Napoleon's Exile

Fin d’Empire #3

by Patrick Rambaud, Shaun Whiteside (Translator)

The stunning finale to the award–winning Napoleonic trilogy presents the legendary figure as you have never before seen him — exiled and humiliated and vividly real. Patrick Rambaud closes his epic trilogy, which began with The Battle, winner of the Prix Goncourt and the Grand Prix Roman de l'Academie Francaise, and The Retreat.

In 1814 Napoleon is racing back to Paris from the debacle of his Russian invasion. A plot afoot in the capital — to return a royal to the throne — succeeds, and Napoleon's marshals force him to abdicate and go into exile. Octave Senecal, Napoleon's loyal aide and savior, tells the tale of their journey south through the angry, mob–filled countryside to Elba, a tiny island off the coast of Tuscany. Here Patrick Rambaud brings to life not the Napoleon of the history books, but Napoleon the man — a man horribly bored by exile, gambling with his mother to pass the time, spearing the occasional tuna with local fishermen, and fretting constantly that secret agents and murderers surround him. He is soon planning his escape, while in France his former soldiers spend their evenings drinking to the return of "l'absent." They won't have long to wait.

Genres: Historical Fiction, France, Fiction, French Literature, Historical, War, Roman

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Patrick Rambaud est un écrivain français. Il a aussi publié sous le pseudonyme de Marguerite Duraille.

Patrick Rambaud is a French writer. He has also published using the nom de plume Marguerite Duraille.

Il a à son actif près de trente livres dont plusieurs parodies. Le prix Goncourt lui a été remis en 1997 et son livre La Bataille lui a fait gagner le Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française. Il a été élu membre de l'Académie Goncourt (2008).

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it is not as incident-packed as The Retreat, Patrick Rambaud's Napoleon's Exile is worth reading for its insight to Napoleon's restless and inventive mind even while he was in exile on the Isle of Elba. The whole episode is seen from the point of view of Octave, who is a spy for the Emperor. (Yet even he is in the dark about Napoleon's departure from Elba with a handful of soldiers to win over France again and meet his final destiny on the fields of Waterloo.)

[Edoardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is with a heavy heart that I only give this book three stars. In your face Elo! Five stars for me for reading it ofc. None for Elo for being a French section delinquent!

[Leah Angstman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't love this. It's extremely stilted, especially in the dialogue, walking that line between fiction and nonfiction, too dry and pedantic to be good fiction and too frivolous to be nonfiction. Perhaps if I had read it before I read The Invisible Emperor, I would have been more taken with it, but The Invisible Emperor tells the true (nonfiction) story of this same timeframe with more success. I didn't walk away from this novel feeling like I knew the heart or mind or feelings of the exiled emperor, and the fictional-character-as-inner-circle-sidekick of Octave had all the trappings of a Bernard Cornwell device without any of the adventure, fun, storyline, swashbuckling, or heightened tension of a Cornwell book. It's just average, though I will say that the research has clearly been done and is excellent. (BUT: You get that same research in The Invisible Emperor without having to go through the frills of a fictitious viewpoint.) The author is also weirdly obsessed with people being fat: "the fat wife," "a fat woman," every few pages. Eh. I wanted more insight and emotion, and it's just too stiff for either. It never lets go. It never loses itself. It never gives at the seams. It's simply a writer wishing he were writing nonfiction and trying to hide it under the guise of a novel. I applaud his knowledge, but fiction isn't a satisfactory vehicle for it.

[Robin Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sixth Coalition has finally defeated France. Napoleon is forced to abdicate. The Bourbons are restored to power. Yet, the fiery spirit of French nationalism is absent. As the Congress of Vienna drags on and on, the story of Napoleon's exile, told by his loyal aide, Octave, grows longer and longer, culminating in a calculated escape from the island of Elba, only to rule France for another hundred days until the Battle of Waterloo.

In this book, Napoleon is not the Bonaparte of 1805, 1806, and 1809, the Bonaparte of Austerlitz, Jena, and Wagram. He is a broken shell of his former self, ridden with a venereal disease, without the army of 1812, and without the men of 1809.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history, or to anyone looking for a good book to read. In fact, the entire series is excellent, and deserving of praise.

[Romain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comment un homme qui a gouverné l’Europe peut-il se retrouver sur un îlot avec les pouvoirs d’un sous-préfet ? La question posée par Patrick Rambaud dans l'autoentretien figurant à la fin du livre le résume à elle seule. Le contraste est tellement fort entre l'Empire, la Grande Armée et cet île minuscule où vit une poignée d'habitants qu'il en devient un ressort comique:

Le comte Bertrand indiqua de l’ongle un point perdu en mer à côté de la Corse.
— On dirait un puceron.
— C’est pourtant l’île d’Elbe.
— Une île, ça ? Un rocher, oui.

Prenez un grand homme politique et parachutez-le à la tête d'une circonscription au fin fond de la campagne ou un capitaine d'industrie et mettez-le aux commandes d'une laverie automatique et vous obtiendrez le même comique de situation.

Ce côté ubuesque est tellement souligné dans le livre qu'il paraîtrait forcé, grossier si on ne le savait inspiré de faits réels. Ce décalage est malheureusement le seul attrait du livre dont j'ai trouvé le début assez confus et vécu le reste comme une suite d'anecdotes à l'intérêt inégal. La vie sur l'île qui occupe environ deux tiers du livre et traitée avec un ton léger qui tranche avec les deux précédents romans. Ce ton semble refléter l'état d'esprit de l'empereur déchu. Dans la trilogie de Patrick Rambaud comme il semblerait dans la réalité, Napoléon est plus à sa place sur les champs de bataille qu'à la tête d'une île microscopique de la méditerranée.

Souvent, dans les casernes, des trompettes sonnaient Il reviendra. Et le soir, les anciens de la Grande Armée trinquaient à l’Absent.

http://www.aubonroman.com/2012/08/lab...

[Siegfried Gony · Rating 2 out of 5]

Patrick Rambaud s'est passionné pour l'Empereur. Dans son style fluide, alerte, il nous entraine dans la débâcle de l'empereur en 1814 puis dans sa gestion quotidienne de l'île d'Elbe. Les personnages sont attachants, le jeune héros, mais aussi le gouverneur de l'île, particulièrement truculent. J'ai beaucoup appris à la faveur de cette lecture sur la vie quotidienne de l'Empereur et sa capacité de travail vraiment impressionnante

[Joe Bartello]

started this one...found the writing difficult...may return to it...the subject fascinates me

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Historical chronicle....1815 France, Italy....chronicle of the year 1815 when Napolean was exiled to Elba.

Dry, shallow, lots of French names.

[Francois · Rating 3 out of 5]

3e de la trilogie de Rambaud sur Napoléon. Se concentre avec plein de détails sur la fuite de Napoléon dans l'île d'Elbe. Pas aussi bon que les 2 premiers, mais quand même réussi.

[Lisa Perez]

This was nice to read right after my trip from Paris because it made everything a bit more visual for me. It gave a pretty good account of Napoleon's exile to the island of Elba.

[Alejandra Ceballos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Español de españa, no hay traducción latinoamericana -_-
Me costó trabajo entender, pero muy interesante.

[Pierre Sabourin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Napoleon's exile