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Waterloo: The Aftermath
This was the scene after midnight, 19 June 1815:
On the battlefield more than 50,000 men and 7,000 horses lay dead and wounded; the wreckage of a once proud French Grande Armée was struggling in abject disorder to the Belgian frontier pursued by murderous Prussian lancers; caked in dust and sweat, the Duke of Wellington began writing the dispatch that would send his country into mourning and jubilation; and Napoleon Bonaparte, exhausted and stunned at the scale of his defeat, rode through the darkness towards Paris, abdication and the end of his Empire.
In the hours, days, weeks and months that followed, news of the battle would begin to shape the consciousness of an age; the battlegrounds would be looted and cleared, its dead buried or burned, its ground and ruins overrun by voyeuristic tourists; the victorious British and Prussian armies would invade France and occupy Paris. And as his enemies within and without France closed in, Napoleon saw no avenue ahead but surrender, exile and captivity.
In this dramatic and ground-breaking account of the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo, Paul O'Keeffe employs a multiplicity of contemporary sources and viewpoints to create a reading experience that brings into focus as never before the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield, of conquest and defeat, of celebration and riot.
On the battlefield more than 50,000 men and 7,000 horses lay dead and wounded; the wreckage of a once proud French Grande Armée was struggling in abject disorder to the Belgian frontier pursued by murderous Prussian lancers; caked in dust and sweat, the Duke of Wellington began writing the dispatch that would send his country into mourning and jubilation; and Napoleon Bonaparte, exhausted and stunned at the scale of his defeat, rode through the darkness towards Paris, abdication and the end of his Empire.
In the hours, days, weeks and months that followed, news of the battle would begin to shape the consciousness of an age; the battlegrounds would be looted and cleared, its dead buried or burned, its ground and ruins overrun by voyeuristic tourists; the victorious British and Prussian armies would invade France and occupy Paris. And as his enemies within and without France closed in, Napoleon saw no avenue ahead but surrender, exile and captivity.
In this dramatic and ground-breaking account of the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo, Paul O'Keeffe employs a multiplicity of contemporary sources and viewpoints to create a reading experience that brings into focus as never before the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield, of conquest and defeat, of celebration and riot.
392 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 23, 2015
First of all I must confess I am of the same mind of Lord Byron, not of the same level as a poet mind you!, that I am an avowed admirer of Napoleon and as the book states 'despising both the 'cause and the victors - any victory, which included 'Blucher and the Bourbons'. This is a superb book, well written and observed with excellent source eye witness testimony and one of mly favourites of the whole sad history, which examines as it intimates what took place post the battle that finally ended Napoleon's interest in European affairs. Despite the closesness of the battle itself the end became a rout and that is covered superbly with source material as the French Army is harassed remorselessly by the bloodthirsty Prussians and Napoleon becomes a shell of the man he was, evidently in shock mumbling nonsensical phrases to his generals such as 'we have done a good thing'. However, while his generals may have distanced themselves the awe and adoration of his troops is astonishing and cited here like the man who had had his arm amputated but raised the bloody limb in the Allied hospital in Brussels shouting 'Vive l'Empereur' and others who treated an emissary from Louis XVIII in hospital offering assistance but was sent packing for 'they had no king but one, 'Vive L'Empereur!'. The loss of life is horrendous, perhaps the feebleness of life best illustrated by an English eyewitness who visited a billet where Wellington and his staff had been on eve of battle and reflecting ont hose who had not survived the day 'as the sight of those names, thus traced in chalk, which had been more durable than the lives of these gallant men.'It is a very well written even handed account, he is even kind to the Prince of Orange who by all reports sacrificed his men at will for personal glory, though the Belgian troops and the Brunswick soldiers don't get off so lightly. Grouchy is too kindly treated for those of us who cling to the notion he did far too little, and indeed Napoleon would have been better off utilising one of his best marshal's Suchet -- who never lost a battle even in Spain - in Belgium than leaving him on the border of Switzerland. However, O'Keefe's remark 'Grouchy was masterly in retreat' is a beautiful line, praise but also damning. The rape of Paris by the Prussians - Blucher replies to Wellington's admonishment 'you've never had the French in England' - is pretty loathsome stuff and the regicide in chief Fouche's betrayal of Napoleon firstly in giving Wellington his army's roll call prior to Waterloo and then when he returns to Paris only enhances his reputation as one of the vilest people to have walked the earth. One can't criticise the English too much for banishing Napoleon to St Helena after his first broken promise, Pitcairn Island might have been more appropriate given he could have joined with the descendants of the Mutineers of the Bounty, but stikingly O'Keefe points out that old great Bonaparte is perhaps the first ever victim of 'rendition' as the status of St Helena at the time was a legally ambivalent destination. Some terrific anecdotes, including the lady who complained that her ball had been ruined by the officer hotfoot from Waterloo announcing the victory in London could have had the decency to wait a day. Anti-Semitism of the day is not far away with allegations of them ripping teeth from the dead on the battlefield or profiting from the Stock Market, the pillaging of the corpses and wounded even by people from their own side is shocking. Finally as a sign of the times when the reparations to the respective rans came to be divided up ordinary ranks received the modern day equivalent of £142 each and Wellington's was over £3million with junior officers getting 17 times that of the privates.
