Empire Splendor: French Taste in the Age of Napoleon (ISBN 0865651965)

amazing!:
I have a large collection of design books, but this has by far the most beautfull photos i've seen in an interior design book. Just beautiful! Highly recommended even if you're not into Empire style.

Very good overview of the French Empire Style but...:
The visuals in this book are generally quite good and focus on the various interior rooms (there are precious few exterior views), furniture, decoration, textiles, tableware, lighting, and gardens of Malmaison, St. Cloud, Tuileries, Fontainebleau, and Compiegne. There are plenty of full-page room photos and close-up shots. My quibble is that the lighting used in some photos seems too dark, which obscures magnificent areas and details of the room. This might have been intentional on the photographer's part or perhaps there were restrictions on the use of artificial light, but personally, I'd prefer more light to see more. Also, a couple of photos (though certainly not most) seem a bit grainy and blurry. If you're interested in French Empire exclusively, then I'd say get this book, but I'd recommend "Empire" by Madeleine Deschamps as a better general introduction to the Empire style. Her book doesn't cover French Empire in as extensive detail, but what you gain is broader coverage of the style as it was expressed in other parts of Europe and the U.S.