Napoleon Symphony

1974 Alfred A. Knopf edition

Napoleon Symphony: A Novel in Four Movements (ISBN 0-224-01009-3) is Anthony Burgess's fictional recreation of the life and world of Napoleon Bonaparte, first published in 1974. He said he found the novel "elephantine fun" to write.

Its four movements follow the structure of Beethoven's Eroica symphony.

Burgess's Bonaparte is a cuckold suffering from heartburn and halitosis who is shown as a wily seducer of Tsar Alexander. His conquest of Egypt is a central theme of the novel, which gives a comic but detailed and revealing portrait of an Arab and Muslim society under occupation by a Christian western power.

"Eroica" was originally dedicated to Bonaparte; then, when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, Beethoven rededicated Sinfonia eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire d'un grand'uomo (Heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man) and called it Eroica.

The novel is dedicated to Stanley Kubrick, who directed the adaption of Burgess's novel A Clockwork Orange, who himself had intended to make a biographical film of Bonaparte, but failed to complete it.