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The Emperor's Last Island: A Journey to St. Helena
In 1814 Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) arrived on the mid-Atlantic island of St. Helena, a surreal exile that would last until his death six years later. "A resonant meditation on exile, fame, the stories we tell about ourselves (and) the bigger stories we tell about our great figures."—Los Angeles Times Book Review.
Acknowledgements
24 Chapters of text
Bibliography
About the author
Acknowledgements
24 Chapters of text
Bibliography
About the author
286 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1991
10 people are currently reading
537 people want to read
About the author
Julia Blackburn
44 books66 followersJulia Blackburn is the author of several other works of nonfiction, including Charles Waterton and The Emperor’s Last Island, and of two novels, The Book of Color and The Leper’s Companions, both of which were short-listed for the Orange Prize. Her most recent book, Old Man Goya, was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Blackburn lives in England and Italy.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
March 24, 2015
While this book is a history and biography, it can also be read as an interpretive travelogue. Most of the book documents Napoleon's final incarceration which informs the visit the author makes at the end. It can be read for its history, and in some places, particularly the death and the later exhumation of Napoleon, for the beauty of its prose.
An entourage, including a pastry chef, is all dressed up sitting in rat and bug infested dwellings doing virtually nothing. Guards stand (often at attention) and cannot sit down but for board games. Letters, and the few newspapers allowed, arrive 6 months after they are written. In the first year Napoleon works on his memoirs dictating different portions of his life to attendants. Like others, these transcribing historians get bored and leave.
You follow this existence through time, personnel changes (primarily leavings) and shortages of this and that. Napoleon voraciously reads whatever comes on ships. His health deteriorates and he gains weight. He builds a garden and tries a fish pond and transplants trees to mixed success.
You feel the weight of the life on this lonely outpost.
An entourage, including a pastry chef, is all dressed up sitting in rat and bug infested dwellings doing virtually nothing. Guards stand (often at attention) and cannot sit down but for board games. Letters, and the few newspapers allowed, arrive 6 months after they are written. In the first year Napoleon works on his memoirs dictating different portions of his life to attendants. Like others, these transcribing historians get bored and leave.
You follow this existence through time, personnel changes (primarily leavings) and shortages of this and that. Napoleon voraciously reads whatever comes on ships. His health deteriorates and he gains weight. He builds a garden and tries a fish pond and transplants trees to mixed success.
You feel the weight of the life on this lonely outpost.
January 3, 2021
If you’re interested on how the island looks like you either go there (about a 5-hour cruise ship ride from Cape Town in South Africa) or just watch some of the wonderful travel blogs featuring this island and its people available at youtube. But if you’re more of a history buff, reading this book would give you a glimpse of how the exile and the last days were of the man whose name will probably be tied up to this remote place forever: the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
The story of how Napoleon tried to fight off boredom while exiled in this island, St. Helena, and his eventual death (some say he was slowly poisoned), and the desecration of his body after his death (some took parts of his cadaver for mementos) was very interesting. But something new and more memorable I came across here was the story of another man who long predated Napoleon and whose relationship with the island was more about love than hate: Fernando Lopez.
St. Helena is now a British territory, a volcanic rock island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean between the continents of South America and Africa (although, as you may see from the map, it is nearer to Africa than South America). It was discovered in 1502 by the Portuguese, uninhabited, and may have just been used by seafarers traversing the South Atlantic Ocean as a transit point where they could rest and replenish their supply of water and food.
But it ceased to be uninhabited when Fernando Lopez arrived there in 1515. He had no right hand, no left thumb, no nose, no ears and the hair on his head, his eyebrows and his beard had been plucked out. The barbaric ordeal he suffered was known then as “scaling the fish.”
How he ended up like that can be turned into a Hollywood film with perhaps Tom Hanks as the lead character, reprising his role in the movie Castaway. But unlike his character in the latter, Fernando Lopez wasn’t a castaway. He voluntarily stayed on the island, stayed there for 30 years until he died. He had left the island only once, when the King and Queen of Portugal summoned him but instead of choosing to come back to civilization he merely requested to see the Pope to confess his sins then he happily went back to St. Helena.
Fernando Lopez was a Portuguese nobleman who left his home and his family to join a group of soldiers in search of new lands to conquer and claim for Portugal. They reached Goa in India. But he later made some really bad decisions (even converting to the Muslim faith) and ended up being punished as a criminal, avoiding outright execution only because of his noble birth, but nevertheless “scaled like a fish” for his misdeeds.
