Holland Rose's book has stood the test of time and and stands as testimony to his bold claim at the end of the preface that “I can honestly say, in the words of the late Bishop of London, that “I have tried to write true history.””  And we are willing still to read his work because, as he wrote:
“While not neglecting the personal details of the great man's life, I have dwelt mainly on his public career. Apart from his brilliant conversations, his private life has few features of abiding interest, perhaps because he early tired of the shallowness of Josephine and the Corsican angularity of his brothers and sisters. But the cause also lay in his own disposition. He once said to M. Gallois: “Je n'aime pas beaucoup les femmes, ni le jeu -enfin rien: – je suis tout à fait un être politique.” In dealing with him as a warrior and statesman, and in sparing my readers details as to his bolting his food, sleeping at concerts, and indulging in amours where for him there was no glamour of romance, I am laying stress on what interested him most -in a word, I am taking him at his best.”