Napoleon Bonaparte

By Frank Giles

Book Overview

'My political life is over, and I proclaim my son Emperor of the French under the title of Napoleon II.' It was not to be. Napoleon's hopes, expressed in his declaration to the French people after his defeat at Waterloo, were vain. On 13 July 1815, after the great battle, Napoleon dictated his famous letter to the Prince Regent from a French frigate lying off Rochefort. Avoiding any hint of surrender, still less acceptance of responsibility for the defeat, he said he came 'like Themistocles to throw myself upon the hospitality of the British people - I put myself under the protection of their laws, which I claim from Your Royal Highness, as the most powerful, the most constant and the most generous of my enemies.' Napoleon's idea of living peacefully in the English countryside was a pipedream. The island of St Helena, to which the Royal Navy brought him, was a desolate and unappealing home. The respect accorded to him by the officers and crew of the ship revealed, however, his sure touch with fighting men, and the magnetism he exerted even in defeat. Once in his 'prison' of Longwood, Napoleon came under the supervision of its Governor Sir Hudson Lowe. What really happened there? Was the fallen Emperor badly treated - perhaps even poisoned? Speculation has been rife for years. Lowe has been reviled by some historians, but looking afresh at the evidence Frank Giles portrays him, though unattractive in many ways, in a more favourable light. He gives a thought-provoking insight into British attitudes towards Napoleon in defeat, both at the time and in the writings of later literary figures.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1841193909
• ISBN13: 9781841193908
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Constable
• Length: 217 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.9" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Pretty good account of Napoleon's last years

I thought this was a pretty good account of Napoleon's last years when he was exiled to St. Helena. The book centered around the relationship between St. Helena's governor, Sir Hudson Lowe and Napoleon as they battled over protcols as if they were battlefields. In this book the author tries to paint out the much maligned governor, Sir Hudson Lowe in a more positive light. He secceeded only slightly to that goal. Sir Hudson Lowe, despite of Mr. Giles' best efforts, still ends up being a man of low imagination, petty minded and anal retentive individual who probably wasn't fit to supervised one of history's greatest figures. Its was Napoleon's misfortune that he was on an island governed by a jailer instead of a gentleman with a duty to perform. The book proves to be interesting because it reflects on the relationship between Napoleon and his greatest of all his enemies, Great Britain. Its almost amazing that someone with Napoleon's intelligence can be so naive as to think that his greatest enemy will go easy on him the second time around. The book also steered away from the conspiracy theory of Napoleon's murder as advanced in many of other books. Stomach cancer remains the cause of death in this book. I found this book to be well written and researched. Its not as detail as I hoped and its don't give us a good inside look of Napoleon's household during this period. There were a lot of interesting personalities at St. Helena while Napoleon was alive. Overall, this book proves to bit on the introductory level reading on Napoleon's exile to St. Helena and his life there. Easy to read and informative to a point, it should fill the void in any Napoleonic library until a more detail book comes out.

Fascinating research, wanting for a story

Mr. Giles gives us a great work, obviously carefully footnoted with very meticulous references, full of very interesting tidbits about British perceptions of Napoleon's stay on St. Helena. I left it, however, wishing for more than the historical details, wanting for more color about the participants, their own stories and experiences. The character of Sir Hudson Lowe does not come through clearly, despite the book's stated goal of demonstrating his relative innocence in the supposedly cruel treatment of Napoleon. There are many details, but Mr. Giles leaves it to us, based on the facts presented, to muster an image of the gaoler. Perhaps that is his intention---perhaps that is good historical documentation. That said, his description of the Lord and Lady Hollands feelings, again based on thorough first hand information, is excellent and insightful, perhaps especially due to their ample and descriptive writings. For Napoleon buffs, this one is--if not a nail-biter---a good essay on one aspect of his life.