Three years later, which he spent in hiding, his tormentor was dead and so he boarded a ship bound for Portugal, to his wife and family. The ship had a stopover at St. Helena and it was there where he made the decision not to return home after all and just live the remaining time he had left on that island, in the middle of nowhere, all by himself. There he stayed for 30 years, seeing other human beings only when sailors would sometimes drop by on their way to their destinations.
Now there are about 6,000 inhabitants there (descendants of sailors, castaways, slaves and escaped convicts) and it is visited by occasional tourists. It has an airport seldom used (the strong wind makes it difficult for planes to take off or land safely) and looks like a nice place to spend a vacation, if by vacation you mean peace and quiet.
But I wonder if they also have Covid 19 there now?
September 4, 2013
I first started this book sometime during the beginning of 2008, as an assignment for my grad school writing course. Like most books I read during grad school, I did not finish it. Now I have.
Blackburn has an easy, conversational style of prose that occasionally wanders into lush imagery and musings--and I love it. I don't know much about Napoleon, but I didn't feel like I had to as the author gently explained everything that was relevant to her narrative.
Engrossing and lovely and good for anyone interested in Napoleon, history, islands, ecology, or good writing.
Blackburn has an easy, conversational style of prose that occasionally wanders into lush imagery and musings--and I love it. I don't know much about Napoleon, but I didn't feel like I had to as the author gently explained everything that was relevant to her narrative.
Engrossing and lovely and good for anyone interested in Napoleon, history, islands, ecology, or good writing.
January 11, 2015
Not a book I would have chosen for myself, but luckily it was given to me as an inspired xmas present - thank you Aimee ! Engagingly written, informative and poignant and a joy to read.
August 26, 2020
This is more a travel book than a biography. Blackburn does give her impressions of Napoleon in exile in presumably illuminating counterpoint to her impressions of the island, St. Helena. The result is interesting and, I suppose, plausible, maybe even the best that can be done with the available material. In any case, she writes well enough to make this book something to consider for a vacation read--on an island, preferably.
May 5, 2025
Loved this book. Much like the author my understanding of Napoleon is next to nothing. I hoped this would be an easy introduction to the intimidating amount written on Napoleon.
It's a lovely book, mostly about the island, its history, and how Napoleon left his brief mark.
An easy and charming read, I'd recommend it to anyone.
It's a lovely book, mostly about the island, its history, and how Napoleon left his brief mark.
An easy and charming read, I'd recommend it to anyone.
November 7, 2024
A lovely book. Great read.
June 25, 2019
The past leads into the present, and the island of St. Helena is a witness to the changes it has seen and is still the same place, even though it has been put to many uses by the succession of people who have made claims to it and have adapted it to suit one purpose and then another. If you stare at the strangely naked landscape you can easily see what it must have lost, and you are close to knowing how it once was. Napoleon tried to make a garden that would give him some privacy; the same place where Fernando López hid himself in greenness.
May 31, 2016
It's always somewhat agreeable when you come across a book that's almost impossible to classify. This as a case in point - it's history but not quite, a travelogue but not entirely, a personal journal but not really, an imaginative interpretation but with a grounding of fact, a biography but of who, Napoleon or St Helena? It's somehow all of these things and none of them. I really didn't quite know what to make of it reading it, and having finished it now I still don't. I certainly enjoyed it, however!
Napoleon was exiled to St Helena in 1814 and died there six years later. It was by far the most eventful occurrence in St Helena's history and has come to define the island ever since. In this book Julia Blackburn depicts both Napoleon's experience on the island and the island's experience of him - and in many ways the impact of both on the author herself. St Helena itself is as much the subject of this book as Napoleon, and perhaps Julia Blackburn too.
It's a very poetic read, not your usual dry recital of dates and names and places. It's also a very imaginative read and without the usual historical accompaniment of footnotes and references, it's hard to know just how much of this is based on fact and how much on imaginative interpretation. I've certainly rarely read history where the author is so prominent in the narrative. It seems to work here. There's a sort of dreamy timelessness to this tale, perhaps an attempt to evoke how time must have felt to Napoleon, living out day by dreary day in the most isolated place on earth...
Napoleon was exiled to St Helena in 1814 and died there six years later. It was by far the most eventful occurrence in St Helena's history and has come to define the island ever since. In this book Julia Blackburn depicts both Napoleon's experience on the island and the island's experience of him - and in many ways the impact of both on the author herself. St Helena itself is as much the subject of this book as Napoleon, and perhaps Julia Blackburn too.