July 5, 2017
The book picks up two days before Waterloo and ends with Napoleon's interdiction and exile. It's incredibly detailed- gory details on the carnage, battlefield surgeries and pillaging, the plight of the horses, troop movements, the retreat, battlefield tourists, Napoleon's attempted flight etc.
Thus the title is apt. It delivers Waterloo & it's aftermath and nothing more. Though there is no backgrounder on the Hundred Days, Napoleon's earlier career or thinking, what it does illuminate is his mindset at the end- attempted suicide, despair, bombast, optimism, dreams of saving the day...
General Uxbridge's battlefield amputation, what happens when your companion's horse's skull gets blown off when you happen to be leaning on it, are all bonuses. But one is left wishing for more on the fascinating Marshal Ney- "Come & see how a marshal of France meets his death!"
All said, this book is definitely not for those with a casual interest in the Napoleonic period or military history. It's too detailed for that.
Thus the title is apt. It delivers Waterloo & it's aftermath and nothing more. Though there is no backgrounder on the Hundred Days, Napoleon's earlier career or thinking, what it does illuminate is his mindset at the end- attempted suicide, despair, bombast, optimism, dreams of saving the day...
General Uxbridge's battlefield amputation, what happens when your companion's horse's skull gets blown off when you happen to be leaning on it, are all bonuses. But one is left wishing for more on the fascinating Marshal Ney- "Come & see how a marshal of France meets his death!"
All said, this book is definitely not for those with a casual interest in the Napoleonic period or military history. It's too detailed for that.
March 27, 2019
O'keefe examines several aspects of the aftermath of Waterloo. First, there was the price in the loss of men horses, and property. After a thirty-five page discussion of the battle's conduct, O'keefe makes the desctructive consequences grippingly clear. Better than that, he looks at the battle's other consequences; e.g., how long it took to learn of the victory, the fate of Napoleon (from his attempt to stay in power on to his attempted escape to America), and the Royalist backlash against imperial leaders (e.g., Marshal Ney) and troops. His sources are interesting in their own right, and O'keefe organizes them into a fascinating human story. The account of how the French governor of Guadeloupe switched from king to emperor just at the time that the future of France was being decided at Waterloo is a great side-story. Hundreds of interesting people take their place on the stage, and O'keefe writes wonderfully well.
September 13, 2024
Waterloo, The Aftermath is a truly riveting book for people who like to know the details about what happened to Napoleon, his Marchals , Generals and supporters of the 100 days after the escape of the Ile of Elba. The Author, Paul O’Keefe, wonderfully transports the reader into the 19th century way of thinking and it’s politics. I recommend this book to all history lovers.
August 23, 2019
The 200-year anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo was four years ago, and there were a slew of books about the battle and about the Napoleonic Wars that came out around that time. I, of course, am years behind in my reading, so I only discovered this one this month; and it's remarkably similar to David Crane's Went the Day Well? that I read in 2017. That turns out to be amusing, but not a complaint. When I reviewed that one, I said it could be twice its length; and this can be taken as the missing pages from Crane. I greatly enjoyed them both, and the repetition between them is surprisingly small.
I'm giving this 5 stars because I enjoyed the read, I shared passages with other people, I learned things (despite having a considerable collection of Napoleona) and I found it addictive. There are several problems with the book, though, so let me deal with them first.
Number one is the inexplicable lack of maps, for a book that is riddled with place names, many of which have changed in the last two centuries. Stupid. The front and back endpapers are each a two-page period map (neither one listed or credited on copyright page or in list of illustrations). The front one is the A.K. Johnston map of Wavre (which is part of the Waterloo Campaign, of course, but not actually Waterloo), in black-and-white, which makes it mildly useless. The back map is an uncredited "Chart of Basque Roads and the Three entrances to the Port of Rochefort", which shows where the various ships were when Napoleon was thinking about leaving for America, and the British blockaders were waiting for him to surrender.
