Books like The Linguist and the Emperor: Napoleon and Champollion's Quest to Decipher the Rosetta Stone

I selected this book because it appeared to be about the lives of two men, Napoleon and Cahmpollion, who were resposibe for the discovery of the Rosetta Stone and its eventual role in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The story is about the lives of these two men; however, the Rosetta Stone plays a minor role in the last two chapters. The writing style gives many historical non-fiction readers heartburn. First, there are no notes and only a few sources listed. Secondly, the writing style is hyperbolic in nature with very odd metaphors chosen. The story is written in a very odd, disjointed manner that never really establishes a flow. Finally, the amount of exclamation marks on almost every page amost drove me insane. There are some good point. Meyerson does provide an interesting psychological look at Napoleon building a case for influences that shaped his future. There are interesting vignettes of more obscure historical characters that contributed, even if often by accident, to events in the story. However, due to the writing style by the time you figured out the point of the disruption in the story you may feel a bit frustrated. Meyerson does an excellent job of bringing Champollion's passion for linguistics to life