It's a very poetic read, not your usual dry recital of dates and names and places. It's also a very imaginative read and without the usual historical accompaniment of footnotes and references, it's hard to know just how much of this is based on fact and how much on imaginative interpretation. I've certainly rarely read history where the author is so prominent in the narrative. It seems to work here. There's a sort of dreamy timelessness to this tale, perhaps an attempt to evoke how time must have felt to Napoleon, living out day by dreary day in the most isolated place on earth...
May 1, 2014
One of the most curious books I have ever read as Ms. Blackburn tried to fill hundreds of pages with the final six years of Napoleon’s life on the island of St. Helena, albeit when so little seemed to have happened that one wonders why a book would be published on the subject at all.
Many chapters begin with quotes from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ which should tip the reader off that were about to head into the rabbit hole on this one. No illustrations, reproductions, maps, just text.
But readers are treated to such gems as:
‘Between October 1820, when Napoleon drank champagne and ate potted meats with the Dovetons on the lawn of their garden overlooking Sandy Bay, and May 1821, when he died in the drawing-room at Longwood, nothing much happened. (And at this point there is still 1/3 of the book to wade through, oh dear.)
or my favorite a few pages later, a one sentence paragraph:
‘February 1821, and there is still March, April and the first days of May to go before the end.’ (And at this point there was still 1/3 of the book to wade through, minus a few pages. Certainly a must read for calendar enthusiasts, but I was grateful that Ms. Blackburn spared us the ticking of the clocks.)
And just in case you were curious about Ms. Blackburn’s quals or writing chops, she is described in ‘About the Author’ as living ‘in Suffolk, England with her husband and their two children.’ Nothing more.
Many chapters begin with quotes from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’ which should tip the reader off that were about to head into the rabbit hole on this one. No illustrations, reproductions, maps, just text.
But readers are treated to such gems as:
‘Between October 1820, when Napoleon drank champagne and ate potted meats with the Dovetons on the lawn of their garden overlooking Sandy Bay, and May 1821, when he died in the drawing-room at Longwood, nothing much happened. (And at this point there is still 1/3 of the book to wade through, oh dear.)
or my favorite a few pages later, a one sentence paragraph:
‘February 1821, and there is still March, April and the first days of May to go before the end.’ (And at this point there was still 1/3 of the book to wade through, minus a few pages. Certainly a must read for calendar enthusiasts, but I was grateful that Ms. Blackburn spared us the ticking of the clocks.)
And just in case you were curious about Ms. Blackburn’s quals or writing chops, she is described in ‘About the Author’ as living ‘in Suffolk, England with her husband and their two children.’ Nothing more.
July 8, 2024
"The Emperor's last Island is a book about St Helena, an island with a sad, strange history, and about the tangle of stories and myths, absurdities and simple facts that have accumulated around Napoleon and his sojourn there. It is also a personal account: a description of Julia Blackburn's journey to St. Helena and at the same time a journey through the private memories and associations evoked by the telling of this poignant and curious story." From the back cover of the 1997 Vintage paperback edition of this book.
I loved this book as much 'The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on St. Helena' by Jean-Paul Kauffmann and much of what I said in praise of that book could be said about this one (I actually read this book long before Mr. Kauffmann's book) but they both find different things to say about both Napoleon and St. Helena. Ms. Blackburn is particularly good on St. Helena's first resident exile, Fernando Lopez.
This type of book, a combined history/travel one where the author is centre stage, either produces something magical or something mediocre if not dreadful. Julia Blackburn (like Jean-Paul Kauffmann) has produced a timeless gem. It is splendidly and compulsively readable potpourri of disparate elements that come together wonderfully under her skilled hands. A real first rate treat for the lover of travel writing or the Napoleon obsessive.
I loved this book as much 'The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on St. Helena' by Jean-Paul Kauffmann and much of what I said in praise of that book could be said about this one (I actually read this book long before Mr. Kauffmann's book) but they both find different things to say about both Napoleon and St. Helena. Ms. Blackburn is particularly good on St. Helena's first resident exile, Fernando Lopez.
This type of book, a combined history/travel one where the author is centre stage, either produces something magical or something mediocre if not dreadful. Julia Blackburn (like Jean-Paul Kauffmann) has produced a timeless gem. It is splendidly and compulsively readable potpourri of disparate elements that come together wonderfully under her skilled hands. A real first rate treat for the lover of travel writing or the Napoleon obsessive.