Number two is that I found myself marking basic errata, right off the bat:
page 5, first line: Quatre Bras is west of Ligny, not east.
page 18 footnote makes no sense. It states that 100 napoleons was the equivalent of eight guineas, then gives a calculation that proves it must be eighty guineas. And, in fact, that's probably what the author meant. (The actual answer, though, seems to be more like 75.)
page 24, it's Hanoverian Cumberland Hussars, not Hassars.
I was Not Happy with the proofreading at that point, but I quit seeing obvious mistakes after that. So the problem is probably limited to the first 25 pages.
Now to the nature of the book. Despite the subtitle "the aftermath", the book begins with a description of the whole Waterloo campaign, just as did Crane's book. It's done relatively efficiently, though. On page 45 we've hit midnight of the day of the battle, and are really in the Aftermath. I think most readers actually need to be told what the battle was, before they are told what happened after.
Crane's book was consciously structured on Thomas De Quincey's "The English Mail Coach." That famous essay discusses the mail coach system of the day by describing how the news of Waterloo spread through the British Isles. It's an unavoidable source for this story, and I thought it was brilliant that Crane just embedded it in his book. O'Keeffe embraces it too, in this case by having Chapter III of the section "Dispatches" describing the essay and expanding on the theme.
The summary is good, but I also suggest reading De Quincey for itself.
O'Keeffe is very good at context. He makes it clear what the Prussians are thinking, and what their intentions are. He does well with Fouché, who survived Napoleon's return to power, but who secretly engineered his abdication and capture. He illustrates how divided London was over Napoleon, with a considerable part of the elite hoping he would win. (Some distrusted him, but hated Louis more.)
Here's a passage I posted to FaceBook: the square brackets are my set-up.
[Wellington's actual report on the Battle of Waterloo arrives at around midnight in London, brought by Major Henry Percy, more-than-post-haste from Belgium, his filthy uniform covered in the blood of the officer whose head had been taken off with a cannonball, just next to him. The rumors had been of lost battles. The scene is Mr. and Mrs. Boehm's mansion, where a midnight supper was laid after the Ball they had given for the Prince Regent (this is the Regency). The Prime Minister had taken the Regent and Percy into a side room to deliver the report.]
...The Prince Regent emerged from his conference in tears. 'It is a glorious victory and we must rejoice at it,' he told the ladies, 'but the loss of life has been fearful, and I have lost many friends.' Then he called for his carriage and left. His brother, the Duke of York, followed, then everybody else. Mrs. Boehm's glittering assembly dispersed into the darkness:
"Ladies of the highest rank, who had not ordered their carriages till four o'clock a.m., rushed away, like maniacs, in their muslins and satin shoes, across the Square; some accompanied by gentlemen, others without escort of any kind; all impatient to learn the fate of those dear to them; many jumping into the first stray hackney-coach they fell in with, and hurrying on to the Foreign Office or Horse Guards, eager to get a sight of the List of Killed or Wounded."
Within twenty minutes, only the host and hostess remained in their desolate ballroom. 'Even the band had gone', and the splendid supper provided for their guests lay spread in the dining room untouched. Sixteen years later, the widowed Mrs. Boehm still harboured the vivid and bitter memory:
"All our trouble, anxiety, and the expense were utterly thrown away in consequence of -- what shall I say? Well, I must say it -- the unseasonable declaration of the Waterloo victory! Of course, one was glad to think one had beaten those horrid French and all that sort of thing; but still, I always shall think it would have been far better if Henry Percy had waited quietly till the morning, instead of bursting in upon us, as he did, in such indecent haste: and even if he had told the Prince alone, it would have been better; for I have no doubt his Royal highness would have shown consideration enough for my feelings not to publish the news till the next morning."
--
O'Keeffe includes many examples of false reports arriving in Brussels, Antwerp and Britain; as well as arriving in Paris. As he mostly names the sources of the reports, it is possible to discern what I'm coming to call the General Theory of Battlefield Reports in the Gunpowder Era: that all reports coming directly from the battlefield during a battle will be lies, because the people who deliver those reports are folks who are making excuses for why they fled the battlefield. This includes tourists who got close enough to see some dead and wounded, and then fled; but had to justify their flight. I have been noting the same phenomenon in the same-day reporting of American Civil War battles, and it was interesting to be reminded of it here.
The book ends with a brief chapter on retribution being taken against various folks, primarily royalists getting even with Bonapartists. A good number of generals were executed or murdered.
