Editor: Victor Sutcliffe
Pages: 418
Illustrations: None
Maps: None
Footnotes: None
Appendices: None
Bibliography: The entire book is a list of 3,530 annotated items covering Napoleonic history.
Index: The books are itemized in 40 different indexes, organized in five parts: Campaigns, Regimental History, Army Organisation, Training and Personnel, Biographical, and Miscellaneous.
Publisher: Ken Trotman, Ltd., Cambridge, England
Publication Date: 1996
Binding: Cloth (hardbound)
ISBN: 0-946879-61-3
Price: $35.00
Summary: While not as comprehensive as Donald D. Horward's bibliographical guide published in 1973, this bibliography has the following advantages: most of the entries are annotated by an expert collector, the books are organized in 40 extremely useful indexes, and it is the only Napoleonic bibliography easily obtainable

In March of 1996, there appeared on the market the largest and most important collection of Napoleonic books offered for sale in several decades. Consisting of more than 3,500 titles, the collection was priced at just under one million dollars.

For those who don't have that kind of money lying around, the bibliography itself is available and worthwhile to anyone who is attempting to build a Napoleonic library. Unlike other bibliographies which often simply list books alphabetically by author, The Sandler Collection includes valuable notations by Victor Sutcliffe, one of the most knowledgeable and charming of the "old school" of British military booksellers.

Drawing on many years of experience and study, Sutcliffe provides pithy comments which any collector, seeking to answer the question: "What should I buy?" will find helpful Which memoirs are considered fictional? Whose book was written to settle a score? What is the background of a particular author? What was the publishing history a specific book?

Of special merit are the indexes. Knowing that there are at least five books pertaining to the Coldstream Guards for this period, or that the French 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 11th, and 13th Hussars have unit histories, or that 160 different works were written covering the campaign in Egypt (to name just a few of the indexes) provide extremely useful guides for research and collecting.

Although Mr. Sutcliffe's notes are sporadic rather than systematic, there is a wealth of information here that scholars, dealers, and buffs will be referring to for years to come.

Postscript: Later this year, an updated edition of Donald D. Horward's The French Revolution and Napoleon Collection at Florida State University: A Bibliographical Guide should be released. The original edition published in 1973 contained 4,847 items including journals and manuscripts. The 1996 edition should have more than 16,000 entries!

Reviewed by Dana F. Lombardy

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