July 9, 2010
Always an excellent writer, Blackburn tackles Napoleon's exile in St. Helena, an odd place that she actually visits to contrast the years of exile to the present. Recommended by Nancy Pearl's More Book Lust, this covers his few years of exile as well as the people who contributed to his life there. Blackburn sticks to his life on the odd island. More background seemed necessary because one wants to know more about Napoleon's earlier life and how he wound up there because he really did nothing but kill time there until he died.
May 26, 2022
In this book, Blackburn does more than just write a history... this is almost a character study not just of Napoleon's last years, but of the island of St. Helena itself. Rather than focusing on Napoleon's career, she gives us detailed history of the island and its interesting inhabitants and how it's changed over the centuries, until you can almost feel the unceasing wind gnawing at you and feel the stark volcanic cliffs hemming you in. In between is peppered her own anecdotes, used to expound on the island's stories, and direct quotes from multiple resources who were with Napoleon in his last few years, the fallen emperor trapped in the middle of nowhere.
I don't read too many history books, since many of them come off dry to me, but this was not one of those. This was much more of a story, and Blackburn's prose made the story of Napoleon and his sort-of-court on the island flow naturally, especially considering we're talking about essentially a defeated general who controlled most of Europe being sent to die in an extremely small town under house arrest, so there's not much action. But I feel like I understand this important part of his story so much better, and the author's writing is so poignant that now I wouldn't mind visiting St. Helena myself!
I don't read too many history books, since many of them come off dry to me, but this was not one of those. This was much more of a story, and Blackburn's prose made the story of Napoleon and his sort-of-court on the island flow naturally, especially considering we're talking about essentially a defeated general who controlled most of Europe being sent to die in an extremely small town under house arrest, so there's not much action. But I feel like I understand this important part of his story so much better, and the author's writing is so poignant that now I wouldn't mind visiting St. Helena myself!
February 21, 2019
Primarily history, partially a travelogue. Blackburn tells the story of Napoleon's time on St. Helena - exile, death, brial, disinterment, and departure - well; she manages to keep the reader's interest in a story where nothing of consequence happens.
As a traveller she seems to me less competent - she spends a month on St. Helena after intensively researching Napoleon's time there, but never determines whether any trace of Longwood New House - planned as the Emperor's final home though incomplete at the time of his death - still exists and hasn't even the curiosity to visit its site, though it is supposed to be near Longwood Old House - the rebuilt building in which Napoleon actually resided - which she visited more than once. Her observations of the island's inhabitants seem very superficial; certain things she seems to think particular to life in a remote island - the sense of lost customs and memories, the abandonment of self-reliance for dependance on distant but cheaper sourcing - seem common to late 20th century life.
As a traveller she seems to me less competent - she spends a month on St. Helena after intensively researching Napoleon's time there, but never determines whether any trace of Longwood New House - planned as the Emperor's final home though incomplete at the time of his death - still exists and hasn't even the curiosity to visit its site, though it is supposed to be near Longwood Old House - the rebuilt building in which Napoleon actually resided - which she visited more than once. Her observations of the island's inhabitants seem very superficial; certain things she seems to think particular to life in a remote island - the sense of lost customs and memories, the abandonment of self-reliance for dependance on distant but cheaper sourcing - seem common to late 20th century life.
March 18, 2024
p34 "Perhaps only children, tyrants, savages and the clinically insane can presume on the freedom of staring intensely and carefully..." is followed by a paragraph about the St Helena people crowding on the quay to watch new arrivals. An unfortunate combination that does perhaps reflect something in the book.
Nevertheless I was fascinated by the information about St Helena and Napoleon the island and Julia Blackburn's attempts to imagine herself into the space.
There are interesting parts where people's treatment of the island seems to be a microcosm of human treatment of the earth. There might be ideas about individual relationships in comparison with belonging to a nation at war with another nation. Something about the sanctification of one man and from that point of view quite good that we are given no idea of why this should be.
There is a great sense of decay and loneliness.
Nevertheless I was fascinated by the information about St Helena and Napoleon the island and Julia Blackburn's attempts to imagine herself into the space.
There are interesting parts where people's treatment of the island seems to be a microcosm of human treatment of the earth. There might be ideas about individual relationships in comparison with belonging to a nation at war with another nation. Something about the sanctification of one man and from that point of view quite good that we are given no idea of why this should be.
There is a great sense of decay and loneliness.