The preceding section discusses the bizarre tourist attraction that Napoleon became while he was in naval limbo in British waters. They wouldn't let him come ashore, lest he use that as an excuse to petition the courts. A sailor leaked word that he was on Bellerophon, and mobs descended on the shoreline, and scads of boats tried to approach the frigate.
The tourists who came to Plymouth to see Napoleon on HMS Bellerophon were to be kept a cable's length away, but this was enforced with armed cutters and other military vessels. There were collisions, capsizings, swampings. The book lists at least two drownings at that stage. It didn't stop when Bellerophon went out to sea to transfer Napoleon to the frigate Northumberland. I quote:
Two more lives were lost to curiosity before England saw the last of him. A boat from Torquay containing a gentleman, three ladies, a child and a servant went out to watch the former Emperor cross from one ship to the other. Rounding one of the vessels, their boat was run down by a cutter and capsized. The first lieutenant of the Northumberland jumped into the water and succeeded in rescuing Mrs. Harris and the child. The husband of this lady was saved by his own exertions and dragged into the cutter, along with the servant and two boatmen. But the other two ladies 'sank to rise no more'. They were an aunt and her niece, both of them young.
--
I can strongly recommend this book, and Crane's book, as well. It's full of historical insight and general human interest.
I'm giving this 5 stars because I enjoyed the read, I shared passages with other people, I learned things (despite having a considerable collection of Napoleona) and I found it addictive. There are several problems with the book, though, so let me deal with them first.
Number one is the inexplicable lack of maps, for a book that is riddled with place names, many of which have changed in the last two centuries. Stupid. The front and back endpapers are each a two-page period map (neither one listed or credited on copyright page or in list of illustrations). The front one is the A.K. Johnston map of Wavre (which is part of the Waterloo Campaign, of course, but not actually Waterloo), in black-and-white, which makes it mildly useless. The back map is an uncredited "Chart of Basque Roads and the Three entrances to the Port of Rochefort", which shows where the various ships were when Napoleon was thinking about leaving for America, and the British blockaders were waiting for him to surrender.
Number two is that I found myself marking basic errata, right off the bat:
page 5, first line: Quatre Bras is west of Ligny, not east.
page 18 footnote makes no sense. It states that 100 napoleons was the equivalent of eight guineas, then gives a calculation that proves it must be eighty guineas. And, in fact, that's probably what the author meant. (The actual answer, though, seems to be more like 75.)
page 24, it's Hanoverian Cumberland Hussars, not Hassars.
I was Not Happy with the proofreading at that point, but I quit seeing obvious mistakes after that. So the problem is probably limited to the first 25 pages.
Now to the nature of the book. Despite the subtitle "the aftermath", the book begins with a description of the whole Waterloo campaign, just as did Crane's book. It's done relatively efficiently, though. On page 45 we've hit midnight of the day of the battle, and are really in the Aftermath. I think most readers actually need to be told what the battle was, before they are told what happened after.
Crane's book was consciously structured on Thomas De Quincey's "The English Mail Coach." That famous essay discusses the mail coach system of the day by describing how the news of Waterloo spread through the British Isles. It's an unavoidable source for this story, and I thought it was brilliant that Crane just embedded it in his book. O'Keeffe embraces it too, in this case by having Chapter III of the section "Dispatches" describing the essay and expanding on the theme.
The summary is good, but I also suggest reading De Quincey for itself.
O'Keeffe is very good at context. He makes it clear what the Prussians are thinking, and what their intentions are. He does well with Fouché, who survived Napoleon's return to power, but who secretly engineered his abdication and capture. He illustrates how divided London was over Napoleon, with a considerable part of the elite hoping he would win. (Some distrusted him, but hated Louis more.)
Here's a passage I posted to FaceBook: the square brackets are my set-up.
[Wellington's actual report on the Battle of Waterloo arrives at around midnight in London, brought by Major Henry Percy, more-than-post-haste from Belgium, his filthy uniform covered in the blood of the officer whose head had been taken off with a cannonball, just next to him. The rumors had been of lost battles. The scene is Mr. and Mrs. Boehm's mansion, where a midnight supper was laid after the Ball they had given for the Prince Regent (this is the Regency). The Prime Minister had taken the Regent and Percy into a side room to deliver the report.]
