Editing Napoleonic Wars (section)

==In fiction==
{{Main|Napoleonic Wars in fiction}}
{{See also|List of Napoleonic Wars films}}

The Napoleonic Wars were a defining event of the early 19th century, and inspired many works of fiction, from then until the present day.

* [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s epic novel ''[[War and Peace]]'' recounts Napoleon's wars between 1805 and 1812 (especially the disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia and subsequent retreat) from a Russian perspective.
* [[Stendhal]]'s novel ''[[The Charterhouse of Parma]]'' opens with a ground-level recounting of the [[Battle of Waterloo]] and the subsequent chaotic retreat of French forces.
* ''[[Les Misérables]]'' by [[Victor Hugo]] takes place against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and subsequent decades, and in its unabridged form contains an epic telling of the [[Battle of Waterloo]].
* ''[[Adieu (short story)|Adieu]]'' is a novella by [[Honoré de Balzac]] in which can be found a short description of the French retreat from Russia, particularly the [[battle of Berezina]], where the fictional couple of the story are tragically separated. Years later after imprisonment, the husband returns to find his wife still in a state of utter shock and amnesia. He has the battle and their separation reenacted, hoping the memory will heal her state.
* [[William Makepeace Thackeray]]'s novel ''[[Vanity Fair (novel)|Vanity Fair]]'' takes place during the 1815 Napoleonic War&nbsp;– one of its protagonists dies at the [[Battle of Waterloo]]. Thackeray states in Chapter XXX "We do not claim to rank among the military novelists. Our place is with the non-combatants. When the decks are cleared for action we go below and wait meekly." And indeed he presents no descriptions of military leaders, strategy, or combat; he describes anxious non-combatants waiting in Brussels for news. 
* ''[[Sylvia's Lovers]]'' by [[Elizabeth Gaskell]] is set in the English home-front during the Napoleonic Wars and depicts the [[impressment]] of sailors by roving press gangs.
* ''[[The Duel (short story)|The Duel]]'', a short story by [[Joseph Conrad]], recounts the story based on true events of two French [[Hussar]] officers who carry a long grudge and fight in duels each time they meet during the Napoleonic wars. The short story was adapted by director [[Ridley Scott]] into the [[1977 Cannes Film Festival]]'s Best First Work award-winning film ''[[The Duellists]]''.
* ''[[Mr Midshipman Easy]]'' (1836), semi-autobiographical novel by Captain [[Frederick Marryat]], who served as a Royal Navy officer (1806–1830) including during Napoleonic Wars, and who wrote many novels, and who was a pioneer of the Napoleonic wars sea story about the experiences of British naval officers.
* ''[[Le Colonel Chabert (novel)|Le Colonel Chabert]]'' by Honoré de Balzac. After being severely wounded during the [[Battle of Eylau]] (1807), Chabert, a famous colonel of the [[cuirassier]]s, was erroneously recorded as dead and buried unconscious with French casualties. After extricating himself from his grave and being nursed back to health by local peasants, it takes several years for him to recover. When he returns to the Paris of the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Bourbon Restoration]], he discovers that his "widow", a former prostitute that Chabert made rich and honourable, has married the wealthy Count Ferraud. She has also liquidated all of Chabert's belongings and pretends not to recognise her first husband. Seeking to regain his name and monies that were wrongly given away as inheritance, he hires Derville, an attorney, to win back his money and his honour.
* A poem "[[Borodino (poem)|Borodino]]" by [[Mikhail Lermontov]] describes the [[Battle of Borodino]] from the perspective of the poet's uncle, a Russian officer.
* ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' by [[Alexandre Dumas, père]] starts during the tail-end of the Napoleonic Wars. The main character, [[Edmond Dantès]], suffers imprisonment following false accusations of Bonapartist leanings.
* The novelist [[Jane Austen]] lived much of her life during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and two of her brothers served in the [[Royal Navy]]. Austen almost never refers to specific dates or historical events in her novels, but wartime England forms part of the general backdrop to several of them: in ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' (1813, but possibly written during the 1790s), the local [[militia]] (civilian volunteers) has been called up for home defence and its officers play an important role in the plot; in [[Mansfield Park]] (1814), Fanny Price's brother William is a [[midshipman]] (officer in training) in the [[Royal Navy]]; and in ''[[Persuasion (novel)|Persuasion]]'' (1818), Frederick Wentworth and several other characters are naval officers recently returned from service.
* [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s novel ''[[Shirley (novel)|Shirley]]'' (1849), set during the Napoleonic Wars, explores some of the economic effects of war on rural Yorkshire.
* [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s [[Brigadier Gerard]] serves as a French soldier during the Napoleonic Wars
* [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s book ''[[The Idiot (novel)|The Idiot]]'' had a character, General Ivolgin, who witnessed and recounted his relationship with Napoleon during the Campaign of Russia.