May 7, 2021
This book consists of many genres: biography, travel quite, history, and memoir, just to name a few. Blackburn tells the story of Napoleon’s exile. But she also tells the stories of its inhabitants, as well as a history of the island. (I confess that I didn’t know where St, Helena was located until I read this book.) My favorite story is about Fernando Lopez, perhaps the island’s original inhabitant. He lives in a kind of paradise. Then the English and French and others show up and things quickly go to ruin. Thus making it a perfect place for Napoleon to spend his last years. Why go to St. Helena when you can read this book and accompany Blackburn along on her trip?
June 10, 2017
This book could have easily been 100 pages less than it is. Blackburn gets wordy and reptitive to the point it feels as if she's simply writing to fill up nearly 300 pages on the most droll topic possible. While the historical recounts and her own personal journey on the island made for interesting reading(thus 3 stars instead of 2), I couldn't wait for this book to just end. How much can one possibly write on the mundane life of Emporer Bonaparte in exile? A bit of editing and incorpartion of images/documents would have really made this book shine, imo.
July 14, 2021
I stopped reading this book for a while and then I never felt the need to go back to it. It seemed so promising at the beginning, but it just grew more and more dull. Napoleon's life in Saint Helena, as boring as it may have been, didn't need to be told as boringly as this. This is a mix of history and travel book, except you get no real context for either, and at some point you just don't care anymore. A disappointing reading that I don't intend to finish...
May 27, 2020
I picked this up at a book sale, not really having any idea what to expect. When I finally started reading it I couldn't put it down. It's part travelogue, part history, part diary, and part biography. Incredibly well written, and just a fascinating way to tell a story. Even if you know nothing about Napoleon, you would find this book hard to put down.
December 24, 2018
A curious little book whose primary function has been to make me want to read a full-throttle biography of Napoleon. A life lived on the scale of his deserves a fuller exploration than it gets here. Though I suppose I won't really know if that's a fair assessment until I've done more reading.
February 4, 2023
Interesting. A lot of research. A little repetitive at times. St. Helena depressing, isolated island. Napoleon depressing end.
July 25, 2023
So interesting!
September 24, 2024
Wonderful book for anyone interested in fascinating life of Napoleon. Captures beautifully last five years stuck on St Helena. Really well written. Bravo.
November 3, 2024
More like a reflection on the past than a biography, mixing history with the personal experience of traveling to St. Helena, Blackburn's story is eminently readable.
June 10, 2025
Loved this. Unusual blend of history, geography with a little travelogue as she travels by ship to St Helena. I was left with deep sympathy for N’s last years, spent I
August 31, 2009
A virtude dos livros da colecção "Ficção-Verdade", tal como expressa no seu nome, reside no entrelaçar perfeito do verídico, contado como se de ficção se tratasse. Quando penso nestes livros, lembro-me sempre de alguns documentários da BBC. Ao invés do clássico descorrer de factos históricos, entrecortados com entrevistas a especialistas na área e umas quantas imagens de aspecto bafiento, esses documentários são antes uma reconstituição dos factos interpretada por actores convincentes, quen nos fazem crer estarmos a assistir a um filme de época, ao invés de uma aula de História!
"A Última Ilha do Imperador" não foge a esta regra. É-nos relatado o exílio de Napoleão na Ilha de Sta. Helena, desde a sua chegada à ilha até à sua morte. À primeira vista, a originalidade de um livro que se debruça sobre a fase descendente de uma figura histórica que é commumente descrita apenas no auge do seu poder, desperta-nos uma curiosidade quase mórbida.
No entanto, o quotidinao insular de Napoleão não foi, de longe, profícuo em acontecimentos de interesse sumarento o sufciente para originarem uma narrativa tão extensa. A autora tentou coligir pequenas historietas, principalmente provenientes do "diz-que-disse" e do "sou-filha-da-Sra-que-o-viu-uma-vez-e-escreveu-sobre-isso-no-diário-que-eu-herdei"!
Tais apontamentos não acrescentam à personalidade de Napoleão nenhuma particularidade que não fosse já conhecida do leitor (ou não se tenha ele comportado até à sua morte como se ainda fosse imperador, esperando de todos mordomias condizentes com essa suposta condição).
Apesar de tudo, este livro vale pela informação historico-geográfica sobre a Ilha de Sta. Helena e sobre como a presença de Napoleão a influenciou negativamente e múltiplos níveis.