...The Prince Regent emerged from his conference in tears. 'It is a glorious victory and we must rejoice at it,' he told the ladies, 'but the loss of life has been fearful, and I have lost many friends.' Then he called for his carriage and left. His brother, the Duke of York, followed, then everybody else. Mrs. Boehm's glittering assembly dispersed into the darkness:
"Ladies of the highest rank, who had not ordered their carriages till four o'clock a.m., rushed away, like maniacs, in their muslins and satin shoes, across the Square; some accompanied by gentlemen, others without escort of any kind; all impatient to learn the fate of those dear to them; many jumping into the first stray hackney-coach they fell in with, and hurrying on to the Foreign Office or Horse Guards, eager to get a sight of the List of Killed or Wounded."
Within twenty minutes, only the host and hostess remained in their desolate ballroom. 'Even the band had gone', and the splendid supper provided for their guests lay spread in the dining room untouched. Sixteen years later, the widowed Mrs. Boehm still harboured the vivid and bitter memory:
"All our trouble, anxiety, and the expense were utterly thrown away in consequence of -- what shall I say? Well, I must say it -- the unseasonable declaration of the Waterloo victory! Of course, one was glad to think one had beaten those horrid French and all that sort of thing; but still, I always shall think it would have been far better if Henry Percy had waited quietly till the morning, instead of bursting in upon us, as he did, in such indecent haste: and even if he had told the Prince alone, it would have been better; for I have no doubt his Royal highness would have shown consideration enough for my feelings not to publish the news till the next morning."
--
O'Keeffe includes many examples of false reports arriving in Brussels, Antwerp and Britain; as well as arriving in Paris. As he mostly names the sources of the reports, it is possible to discern what I'm coming to call the General Theory of Battlefield Reports in the Gunpowder Era: that all reports coming directly from the battlefield during a battle will be lies, because the people who deliver those reports are folks who are making excuses for why they fled the battlefield. This includes tourists who got close enough to see some dead and wounded, and then fled; but had to justify their flight. I have been noting the same phenomenon in the same-day reporting of American Civil War battles, and it was interesting to be reminded of it here.
The book ends with a brief chapter on retribution being taken against various folks, primarily royalists getting even with Bonapartists. A good number of generals were executed or murdered.
The preceding section discusses the bizarre tourist attraction that Napoleon became while he was in naval limbo in British waters. They wouldn't let him come ashore, lest he use that as an excuse to petition the courts. A sailor leaked word that he was on Bellerophon, and mobs descended on the shoreline, and scads of boats tried to approach the frigate.
The tourists who came to Plymouth to see Napoleon on HMS Bellerophon were to be kept a cable's length away, but this was enforced with armed cutters and other military vessels. There were collisions, capsizings, swampings. The book lists at least two drownings at that stage. It didn't stop when Bellerophon went out to sea to transfer Napoleon to the frigate Northumberland. I quote:
Two more lives were lost to curiosity before England saw the last of him. A boat from Torquay containing a gentleman, three ladies, a child and a servant went out to watch the former Emperor cross from one ship to the other. Rounding one of the vessels, their boat was run down by a cutter and capsized. The first lieutenant of the Northumberland jumped into the water and succeeded in rescuing Mrs. Harris and the child. The husband of this lady was saved by his own exertions and dragged into the cutter, along with the servant and two boatmen. But the other two ladies 'sank to rise no more'. They were an aunt and her niece, both of them young.
--
I can strongly recommend this book, and Crane's book, as well. It's full of historical insight and general human interest.
March 24, 2019
Really well structured. The parts of the war and divided up in to sections. I only wish there was some visual supplementation like maps of the field or photos of some of the paintings described but I think that's a bit too much to ask for. It's amazing the amount of research done; it can be seen it the smallest of anecdotes, such as the ship that took Napolean to St Helena and what happened after that in the years to come; things you'd never have in mind but which the author has somehow discovered and decided to share. Prose is not at all bland for non fiction.
July 2, 2015
Another view of Waterloo and its aftermath...but from those who experienced it firsthand as a combatant or as civilians who were simply caught up in the events. The large number of sources and resources make this examination of the famous battle -- and Napoleon's passage into captivity -- something unique.
May 11, 2016
This was an interesting way to learn a bit about Napoleon and Waterloo. I found myself researching many of the people and places mentioned as I read each chapter.
September 21, 2025
Let me begin by explaining that I won this book in a Vintage Book competition on Twitter so it made perfect sense to follow-up Andrew Roberts', Napoleon The Great with Waterloo - The Aftermath
It's an excellent piece of narrative history that takes us from the Ligny and Quatre Bras through to Napoleon's exile on St Helena via Brussels, Antwerp, London, Torbay and Guadalupe (among other diverse geographical locations.)
