Research Catalog

The invisible emperor : Napoleon on Elba from exile to escape

Title
The invisible emperor : Napoleon on Elba from exile to escape / Mark Braude.
Author
Braude, Mark
Publication
  • New York : Penguin Press, 2018.
  • ©2018

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TextUse in library JFE 18-9104Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description
xx, 360 pages : maps; 25 cm
Summary
"Part forensic investigation, part dramatic jailbreak adventure, Mark Braude's The Invisible Emperor is a gripping narrative history of Napoleon Bonaparte's ten-month exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba In the spring of 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. Having overseen an empire spanning half the European continent and governed the lives of some eighty million people, he suddenly found himself exiled to Elba, less than a hundred square miles of territory. This would have been the end of him, if Europe's rulers had had their way. But soon enough Napoleon imposed his preternatural charisma and historic ambition on both his captors and the very island itself, plotting his return to France and to power. After ten months of exile, he escaped Elba with just of over a thousand supporters in tow, landed near Antibes, marched to Paris, and retook the Tuileries Palace--all without firing a shot. Not long after, tens of thousands of people would die fighting for and against him at Waterloo. Braude dramatizes this strange exile and improbable escape in granular detail and with novelistic relish, offering sharp new insights into a largely overlooked moment. He details a terrific cast of secondary characters, including Napoleon's tragically-noble official British minder on Elba, Neil Campbell, forever disgraced for having let "Boney" slip away; and his young second wife, Marie Louise who was twenty-two to Napoleon's forty-four, at the time of his abdication. What emerges is a surprising new perspective on one of history's most consequential figures, which both subverts and celebrates his legendary persona" --
Subjects
Genre/Form
Nonfiction.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-350) and index.
Contents
The morning of the poison lump -- A lodger in his own life -- Napoleon in rags -- This new country -- Gilded keys -- Rough music -- The Robinson Crusoe of Elba -- My island is very little -- Louis the Gouty and the weathervane man -- Pretty valley, trees, forest, and water -- The emperor is dead -- And every tuna bows to him -- A death, a treaty, and a celebration -- A ridiculous noise -- The more unfavorably does he appear -- Ubicumque Felix Napoleon -- Sirocco -- Sultry confinement -- The one-eyed count -- A perfectly bourgeois simplicity -- Tall Fanny and the two empresses Bonaparte -- Taking the cure -- Tourist season -- The politics of forgetting -- He is tolerably happy -- The vulgar details of married lives -- Don Giovanni, Cinderella, and Undine -- I think he is capable of crossing over -- The oil merchant and other visitors -- He had been called coward! -- A last goodbye -- The sadness of my retirement -- The (near) wreck of the Inconstant -- Bourbon difficulties -- Nights at the theater -- Pietro St. Ernest, otherwise known as Fleury du Chaboulon -- The eagle prepares for flight -- The oil merchant returns -- Campbell in Florence -- Mardi Gras -- Tower of Babel -- Everything was quiet at Elba -- Inconstant -- At sea -- Campbell lands at Elba -- Our beautiful France -- The partridge in pursuit -- Golfe-Juan -- Most reluctantly I have felt called upon to mention it -- In an iron cage -- Urgent -- Laffrey -- To contemplate all objects at a certain angle -- Napoleon, Marie Louise, Campbell, and Elba.
Call Number
JFE 18-9104
ISBN
  • 9780735222601
  • 0735222606
LCCN
2018031919
OCLC
1023859621
Author
Braude, Mark, author.
Title
The invisible emperor : Napoleon on Elba from exile to escape / Mark Braude.
Publisher
New York : Penguin Press, 2018.
Copyright Date
©2018
Edition
First edition.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 333-350) and index.
Chronological Term
1814-1815
Other Form:
Online version: Braude, Mark, author. Invisible emperor First edition. New York : Penguin Press, 2018 9780735222618 (DLC) 2018044898
Research Call Number
JFE 18-9104
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