Louis-Antoine Comte de Bougainville (1729-1811) is best known for his circumnavigation of the globe from 1766 to 1769. Throughout a long and distinguished life, however, he participated in many of the turning points of world history: the birth of the United States, the fall of French Canada, the opening of the Pacific, the French revolution and the Revolutionary Wars, the crowning of Napoleon and the modernisation of France . Bougainville was also a witty and charming courtier, becoming one of Napoleon's senators. A true Man of the Enlightenment, he was gifted in navigation, seamanship, soldiering, mathematics, longitude and latitude - many of the arts that made his age one of most productive and creative in modern history. John Dunmore, a distinguished historian and an expert in French Pacific exploration, brings the man and his era to life in this vivid and elegantly written biography.

About the Author

John Dunmore retired as Professor of French at Massey University in 1983 after a distinguished academic career. A world authority on French navigation in the Pacific, he has written more than 20 books on the subject, one of which, The Fateful Voyage of the St Jean-Baptiste, was the Wattie Book of the Year in 1970. Appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2001, Professor Dunmore was also made a knight of the Legion of Honour by the French Government in 1976.