* [[Roger Brook]] is a fictional secret agent and Napoleonic Wars Era gallant, later identified as the Chevalier de Breuc, in a series of twelve novels by [[Dennis Wheatley]]
* The ''[[Horatio Hornblower|Hornblower]]'' books by [[C.S. Forester]] follow the naval career of Horatio Hornblower during the Napoleonic Wars. The 1951 film "[[Captain Horatio Hornblower]]" starring [[Gregory Peck]] and [[Virginia Mayo]] and directed by [[Raoul Walsh]] is a film adaption based on Forester's series of novels.  Also by C.S. Forester two novels of the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal: "[[Death to the French]]" (1932, published in the United States under the title "Rifleman Dodd"), and "[[The Gun (novel)|The Gun]]" (1933), later made into a 1957 film, "[[The Pride and the Passion]]", with [[Cary Grant]], [[Frank Sinatra]], [[Sophia Loren]], directed by [[Stanley Kramer]].
* [[R. F. Delderfield]], two novels about the Napoleonic Wars; ''[[Seven Men of Gascony]]'' (1949) about seven French infantrymen serving in a succession of Napoleonic campaigns, and ''[[Too Few For Drums]]'' (1964) about British soldiers cut off behind the French lines in Portugal in 1810, during the Peninsular War.
* The [[Aubrey–Maturin series]] of novels is a sequence of 20 [[historical novel]]s by [[Patrick O'Brian]] portraying the rise of Jack Aubrey from Lieutenant to Rear Admiral during the Napoleonic Wars. The film ''[[Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World]]'' starring [[Russell Crowe]] and directed by [[Peter Weir]] is based on this series of books.
* The ''[[Sharpe (novel series)|Sharpe]]'' series by [[Bernard Cornwell]] stars the character Richard Sharpe, a soldier in the British Army, who fights throughout the Napoleonic Wars. It was adapted into the [[Sharpe (TV series)|''Sharpe'' TV Series]] starring [[Sean Bean]].
* The ''[[Bloody Jack (novel)|Bloody Jack]]'' book series by [[Louis A. Meyer]] is set during the Second Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars, and retells many famous battles of the age. The heroine, Jacky, meets Bonaparte.
* The Napoleonic Wars provide the backdrop for ''The Emperor'', ''The Victory'', ''The Regency'' and ''The Campaigners'', Volumes 11, 12, 13 and 14 respectively of [[The Morland Dynasty]], a series of historical novels by the author [[Cynthia Harrod-Eagles]].
* The [[Richard Bolitho]] series by [[Douglas Reeman|Alexander Kent]] novels portray this period of history from a naval perspective.
* G.S. Beard, author of two novels (2010) about John Fury, British naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars.
* ''Napoleon's Blackguards'', a novel by Stephen McGarry, set in Spain during the Napoleonic Wars about the travails of an elite unit of Napoleon's [[Irish Legion]].
* Robert Challoner, author of three novels in the series about Charles Oakshott, British naval officer in Napoleonic Wars.
* [[David Donachie]]'s John Pearce series about a pressed seaman who becomes a British naval officer during the French Revolution wars and Napoleonic Wars.
* [[Julian Stockwin]]'s Thomas Kydd series portrays one man's journey from pressed man to Admiral in the time of the French and Napoleonic Wars
* [[Simon Scarrow]] – Napoleonic series. Rise of Napoleon and Wellington from humble beginnings to history's most remarkable and notable leaders. Four books in the series.
* The [[Lord Ramage]] series by [[Dudley Pope]] takes place during the Napoleonic Wars.
* [[Jeanette Winterson]]'s 1987 novel ''[[The Passion (novel)|The Passion]]''
* [[Georgette Heyer]]'s 1937 novel ''[[An Infamous Army]]'' recounts the fortunes of a family in the run-up to and during the course of, the [[Battle of Waterloo]]. Heyer's novel is noted for its meticulous research on the progress of the battle, combining her noted period romance writing with her detailed research into regency history.
* ''[[The Battle (Rambaud novel)|The Battle]]'' (French: ''La Bataille'') is a historical novel by the French author [[Patrick Rambaud]] that was first published in 1997 and again in English in 2000. The book describes the 1809 [[Battle of Aspern-Essling]] between the French Empire under Napoleon and the Austrian Empire. The novel was awarded the [[Prix Goncourt]] and the [[Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française]] for 1997.
* In [[Jasper Kent]]'s novel ''Twelve'', 1812 Russian Invasion serves as a base story for the book. In later books from The Danilov Quintet, this war is constantly mentioned.
* The ''Fighting Sail'' series by Alaric Bond portrays life and action aboard Royal Naval vessels during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. From the lower decks to the quarterdeck Bond's detailed settings are realistic. Narratives are told not just from a commissioned officer's point of view but include varied perspectives, including warranted officers, ordinary and able seamen, marines, supernumeraries, and women aboard presenting a broader, more complete picture of the Georgian Navy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hayes |first=David |title=Alaric Bond |url=https://www.historicnavalfiction.com/authors-a-z/alaric-bond |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430110700/https://historicnavalfiction.com/authors-a-z/alaric-bond |archive-date=30 April 2021 |access-date=11 May 2021 |website=Historic Fiction}}</ref>