The book finely illustrates the theory that an army in retreat is only one step away from turning into a mob. The retreating French army, pursued by the vengeful Prussians, were at some points falling apart quite spectacularly.
It's a dark book too. The sections on the looting of the battlefield, on how Napoleonic armies dealt with the wounded (including a section on amputations that the more squeamish among you might find a tad difficult to read through) and on that Prussian rage. When confronted about this by Wellington, Blucher just said, "My Lord Duke, the French were never in England." Napoleon's humiliation of Prussia had led to this and as part of the law of unintended consequences would also lead - eventually - to the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership and the fall of another Napoleonic Empire.
Like Andrew Roberts' book we also get to see how slippery a large number of French political figures were and how tired of war the French had become. There was no attempt to scorch the Earth of France in front of the invaders as the Russians had in 1812. Sometimes even a great man has to call it a day.
Napoleon's abdication and eventual surrender to the British is also well told. Napoleon missed a chance to flee to the USA. He then hoped that he'd be allowed to live in British exile but it was not to be. He was exiled to St Helena. There was no way a British government would have allowed Napoleon to settle in Britain and his flight from Elba showed that he couldn't be trusted to stay near Europe. It made perfect sense but it always seems rather unkind (as did separating him from his son).
Again to cut a long review short this is well-written, well-researched and well good innit. (Sorry. I won't do that again.) It seems an obvious thing to say - but I'm going to say it anyway - but wars and battles don't just end in neat and tidy fashion and Waterloo - The Aftermath perfectly explains that by telling a tale of disaster, debacle and defeat.
Enjoy.
It's an excellent piece of narrative history that takes us from the Ligny and Quatre Bras through to Napoleon's exile on St Helena via Brussels, Antwerp, London, Torbay and Guadalupe (among other diverse geographical locations.)
The book finely illustrates the theory that an army in retreat is only one step away from turning into a mob. The retreating French army, pursued by the vengeful Prussians, were at some points falling apart quite spectacularly.
It's a dark book too. The sections on the looting of the battlefield, on how Napoleonic armies dealt with the wounded (including a section on amputations that the more squeamish among you might find a tad difficult to read through) and on that Prussian rage. When confronted about this by Wellington, Blucher just said, "My Lord Duke, the French were never in England." Napoleon's humiliation of Prussia had led to this and as part of the law of unintended consequences would also lead - eventually - to the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership and the fall of another Napoleonic Empire.
Like Andrew Roberts' book we also get to see how slippery a large number of French political figures were and how tired of war the French had become. There was no attempt to scorch the Earth of France in front of the invaders as the Russians had in 1812. Sometimes even a great man has to call it a day.
Napoleon's abdication and eventual surrender to the British is also well told. Napoleon missed a chance to flee to the USA. He then hoped that he'd be allowed to live in British exile but it was not to be. He was exiled to St Helena. There was no way a British government would have allowed Napoleon to settle in Britain and his flight from Elba showed that he couldn't be trusted to stay near Europe. It made perfect sense but it always seems rather unkind (as did separating him from his son).
Again to cut a long review short this is well-written, well-researched and well good innit. (Sorry. I won't do that again.) It seems an obvious thing to say - but I'm going to say it anyway - but wars and battles don't just end in neat and tidy fashion and Waterloo - The Aftermath perfectly explains that by telling a tale of disaster, debacle and defeat.
Enjoy.
February 12, 2019
This is a great read, for detailed, first-hand accounts of exactly what happened during and immediately after Waterloo, until Napoleon's exile to Saint Helena.
Although the author provides historical backdrop for the battle, this is not a geopolitical aftermath, which it could have been, given the implications of Waterloo for the balance of power in Europe. Instead, it's a story weaving anecdotes from the personal journals of British, French, and Prussian primary sources.
O'Keeffe takes a fastidious, footnoted approach to his research but keeps the book interesting for the non-Napoleon buff. For example, his colourful description of the Allies converging on the Louvre to repossess art stolen by French armies, or of British groupies clamouring for a glimpse of Napoleon, who was, briefly, a major tourist attraction.
At times, the detail is grisly. I had to skip over what felt like five pages on amputation, but there is humour, too, as in the tale of a zealous citizen trying to serve the British with a lawsuit to stop the exile and pursuing the Bellerophon even as it weighed anchor to carry Napoleon to exile.
Although the author provides historical backdrop for the battle, this is not a geopolitical aftermath, which it could have been, given the implications of Waterloo for the balance of power in Europe. Instead, it's a story weaving anecdotes from the personal journals of British, French, and Prussian primary sources.
