From a reader:

Paul Johnson wrote one of those short “Penguin Life” bios of Napoleon.
Here’s the Publishers Weekly recap:
From Publishers Weekly
The career of a different kind of celebrity hound is examined in historian
Paul Johnson’s Napoleon. Johnson (A History of the American People) contends
that Bonaparte sowed the seeds of the devastating warfare and totalitarian
regimes of the 20th century. Stressing that the Corsican general was
motivated by opportunism alone, Johnson traces his rise to power and
expansionist bids, arguing that the most important legacies of his rule were
the eclipse of France as the leading European power and the introduction of
such enduring institutions as the secret police and government propaganda
operations