Lisboa, 17 de Abril de 2007
"A Última Ilha do Imperador" não foge a esta regra. É-nos relatado o exílio de Napoleão na Ilha de Sta. Helena, desde a sua chegada à ilha até à sua morte. À primeira vista, a originalidade de um livro que se debruça sobre a fase descendente de uma figura histórica que é commumente descrita apenas no auge do seu poder, desperta-nos uma curiosidade quase mórbida.
No entanto, o quotidinao insular de Napoleão não foi, de longe, profícuo em acontecimentos de interesse sumarento o sufciente para originarem uma narrativa tão extensa. A autora tentou coligir pequenas historietas, principalmente provenientes do "diz-que-disse" e do "sou-filha-da-Sra-que-o-viu-uma-vez-e-escreveu-sobre-isso-no-diário-que-eu-herdei"!
Tais apontamentos não acrescentam à personalidade de Napoleão nenhuma particularidade que não fosse já conhecida do leitor (ou não se tenha ele comportado até à sua morte como se ainda fosse imperador, esperando de todos mordomias condizentes com essa suposta condição).
Apesar de tudo, este livro vale pela informação historico-geográfica sobre a Ilha de Sta. Helena e sobre como a presença de Napoleão a influenciou negativamente e múltiplos níveis.
Lisboa, 17 de Abril de 2007
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December 8, 2023A quirky and interesting little popular history book that falls prey to its own quirks to be more than good. This book follows Napoleon in 1814 to the island of St Helena as he's exiled by Great Britain upon surrender. It's a story that's not often told and the history and details about St Helena are especially not widely known. I asked my wife if she could tell me where the island is: she said, the Mediterranean? I thought maybe the North Sea. She has a history degree and I have two English degrees. My point here is that while the "fact" that Napoleon was exiled, little is known about that beyond. Anyway, St Helena is located a few hundred miles off the coast of Africa in the direction of South America. It was uninhabited when it was discovered by Great Britain, and the colonies formed there flailed in a lot of directions. It became a slavery trading post but never made much money in any particular venture. The inhabited parts now are built into the narrow valley formed in between the central mountain peaks that comprise the most of the island, and there's a lot of jungly areas at higher elevations throughout.
Well, I didn't know anything about any of that. All of that part of the book is great. The book, less great, also involves the author going on a kind of personal journey to the island, and well, it's less successful than the really interesting historical parts.
Well, I didn't know anything about any of that. All of that part of the book is great. The book, less great, also involves the author going on a kind of personal journey to the island, and well, it's less successful than the really interesting historical parts.
August 31, 2013
Reading The Emperor's Last Island made me feel as if I'd spent some time there on St. Helena with Napoleon!
Blackburn weaves in & out of the day-to-day habits of Napoleon alternating with journal-like thoughts on her own life memories, her plans & actual visit to the island, the people that live there, etc.
But it was re Bonaparte that I was reading this, not so much the island per se, & unlike another book I'm half-way through called "Napoleon Bonaparte - England's Prisoner," Blackburn isn't bent on doing a hatchet job on the guy. The other book is so entirely argumentative in defense of how righteous & decent Napoleon's jailer, Gov. Lowe, was in his treatment of the Emperor that when switching to read this book I was VERY PLEASANTLY surprised to have happened upon a more objective & sympathetic view of THE subject: Bonaparte.
Both authors are English, so it's not just that all English to this day despise that little Corsican upstart war monger...! Blackburn clearly does not.
This book is an interesting & easy read. I enjoyed it very much.
Recommend to those who are interested in Napoleon & want to spend a little intimate time with him during his dreadful years in exile.
Blackburn weaves in & out of the day-to-day habits of Napoleon alternating with journal-like thoughts on her own life memories, her plans & actual visit to the island, the people that live there, etc.
But it was re Bonaparte that I was reading this, not so much the island per se, & unlike another book I'm half-way through called "Napoleon Bonaparte - England's Prisoner," Blackburn isn't bent on doing a hatchet job on the guy. The other book is so entirely argumentative in defense of how righteous & decent Napoleon's jailer, Gov. Lowe, was in his treatment of the Emperor that when switching to read this book I was VERY PLEASANTLY surprised to have happened upon a more objective & sympathetic view of THE subject: Bonaparte.
Both authors are English, so it's not just that all English to this day despise that little Corsican upstart war monger...! Blackburn clearly does not.
This book is an interesting & easy read. I enjoyed it very much.
Recommend to those who are interested in Napoleon & want to spend a little intimate time with him during his dreadful years in exile.
May 7, 2012
Another account of someone's trip to St. Helena. Bought.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews