Napoleon: his wives and women, by Christopher Hibbert

Was the great man really rather small? Andrea Stuart deflates the myth of Napoleon the Lover

"Women! They belong to the highest bidder. Power is what they like. It is the greatest of aphrodisiacs ... As for me, I take them and forget them." This remark, bristling with bravado, was made by Napoleon Bonaparte to one of his aides during his exile on St Helena. It should be no surprise that the original "hard man of Europe" fortified his macho myth by denigrating the women in his life and playing down their influence. The reality was somewhat more complicated, as Christopher Hibbert's new book attests.

Much to Napoleon's consternation, he was surrounded by strong, wayward women who often proved more ungovernable than his Empire. There was his formidable mother, who spent his reign gloomily mumbling, "if it lasts". His favourite sister, Pauline, was so beautiful she was dubbed the "Imperial Venus", and so incorrigibly libertine that "the Master of Europe" had more success against the combined armies of Europe than he did in curbing her sexual excesses. Above all, there was his "incomparable Joséphine", with whom he would share the most tumultuous of love stories. The only person in his life capable of bending his implacable will, she was "the most graceful woman ever known", he declared, "spirited and volatile and the kindest person in the world".

Despite his love for these strong women, Napoleon was a misogynist, with a particular distaste for the articulate, assertive and politically involved women of post-revolutionary France. Why? Some historians have implied that Napoleon's ambivalence was the product of repressed homosexuality, a theory they substantiate with his throwaway remarks (he said that his friendship with handsome men started with a physical attraction "in the loins and in another place which shall be nameless"). But it is more likely that his fear and loathing was the result of sexual insecurity. In youth, he was painfully aware he wasn't attractive and resented those men who "had all the luck". As his status grew, so did his attractiveness, allowing him to take his revenge. His rudeness was legendary, especially if he found a woman intimidating. Once he told a new acquaintance: "Madame, they told me you were ugly. They certainly did not exaggerate."

As for Napoleon's sexual prowess, it is a cherished view of Napoleonists that their hero was "as great a lover as he was a warrior". But there is little evidence of this in Hibbert's account. Napoleon often demanded that mistresses wait naked in an antechamber. When he did arrive, he didn't linger: the "matter" was "dealt with in three minutes". Perhaps this brevity set a precedent for French leaders. As one of Jacques Chirac's multitude of extra-marital dalliances is alleged to have remarked, "over in five minutes – including the shower".

This is a great subject: many of the women in Napoleon's life had stories as fascinating as his own. But since Hibbert's book covers not just his romantic attachments – his two wives and endless stream of affairs – but also his mothers and sisters, there is simply not enough room to develop a nuanced portrait of any of the women. Only Napoleon emerges with any depth.

It would have been fascinating to have more insight into how they influenced him, or what they revealed about him. Did the size of his penis – reputed to be on the teeny side – have anything to do with his insecurity or ambition? And what of that Freudian shibboleth: his relationship with his mother? Despite a fluid style and wonderful anecdotes, there is something facile about Hibbert's book. It is a sort of Hello! history, skating along the surface of events, without exploring their significance.

Still, Hibbert's offering is nicely timed. Napoleon mania seems to be busting out all over. This autumn a theatrical spectacular opened in Paris. In Italy, one of Berlusconi's ministers whipped up a debate over a £28m mini-series about the conqueror of the country. Almost two centuries after he dominated the fate of Europe, Napoleon remains as fascinating as ever.

Andrea Stuart is completing a biography of Joséphine