O'Keeffe takes a fastidious, footnoted approach to his research but keeps the book interesting for the non-Napoleon buff. For example, his colourful description of the Allies converging on the Louvre to repossess art stolen by French armies, or of British groupies clamouring for a glimpse of Napoleon, who was, briefly, a major tourist attraction.
At times, the detail is grisly. I had to skip over what felt like five pages on amputation, but there is humour, too, as in the tale of a zealous citizen trying to serve the British with a lawsuit to stop the exile and pursuing the Bellerophon even as it weighed anchor to carry Napoleon to exile.
August 22, 2020
I gave this four stars largely because I thought that the author was pretty thorough in his writing on the topic. The book starts by describing the conclusion of the battle. Following that he describes the immediate aftermath of the battle. Specifically, the local citizenry and the surviving soldiers pilfering the deceased for any objects of value. Items taken included of courses jewelry and money but also one item that i never would have thought of in a million years. Teeth. Following that the author describes the ultimate conclusion of the English/Prussian war against Napoleon. The author delves into the postwar events of some specific people; like Napoleon and some of his top Generals. I found it particularly interesting how he ended up on St. Helena instead of where he tried to go. I won't spoil that for people, as I myself never knew he attempted to flee to this particular country, so many other people I would imagine would not know that fact either. Overall, this book was a worthy read and I'm happy that I took the time to read it.
February 25, 2020
This was kind of a mixed bag for me.
There was no background on Napoleon nor what happened to lead to Waterloo. The first two sections (not including the prelude) felt like padding. He went into a lot of detail about casualties and how hectic things were and how hectic communication was to cities, and he did a great job of painting the confusion, but there was way too much. I only needed to read about number of dead horses, looting or false reports so many times. That space would have been better served by cutting that at least in half and use the rest as a chance to give some background information
Section 3,4 and Coda were much more interesting and followed Napoleon, and what went on in Paris politically in those days after the battle. O'Keeffe has as good writing style that isn't dry and makes it easy to read
There was no background on Napoleon nor what happened to lead to Waterloo. The first two sections (not including the prelude) felt like padding. He went into a lot of detail about casualties and how hectic things were and how hectic communication was to cities, and he did a great job of painting the confusion, but there was way too much. I only needed to read about number of dead horses, looting or false reports so many times. That space would have been better served by cutting that at least in half and use the rest as a chance to give some background information
Section 3,4 and Coda were much more interesting and followed Napoleon, and what went on in Paris politically in those days after the battle. O'Keeffe has as good writing style that isn't dry and makes it easy to read
October 18, 2020
Excellent details on parts of history that no one typically thinks about - from the issues faced with communication, to weather and the brutal realities of battle. Fascinating details on Napoleon's attempt to escape on a British ship in a naive attempt to gain asylum in the UK with pretensions of settling down in the English countryside to live a quiet life after conquering half of Europe, all while anchored off the coast of England while curious locals were rowing out to get a glimpse of him - which him and the naval crew happily pandered to.
The only thing that really was lacking was some quality maps as he goes into so much detail about the position of the armies and movement of troops throughout mostly little known places that it was almost impossible to visualize what went on based on his descriptions.
The only thing that really was lacking was some quality maps as he goes into so much detail about the position of the armies and movement of troops throughout mostly little known places that it was almost impossible to visualize what went on based on his descriptions.
May 13, 2025
I remember this book as a marvellous entertaining and fascinating read because of the way Mr. O'Keefe examines the aftermath of Waterloo. From the loss of men, horses, and property; how long it took to learn of the victory, the fate of Napoleon (from his attempt to stay in power on to his attempted escape to America); the Royalist backlash against imperial leaders the likes of Marshal Ney and others. He marshals contemporary sources to produce a fascinating human story. There are marvellous vignettes, like about how the governor of Guadeloupe switched from king to emperor just at the time that the future of France was being decided at Waterloo. Hundreds of interesting people take their place on the stage, and Mr. O'Keefe writes wonderfully about them all.
April 24, 2022
The Aftermath documents the 2 month period between the battle of Waterloo and Napoleon’s exile to the island of At Helena. Paul O’Keeffe does an admirable job exploring this short time period but unfortunately I think there is a reason most histories of the era tend to cover this in a few pages. Other than the section documenting the immediate aftermath of the battle, the fate of the dead and wounded both left on their field and “lucky” enough to get to a field hospital the information just isn’t that exciting. A long section on how the news was received in Paris and London, Napoleon waffling for weeks about where to exile himself defy attempts to by the author to be engaging.
June 9, 2023
This is a well-written, extremely detailed book about the days and months after the bloody battle that ended the Napoleonic wars. I would give it five stars except for its one flaw: there are no maps. Unless you count the stylized map of the Battle of Wavre on the inside front cover, and the stylized map of the area around the port of Rochefort on the inside back cover.
The book traces the chaotic progress of Napoleon's shattered army through countless villages in the days after Waterloo, but there is not one single map the reader can consult. A book about such an important battle and its aftermath, without maps, is a big disappointment.
The book traces the chaotic progress of Napoleon's shattered army through countless villages in the days after Waterloo, but there is not one single map the reader can consult. A book about such an important battle and its aftermath, without maps, is a big disappointment.
January 20, 2021
It has been a dreadful read, partly because it's explicitly gory.. I've learnt a great deal about Napoleon but I wished the author had started out talking to the events leading up to the war, however brief just to give the readers a bit of a context..
January 25, 2024
Interesting read that discusses the ~100 days *after* Waterloo, covering topics like the dead and dying on field of battle, early battlefield tourism in the weeks after the battle, Napoleon's attempts to rally the nation, and his failed attempts to escape to America.
November 27, 2017
A gruesome read at times, but fascinating.
September 8, 2025
Review to come.
August 23, 2015
I am partial to history, but this book would win over the most dedicated anti-history zealot regardless. A breathless recounting of the battle and thorough, interesting tale of what followed. I confess it had never even occurred to me to wonder how Napoleon got from the battlefield to exile, what an army does after a decisive victory, and how the curious world reacts to a former emperor POW. Details of corpses so thick on the ground and all stripped of clothes, shoes, valuables, being more comfortable for the feet of those traveling the field than the hard ground are impossibly tragic - you cry for the loss of all those fighters and all their loved ones even though the battle was 200 years ago. O'Keefe's narrative, unlike Hugo's Les Miserables diatribe or even the battle recountings in War and Peace didn't put me to sleep but made the whole of battle- sights, smells, sounds - rise up around me. Not a quick read but certainly a book I longed to return to each time I set it down.
October 16, 2016
I was happy to receive this book through the Goodreads giveaways.
This is a very well written account of the days following the battle of Waterloo. It took me a long time to read because the first part is so brutal. The author pulls no punches with the horrors of this battle. His descriptions take you right into the blood, gore, and brutality on the battlefield.
The rest of the book was easier to read and moved more quickly for me. His descriptions of the removing the artwork from Paris and the Louvre stood out.
The author gave the reader the fate of all the main characters right down to the ship. A very informative and interesting look into this time in history.
This is a very well written account of the days following the battle of Waterloo. It took me a long time to read because the first part is so brutal. The author pulls no punches with the horrors of this battle. His descriptions take you right into the blood, gore, and brutality on the battlefield.
The rest of the book was easier to read and moved more quickly for me. His descriptions of the removing the artwork from Paris and the Louvre stood out.
The author gave the reader the fate of all the main characters right down to the ship. A very informative and interesting look into this time in history.
July 8, 2015
Tabetha, Main patron, July 2015, 3 stars:
This was an interesting read and contained a lot of information about the downfall of Napoleon. However, it seems to act more like a supplementary in-depth look at that narrow time frame. It won't work as a brush-up on that part of history, but I'm more interested in a text that does discuss an overview of Napoleon.
This was an interesting read and contained a lot of information about the downfall of Napoleon. However, it seems to act more like a supplementary in-depth look at that narrow time frame. It won't work as a brush-up on that part of history, but I'm more interested in a text that does discuss an overview of Napoleon.
August 18, 2018
Magnificent, shocking and extraordinary book. I bought it, when I saw the author speaking on History TV in the Waterloo battlefield. And never regret. If you want to know, what was after the rumble of cannonry stopped and how Napoleon's veterans wanted to conquer USA, you definitely must to read this book.
August 13, 2015
Waterloo: The Aftermath is not really a military history of the aftermath of Waterloo, it is more a social history. O'Keeffe spends more than a 100 pages on civilian related aspects of Waterloo, such as battlefield tourism. It does have some interesting perspectives though.
July 10, 2015
excellent work on the aftermath of the great battle. Worth buying for the Napoleonic history fan.
July 5, 2016
I have read several books about Waterloo and none of them were very interesting to me. This was no different. A decent read, at best.
August 4, 2016
Wonderful read. Like fiction, I couldn't put it down!
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August 25, 2015excellent.
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