on specific military campaigns/battles 
  • The Battle of Trafalgar (1911), silent American film about the eponymous decisive naval battle won by Horatio Nelson.
  • Waterloo (1929), silent German film made to emulate Abel Gance's Napoléon, and the first film depiction of the battle. Napoleon was played by Charles Vanel.
  • Kolberg (1945), a film from Nazi Germany about the siege of the titular fortress in 1807 during the War of the Fourth Coalition. A propaganda work made to encourage Germans to resist the Soviet invasion at all cost at the end of World War II. Napoleon is played by Charles Schauten.
  • Austerlitz (1960) by Abel Gance (of the 1927 silent film fame), about the eponymous battle and Napoleon's first days as emperor. Stars Pierre Mondy in the main role.
  • Waterloo (1970), Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk's film about the battle. Napoleon is played by Rod Steiger.
  • Adieu Bonaparte (1985), a Franco-Egyptian co-production directed by Youssef Chahine that deals with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt from the point of view of Egyptians. French theatre director and character actor Patrice Chéreau portrayed Napoleon.
  • Master and Commander (2003) focuses on the naval side of the Napoleonic Wars between British and French ships around 1805.

    Non-military historical events with Napoleon in a central role 
  • Entrevue de Napoléon et du Pape (Meeting bewteen Napoleon and the Pope, 1897), by the Lumière brothers, is aknowledged to be the first film about him.
  • Conquest (1937): About Napoleon's Polish mistress Marie Walewska, portrayed by Greta Garbo. Napoleon was portrayed by Charles Boyer.
  • Mademoiselle Désirée (1942) by Sacha Guitry, about the woman Napoleon was initially engaged to, Desirée Clary. He is portrayed by Jean-Louis Barrault.
  • Désirée (1954), about the woman Napoleon was initially engaged to, Desirée Clary. He is portrayed by Marlon Brando.
  • The Hostage of Europe (1989), about Napoleon's final years in exile on the isle of Saint Helena. Portrayed by Roland Blanche.
  • Monsieur N (2003) puts a particular emphasis on Napoleon's exile on Saint Helena and the impact this has on both the French captives and their British watchers. He is portrayed by Philippe Torreton.

    Period pieces in which Napoleon has a small role 
  • In Anthony Adverse (1936), Star-Crossed Lovers Anthony and Angela are separated for good when he finds out she has become Bonaparte's mistress. Rollo Lloyd played Napoleon.
  • The Young Mr Pitt (1942). British film that twists Napoleonic history into a World War II allegory for the sake of wartime propaganda. Napoleon is played by Herbert Lom.
  • Scaramouche (1952). Napoleon makes a brief wordless appearance at the end, played by Aram Katcher.
  • War and Peace (1956). American version of the epic Leo Tolstoy novel by King Vidor. Herbert Lom reprised the role of Napoleon after The Young Mr Pitt.
  • War and Peace (1966-1967). Soviet version of the Tolstoy epic by Sergei Bondarchuk (who made Waterloo shortly thereafter). Vladislav Strzhelchik portrayed Napoleon.
  • Quills (2000). Napoleon (whose feet are shown dangling off the floor when he sits on his throne), is dissuaded from ordering the Marquis de Sade executed for his writing, and instead orders him treated by the esteemed "alienist" Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine). Turns out, death might have been kinder. He is played by Ron Cook.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). Played by Alex Norton.
  • The Emperor of Paris (2018). Most of the film takes place in 1805 Paris. Napoleon (played by reenactor Mark Schneider) shows up briefly, getting out of Joseph Fouché's office. Vidocq, who was sitting outside the office, doesn't immediately notice him and is hilariously befuddled and can barely salute him once he does. Also, the Duke of Neufchâteau is a former Hussar in Napoleon's armies.

    Period pieces without appearances of Napoleon 
  • That Hamilton Woman (1941) by Alexander Korda is a British Wartime Romance based on the real-life relationship between Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. It ends with the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
  • Hussar Ballad (1962), a Soviet romantic comedy in which a young Russian woman dresses up as a man and fights in the army against the French during the 1812 invasion.
  • Bequest to the Nation (1973). The Nelson-Hamilton romance before the battle of Trafalgar.
  • The Duellists (1977). Follows two hussars in Napoleon's army from 1800 to 1816.
  • Colonel Chabert (1994): Based on the Honoré de Balzac novel. Colonel Hyacinthe Chabert is a French Cavalry Officer that was left for dead during a charge at the Battle of Eylau in 1807. He actually survived, and comes back ten years later to reclaim his rights on his wealth.
  • Passion in the Desert (1997). The story is set during the 1798 campaign of Egypt.
  • The Brothers Grimm (2005): Set in French occupied Germany. French General Delatombe charges the titular brothers to investigate the disappearances of young girls from the village of Marbaden.
  • Goya's Ghosts (2006). Spanish film tackling the Spanish campaign in the Napoleonic Wars. In particular, it deals heavily with the famed Spanish Romantic painter Francisco de Goya and his role in documenting the brutal French occupation of Spain through his art.

    Comedy period pieces 

    Others (time travels, alternate history etc...) 

With Napoleon in a main role

  • The Emperor's New Clothes (2001): Posits that Napoleon managed to escape Saint Helena and came back to France only to end up living a simpler life. Ian Holm portayed him for the third time after 1974's Napoleon and Love and 1981's Time Bandits.

With Napoleon in a small role

  • Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) introduced Napoleon (described by Bill as a "Short Dead Dude") to ice cream (he loved it), bowling (he did poorly), a water park named "Waterloo" (he enjoyed himself) and Risk (Rage Quit over his Waterloo strategy).
  • Time Bandits (1981): The bandits wind up in Italy during Napoleon's invasion. Napoleon himself (played by Ian Holm) is too busy obsessing over his raging Napoleon complex to appreciate his victory. He insists on watching "little things hitting each other" at a local theater until he meets the bandits and is overjoyed to discover people shorter than him. He immediately promotes them all to generals.
  • Les Visiteurs II: The Corridors of Time (1998): Napoleon is briefly seen in the final scene when the two medieval protagonists travel in time to 1792 by mistake, when Jacquouillet (Christian Clavier, who portrayed Napoleon four years later) reports to him. Played by Laurent Natrella.
  • Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009): Among the museum exhibits that have come alive, there's a wax figure of Napoleon (played by Alain Chabat), who's recruited by Kahmunrah.

Other Media

    Advertising 
  • This commercial for Iowa tourism, the connection being that Iowa was part of the Louisiana Purchase.
  • A comedic French ad for March of the Penguins (in French La Marche de l'empereur — literally, "the march of the emperor") has a man praising the movie to a coworker, describing it as the story of "hundreds of emperors" marching through Antarctica, sometimes sliding on their belly to go faster, getting attacked by a seal once, and swapping eggs after mating during several hours. The baffled coworker imagines scenes where the "emperors" aren't emperor penguins but a crowd of Napoleons.
  • This Red Bull commercial suggests that the reason Napoleon kept his hand in his jacket was because he always had a Red Bull there for emergencies, like, say, escaping from Elba-after all, Red Bull gives you wings.

    Anime & Manga 
  • Code Geass: In the show's alternate history, he conquered the British Isles, forcing the Britannian royalty to flee to North America. Though it is rumored he was poisoned by a Britannian assassin, the Europeans themselves say that he was executed by his own people in order to prevent him from becoming a tyrant.
  • He shows up very briefly in Hetalia: Axis Powers (at least the anime version), wherein he wages battle and gets apprehended in less than a minute. Given that each Hetalia anime episode is only five minutes long, minus half a minute for the theme song, that's actually not an insignificant amount of time. And in-context, it's meant to show just how inept and inconsistent France is when it came to war. Needless to say, he wasn't happy.
  • Paris No Isabelle: Napoleon's descendant Napoleon III is mentioned in the first episode, after the Parisians are informed that they have lost the Battle of Sedan.
  • Napoleon has actually showed up in quite a few manga, even starring in some. Among them is a manga called Eikou no Napoleon – Eroica, a sequel to The Rose of Versailles starring Napoleon and featuring characters from the other manga. Also, Napoleon showed up in the manga version of The Rose of Versailles, having a brief cameo at the Estates-Généreaux while on a leave (he was a second lieutenant garrisoned at Auxonne with the Régiment de La Fère), with Oscar noting his eyes showed iron will and great ambition, and then, in the clothes of his coronation, in the third to last page as the hero France was waiting for.
  • Speaking of The Rose of Versailles, a young Napoleon shows up in the inspired anime La Seine no Hoshi, trying to tell a group of Corse rebels that the times weren't mature for a revolt and, after most of them got killed by the French Guards, helping the last survivor's escape by taking down half a dozen French Guards by dropping a lamp on them from nowhere (the Guards were on a boat, and the lamp set it on fire).
  • Prince Heinel of Voltes V is heavily based on Bonaparte. He comes from an Empire where the cruel nobles dress as French aristocrats and force the lower class to be slaves, as well as practicing colonialism towards other nations. It could be written off as a coincidence, if it isn't for the fact that Voltes V and The Rose of Versailles have the same director, and Voltes V was released two years prior. Fan speculation is that the French-inspired theme of the show was a result of his research for it.
  • On the shonen manga side, there's the simply titled Napoleon◊... drawn in a similar style to Fist of the North Star.
  • A clone of him shows up in Afterschool Charisma and he is best friends with the main character.
  • While he doesn't appear as such in Dominion Tank Police, the protagonist saw fit to name her mini-tank Bonaparte after him.

    Audio Plays 
  • "The Curse of Davros", from Big Finish Doctor Who, has Davros and the Daleks trying to interfere in the Battle of Waterloo via swapping Napoleon's brain with that of a Dalek. He throws the fight so as to scupper them.

    Comic Books 
  • There have been a great number of French comic books and graphic novels centered on Napoleon, an attempt to list them would be quite difficult. Some stick to reality and attempt to give a colourful account of Napoleon's life, others (like Double Masque) go on completely fictional tangents.
  • In "Across the Ages!", first published in Strange Adventures #60, Napoleon, Columbus and Cleopatra are brought to the year 1955 by a time traveler making an unscheduled layover. It happens to be Columbus Day, and Napoleon is infuriated that his fellow traveler gets a whole parade in his honor. So Nappy checks a local library to see how history has remembered him—and finds nothing in the card catalog! He was looking under the original spelling of his name, "Buonaparte." Once the librarian helps him out, Napoleon is pleased to learn there's an entire room devoted to books about "Bonaparte."
  • Alan Ford:
    • In Grand Holidays, Bob Rock, taken prisoner by the Conspirer, "confess" he's working for Napoleon Bonaparte. The Conspirer buys it and take it seriously until a helpful henchman passes him a history book.
    The Conspirer: "Here says that Napoleon died in 1821!"
    Bob Rock: "His majesty is dead!!? Oh, the pain! Allow me to visit the tomb at once!"
    • A later episode has the Number One narrating the French Revolution and Napoleon's rise to power and campaigns in Italy. It's not a very gratifying portrait, showing Napoleon starting from a dirt-poor, scrawny opportunist and growing into a depressed leader who doesn't rub his stomach because of illness but because he's just hungry. He even considers surrender to Italy to get feed, and is outraged when Italy surrender first.
  • Wilhelm Busch demonstrates how to draw him here.
  • In the Asterix album "The Big Fight" a doctor shows Asterix and Obelix a mad Gaul dressed as Napoleon and says: "He thinks he is someone, but we don't know yet who he is?"
    • The album "Asterix in Corsica" is full with references to the fact that Napoleon was from Corsica.
    • The final battle of "Asterix and the Belgians" is essentially a Roman-Gallic version of Waterloo, with Ceasar as Napoleon, the Belgian chief Beefix as Wellington, and Asterix as Blücher.
  • Nero dresses like him in the comic strip series Nero in the album "De Draak van Halfzeven" after losing his memory in a car crash. He even goes to Waterloo trying to re-do the battle.
    • Meneer Pheip also thinks he's Napoleon in the Nero album "De Dolle Vloot".
  • Grandville is set in the 21st century of a world where Napoleon won, and Britain was a French vassal until claiming independence via a socialist revolution in the 1990s. Oh, and it's a World of Funny Animals where Napoleon was a lion.
  • Invasiones Inglesas is a comic focused in the British invasions of Buenos Aires and Montevideo that took place during the conflict.
  • In the Jommeke album De hoed van Napoleon Napoleon's hat is stolen from a museum by a collector and Jommmeke and his friends have to find it and bring it back.
  • In De Kiekeboes album Een koud kunstje Napoleon was apparently frozen in the 19th century and unthawed in our time. A group of French conspirators want him to take over the world again, but the emperor manages to flee.
  • Napoleon's head-in-a-jar is preserved alongside Alexander the Great's, Julius Caesar's and a Martian conqueror's to serve as tactical advisors to Dracula in Requiem Vampire Knight.
  • The Powerpuff Girls story "Micro Managing" (issue #68) had the Micro Puffs (three mischievous sprite versions of the girls from another dimension) brainwashing Bubbles and Buttercup each while they're sleeping that each of them should be the leader of the team. When they do it to Bubbles first, Blossom passes it off as a "Napoleon complex."
  • Scooby-Doo Mystery Comics #23 (Gold Key, February 1974) had "Napoleon Lives!," in which a medium presumably brings Napoleon to the present. He launches a grass roots army of hobos to start another global conquest. When the mystery is solved, the medium confesses that he hired a guy to portray Napoleon, but the schmuck actually believes he is Napoleon.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Literature 

Historical Fiction

  • Aubrey-Maturin
  • Before The Storm, Theodor Fontane's first novel, is set in Prussia in the winter of 1812/13. Schach von Wuthenow presents the country as ossified on the eve of the war of 1806.
  • Billy Budd takes place in the summer of 1797, with the Nore mutiny casting a shadow over the plot.
  • The Brigadier Gerard stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.
  • The Charterhouse of Parma: Stendhal describes the Battle of Waterloo in one of the most realistic battle scenes ever written, which inspired Leo Tolstoy for War and Peace. Stendhal was a soldier in Napoleon's armies, serving from Italy to Russia and remaining loyal to him during the Hundred Days. He refused to return to France until 1821, spending most of his time in Italy, and regarded post-Napoleonic France under the Bourbons as two-faced, hypocritical and reactionary.
  • Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Lord Byron contains a famous poetic version of the Duchess of Richmond's ball on the eve of the Waterloo campaign.
  • The Conscript Of 1813 and Waterloo by Erckmann and Chatrian. One of the most realistic 19th century novelizations of the last years of the wars from the perspective of an unassuming Alsatian recruit.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo: The whole plot is kicked into motion by the escape of Napoleon (who remains The Ghost in the novel) from the isle of Elba, with young sailor Edmond Dantès being falsely accused of being a conspirator in his service after innocently delivering a letter he ignored the content of as his dying captain's last wish. The book gives a vivid description of the political rivalry between Royalists and Bonapartists. Alexandre Dumas disliked Napoleon on a personal level because of his conflict with his father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas.
  • Episodios Nacionales ("National Episodes"). This Spanish series by Benito Pérez Galdós has its first ten novels set in this time period, from Trafalgar (taking place during the eponymous battle in 1805) to The Battle of the Arapiles (Spanish name for the Battle of Salamanca in 1812). The main character in these novels (save for Gerona) is Gabriel Araceli, who, like Forrest Gump, ends up meeting many historical characters and takes part in historical events (such as the aforementioned Battle of Trafalgar and the May 2nd Uprising).
  • Goya by Lion Feuchtwanger (also filmed)
  • Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars turn up all over the place in the works of Heinrich Heine. Best known is his poem "The Grenadiers", which was set to music by Robert Schumann (using the German original) and Richard Wagner (using a French translation - he wrote this when he lived in Paris).
  • Horatio Hornblower: Since a large number of books are set during the Napoleonic Wars, Bonaparte plays a significant role in the background of the series, and his death is a plot point in one of the later books. Hornblower bluffed French troops into calling off an attempt to free Napoleon from Saint Helena by claiming he had died, and planned to resign his commission, believing he betrayed his honor, only to find out Napoleon really had died.
  • Liberty Or Death by David Cook deals with the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
  • The Marquise Of O' by Heinrich Von Kleist. Was adapted into a film by French director Eric Rohmer that won the Grand Prix Spécial at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival.
  • Les Misérables: Marius Pontmercy becomes a Napoleon fanboy after learning that his late father fought at Waterloo. The battle is described in detail in the book, and of particular note, Count Cambronne's famous word is brought up, and Hugo basically depicts the French as the moral victors. Hugo also wrote an epic poem that was highly influential on the popular image of that battle in France. He loathed Napoleon III, so he doubled down on making his uncle a legend.
  • Pan Tadeusz, the Polish national epic by Adam Mickiewicz, is set in Lithuania before and during Napoleon's invasion of Russia.
  • The Passion: Jeanette Winterson gives him a midget horse groomsman, a lewd Irish priest for a lookout, and a whole staff of cooks making chicken 24/7 because he eats them whole and doesn't want to wait if he happens to want one. He's a bit Ambiguously Bi, as well, given his unresolved sexual tension with Henri, his small, young male chef.
  • Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series follows on from The Scarlet Pimpernel and tracks the adventures of similarly-named spies in Britain, Ireland, France and India during the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon himself appears in the first book.
  • The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe: Only at the very end does it become apparent that the story is set during the Peninsular War. Adaptations usually prefer setting it in The Middle Ages.
  • Seven Men of Gascony by R.F. Delderfield, who also wrote Too Few for Drums featuring a Plucky Middie ON LAND!
  • Sharpe: Sharpe meets Napoleon in exile on Saint Helena in Sharpe's Devil; despite having fought his armies for years, Sharpe takes quite a liking to the Emperor. Lord Cochrane plans to bust him out of the island and set him up as Emperor of a "United States of South America", but Napoleon dies before they can give it a try. The second sentence consists of real, historical events.
  • The Tales Of Ensign Stål: A collection of poems about the Finnish war.
  • Terje Vigen, an epic Henrik Ibsen poem based on stories from the British blockade of Norway.
  • War and Peace, one of the most famous epics of Russian literature. It includes not just a famous account of the battle of Borodino, but big chunks of both the 1805 and 1812 campaigns, and also served as an Author Tract due to Tolstoy's low opinion of Napoleon. Got turned into several films and television miniseries, as well as an opera by Sergei Prokofiev.
  • The Year Of The French by Thomas Flanagan deals with events in County Mayo during the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland. It was adapted into an Irish-British-French television series in 1982 with music by The Chieftains.

Fantasy & Science Fiction

    Live-Action TV 

Historical Drama Series

  • Napoleon and Love (1974): Focuses on Napoleon's relations with women. Ian Holm portrayed Napoleon (and would play him again on two more occasions).
  • Joséphine ou la Comédie des ambitions (1979): Focuses on Napoleon's relation with Joséphine. Napoleon is played by Daniel Mesguich.
  • Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987): Stars Armand Assante and Jacqueline Bisset as the eponymous lovers.
  • Sharpe (1993-1997): Follows the eponymous fictional British soldier (Sean Bean) in various battles of the Napoleonic Wars. Sharpe briefly sees Napoleon through the powder smoke at Waterloo.
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (1998): Noirtier de Villefort is a partisan of Napoleon who, in 1814, wants to help his return from exile in Elba. Edmond Dantès is tasked to carry a letter of Napoleon to Noirtier and Gérard de Villefort (Noirtier's son) intercepts him, burns the letter and sends him to prison at the Château d'If to hide his father's allegiance, protecting his own career. Also, Noirtier's servant Barrois is a veteran of the Old Guard and likes to still wear his uniform.
  • Napoléon (2002): An epic miniseries that covers the life and times of l'Empereur (portrayed by Christian Clavier) from his beginnings to his death. It was the most expensive miniseries made in Europe at the time, and was based off the 4-volume novel-like biography of Napoleon by French historian Max Gallo.
  • Heroes and Villains (2007): Docudrama series. The episode "Napoleon" is about the part he played during the siege of Toulon in 1793. Portrayed by Tom Burke.
  • War and Peace (2016): The BBC's second adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy epic about Russia in the Napoleonic Wars. Mathieu Kassovitz portrays Napoleon.

Historical Comedy Series

Others

  • Bewitched: Napoleon is summoned to the present (The '60s) by accident after a failed attempt to create a Napoleon pastry using magic.
  • Deadliest Warrior: Napoleon goes up against George Washington during season 3.
  • Doctor Who: The story "The Reign of Terror" sees companions Ian and Barbara have a close encounter with Napoleon.
  • I Dream of Jeannie after Tony expressed how he'd have wanted to have talked to him; Jeannie takes him too literally, and transports them back to Napoleon's time period so he can do so.
  • Jack of All Trades features Verne Troyer (who was born with dwarfism) as Napoleon.
  • Red Dwarf: Rimmer is very much an admirer of Napoleon. In the episode "Better Than Life", Rimmer meets (a simulation of) Napoleon and gets his autograph, much to Rimmer's elation and to Lister's amusement.
  • The Time Tunnel: Napoleon has a cameo in the episode set during the Reign of Terror.

    Music 
  • Ludwig van Beethoven dedicated his third symphony to Napoleon when he was First Consul. When he heard the news that Napoleon declared himself emperor, he crossed out the title and dedication in a rage, allegedly exclaiming: "So he is no more than a common mortal! Now, too, he will tread under foot all the rights of man, indulge only his ambition; now he will think himself superior to all men, become a tyrant!". In 1809 he wrote a march for the Austrian Landwehr (militia), which was picked up in 1813 by the Prussians, which is why it is now best known as the Marsch des Yorckschen Korps. He also wrote his "battle symphony" (originally scored for a musical automat) to commemorate Wellington's 1813 victory at Vitoria.
  • Power Metal band Judicator has a concept album about Napoleon's 100 Days campaign titled King of Rome.
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Ouverture, scored for a full orchestra, church bells and real cannons, written partially to commemorate the Battle of Borodino.
  • Novelty act Napoleon XIV (a pseudonym of songwriter Jerry Samuels) was a One-Hit Wonder with his 1966 insanity anthem "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!", which spawned an album of the same name with more of his... rather unique songs, including an answer by Josephine XV (real name Bryna Raeburn) called "I'm Happy They Took You Away, Ha-Haaa!". Rather confusingly, a different Josephine (whose real identity is unknown) also did an answer song called "They Took You Away (I'm Glad, I'm Glad)".
  • The British traditional song "Boney Was A Warrior" mocks him.
  • Napoleon's defeat is mentioned in "Waterloo" by ABBA.
  • A reproduction of Napoleon sitting on his chair, painted by Eugene Delaroche, can be seen on the wall behind Bill Cosby on the cover of his album I Started Out as a Child.
  • Napoleon Complex by The Divine Comedy plays him up as a ruthless dictator, as though he had something to prove.
    Who was the true inventor of
    The infamous circular firing squad?
    Who has all the brains,
    But none of the stature?
    Who'd make Margaret Thatcher
    Look like Mary Magdalene?
  • Al Stewart's "The Palace of Versailles", pretty much about the French Revolution, refers to the 18 Brumaire coup:
    "Bonaparte is coming / With his army from the south"

    Tabletop Games 

War Gaming

The first proper wargames were developed in Prussia during the Napoleonic Wars themselves as educational aids for officers. Due to Napoleon's enduring reputation as the greatest tactician of his time if not all time, campaigns and battles of these wars are an absolute favorite topic in war gaming (they even started the genre), of both the board and miniatures variety, ranging in scale from the grand strategic ("War and Peace", originally published in 1980 by Avalon Hill and republished in a thoroughly updated version four decades later by "One Small Step"), to tactical games focusing on maneuvering at the level of companies to regiments. Every famous battle of Napoleon's career, as well as many more obscure ones, has gotten at least one wargame treatment. On a related note, the battle of Waterloo/La Belle Alliance in 1815 is especially well-documented in part because William Siborne, who made dioramas of the battle with miniature soldiers, got every surviving participating officer he could get his hands on to write down what they had done and seen there.

  • "The Braunstein Game", a wargaming-Diplomacy mash-up created by David Wesely in the mid-1960s and set in a fictional German university town during the Napoleonic Wars, is considered one of the direct ancestors of the tabletop role-playing game, as Dave Arneson took inspiration from it for his own Blackmoor campaign which eventually became part of Dungeons & Dragons.
  • Risk: Some editions have featured the Napoleonic Wars, including a special edition exclusive to France in 1999.
  • Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization: Napoleon is one of the leaders. Once played, he provides one military action, while the tactics bonus of the strongest army player has is added to the civilization's strength again. If used with the right military tactics, this provides a massive edge, forcing everyone else to pour resources into their militaries to even keep up. Somewhat a nod to Napoleon's status as a Memetic Badass, the card isn't all that powerful by itself, however its sheer potential alone is terrifying.
  • One of Avalon Hill's first board wargames, in the early 1960's, was—you guessed it—Waterloo, based on the Hundred Days campaign. The Napoleonic Wars have proven an especially popular subject for map-and-counter (and, later, computer) wargaming ever since.

Other Games

  • Napoléon Saga – Waterloo, a strategy game with cards.

    Theatre 

Stage Plays

  • The Conversation by Jean d'Ormesson. A fictitious conversation between Napoleon (when he was First Consul) and Second Consul Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès in 1804 where Napoleon ponders becoming emperor.
  • The Man of Destiny by George Bernard Shaw, about Napoleon's Italian campaign.
  • Waterloo or the Hundred Days (Waterloo oder Die hundert Tage in German) by German playwright Christian Dietrich Grabbe (1801-1836). A huge unwieldy play that had to wait until 1895 for its first performance. Grabbe also left the fragment of a drama called Kosciuszko about the Polish national hero.

Musicals

  • Cross Road is about the violinist Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) and features Napoleon's sister Elisa, Niccolo's lover, as a major character.

Ballets

  • A la mémoire d'un héros : Bonaparte (1969) by Serhіy Lifar and Dirk Sanders. The first performer of Napoleon in it was a woman, Ludmilla Tcherina.

Operas

    Video Games 

Games that focus on the era

Other games

  • Empire Earth features the Peninsular War and the battle of Waterloo as the final English campaign missions, while the second game has Napoleon as the main enemy in the Russian campaign and a few levels of the German campaign.
  • A few mods for Mount & Blade and Mount & Blade: Warband, as well as the multiplayer-only DLC Mount & Blade: Napoleonic Wars for Warband.
  • A young Napoleon appears in Assassin's Creed: Unity. He and main character Arno run into each other when they raid Louis XVI's office at the same time and strike up a friendship of sorts. Impressively, in a series where everyone was part of the two warring ancient conspiracies, Napoleon managed to become emperor on his own.
  • It was possible to kill him in the final mission of the English campaign in Empire Earth. In skirmish games, he's the Industrial era's Warrior hero, giving a huge defense boost to nearby units.
  • He is the AI personality of the French civilization in Age of Empires III.
  • He is the leader of the French in Civilization I, IV (with Louis XIV as the other option), Revolution, and V. In V, he's an incredible backstabber; no matter how well you get along, if you show weakness, the French army will swarm your borders.
  • The Hearts of Iron IV alternate history mod The Gates of Versailles takes place in an alternate World War II where the Napoleonic Wars ended in a stalemate and France remained under the House of Bonaparte. While Napoleon himself is dead by the time the game rolls around, his 21-year old great-great-great grandson Napoleon VI has recently been crowned Emperor of the world superpower after his father Napoleon V died just before the game begins.
  • A really cartoony version, looking like a large blue bird, appears in Psychonauts. He took over Fred Bonaparte, his descendant's mind, as an unwanted Split Personality, causing a halfway Napoleon Delusion. Weirdly it gets some of the Napoleonic details correct including his death by stomach cancer and that upon being defeated he gives you Worthy Opponent tributes.
  • Napoleon's body is brought back to life in the present day at the beginning of Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure. He goes on to be the Big Bad.
  • In The Ancient Art of War, Napoleon is a general prone to underestimating his enemy.
  • The Pokémon Empoleon from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Its name is a combination of emperor (as in both The Emperor and "emperor penguin"), pole (as in "South Pole")... and, you guessed it, Napoleon.
  • In Vampire Night, Bathe'lemy is inspired by and modeled after Napoleon, given that the story is set in an alternate version of the modern-day France where that still akin to The French Revolution.
  • He is one of the earnable battle arena characters in Elemental Story.
  • In Fate/Grand Order, Napoleon is an Archer-class Servant wielding a HUGE cannon that doubles as a gatling gun and laser as a weapon. Unlike most popular culture, he's depicted as a tall, buff man, not a shorty. However, it is implied that if he's summoned as a Rider, he will appear short. In addition to this, Napoleon embodies all of the legends told about him (like how he is the reason the Great Sphinx doesn't have a nose) and his revolutionary spirit, manifesting as someone who will act upon people's expectations about him. Story-wise, he appears in the second Lostbelt Gotterdammerung as Chaldea's major ally in restoring Proper Human History, fighting alongside them against Valkryies, giants, and gods while at the same time flirting with the resident Crypter Ophelia Phamrsolone and getting into a Cock Fight with her Servant who is actually the fire giant Surtr himself, and even gets a chance to save Ophelia from Surtr by blowing his head off with his NP before dying encouraging Chaldea to fight on.
  • In the second game of the Europa Universalis series, depending on your choices during historical events, he appears near the very end of the game for France as one of the most overpowered leaders in the game, both as a ruler and a military leader, with maximum scores in all attributes but diplomacy.

    Web Comics 

    Web Original 
  • The American Dream: An American Officer ISOTed to the Revolutionary War: Because the Bonaparte family moves to the United States, Napoleon and his siblings grow up as Americans, with Napoleon going by Nathaniel instead. He serves in the military and in Congress, eventually becoming President.
  • Look to the West: Napoleon proper doesn't exist, but an alternate history sibling of his is taken with his family when they flee Corsica for England. There he is bestowed with the Anglicized name "Leo Bone." He joins the Royal Navy, and eventually becomes the non-monarch head of Restored Royal France. And much crosstime irony is had for all.
  • There are timelines on AlternateHistory.com that imagine Napoleon triumphant in one way or another. Depending on the writer, this generally leads to his descendants either ruling a French superpower or a quasi-fascist nightmare (example: contrast Napoleon's Victory to British Imperialism of the19th Century).
  • DougDoug: In one video, Doug creates an AI modeled after a very Large Ham parody of Napoleon and puts him in a chess match against Twitch Chat. This version of Napoleon swears, boasts, and claims the superiority of the French over everyone else, even while blatantly cheating for nearly every move, and still managing to lose.
  • In Epic Rap Battles of History, he faces off against Napoleon Dynamite.
  • The Lady Voltigeur by YumehaMinakami
  • OverSimplified; Napoleon first makes an appearance in the second video on the French Revolution, before becoming the central focus of the Napoleonic Wars two-parter.

    Western Animation 
  • Bugs Bunny once met Napoleon in the 1956 Looney Tunes short, "Napoleon Bunny-Part."
  • In one episode of The Fairly Oddparents, he gives Timmy his danish (which he keeps in his coat) as part of Cupid's scavenger hunt.
  • Playing on the height stereotype, the Brain is mistaken for him in an episode of Pinky and the Brain. The real Napoleon in that episode is shown as having the same size as Brain. Brain also sings of him in A Meticulous Analysis of History.
  • In The Magic School Bus episode about friction, he makes an extremely short and extremely silly cameo in Dorothy Ann's physics lecture—as does the entire British Army. (Dorothy Ann did not actually intend this—she initially used a generic person, but switched to Napoleon at Arnold's insistence.)
  • In Histeria!, he looks and sounds like Hervé Villechaize. He keeps a tambourine in his coat.
  • Rocko's Modern Life: Napoleon, what's left of him, cheers Rocko on when he decides to meet the girl of his dreams at the top of the Eiffel tower.
  • His clone in Clone High is a short and short-tempered shopkeeper who makes Abe and Gandhi's Christmas holidays a living hell. "MANGEZ LA VERRE!!!" note 
  • In Time Squad Napoleon is shown as a man who doesn't actually talk but makes these tweeting noises as if he spoke French, and is totally "whipped" by his wife Josephine, she demands that he should stop conquering and take care of the kids while she goes off to community college.
  • In the Schoolhouse Rock! cartoon "Elbow Room", a midget-sized Napoleon does the hand-in-jacket gesture before pulling out a map of the Louisiana Territory, which he passes to Thomas Jefferson.
  • Celebrity Deathmatch uses a time machine to bring a child-size version of him to the present to fight an equally child-size Joe Pesci in a pre-school-themed fight where his secret weapon is "Le Hand Du Stink", the hand in his famous pose having been marinating in his armpit since his own time period. He wins by showing it up Pesci's nose and dumping him into a toy box.
    • [[Spoiler: He later kidnapped Debbie after feeling gyped his prize for winning was his life. Nick and Johnny later find him getting eaten by a T. Rex.]]
  • In an episode of Pinky and the Brain set during the Napoleonic Wars, Brain gets accidentally mistaken by Napoleon and decides to run with it to take control of France, and eventually the world. Of course, things get complicated when the real deal (who is just as tiny as Brain) shows up.

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