The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon is built around a bizarre historical event and an off-hand challenge. The event? In December 1840, nearly twenty years after his death, the remains of Napoleon were returned to Paris for burial—and the next day, the director of a Paris hospital for the insane admitted fourteen men who claimed to be Napoleon. The challenge, meanwhile, is the claim by great French psychiatrist Jean-Étienne-Dominique Esquirol (1772–1840) that he could recount the history of France through asylum registries. From those two components, Laure Murat embarks on an exploration of the surprising relationship between history and madness. She uncovers countless stories of patients whose delusions seem to be rooted in the historical or political traumas of their time, like the watchmaker who believed he lived with a new head, his original having been removed at the guillotine. In the troubled wake of the Revolution, meanwhile, French physicians diagnosed a number of mental illnesses tied to current events, from “revolutionary neuroses” and “democratic disease” to the “ambitious monomania” of the Restoration. How, Murat asks, do history and psychiatry, the nation and the individual psyche, interface? A fascinating history of psychiatry—but of a wholly new sort—The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon offers the first sustained analysis of the intertwined discourses of madness, psychiatry, history, and political theory.

Young Elizabeth Balcombe, or Betsy to friends and family, found life on the remote island of St Helena intolerably dull. Most fourteen-year-olds would. Her father had been posted to that unforgiving station in the Atlantic and, being a family man, he took his family with him. Life was bleak in Balcombe's bungalow on the fringe of James Town. But then, in October 1815, the situation was transformed by the arrival of an unusual visitor. Napoleon Bonaparte, one-time master of Europe, now prisoner and exile, stepped ashore. The Balcombes, like all the islanders, were amazed. And even more so when Napoleon, taking a fancy to their bungalow (the Briars) moved in with them. Betsy, overcoming her surprise at sharing her home with an emperor, delighted in his company and the two became firm friends. Miss Betsy Balcombe made the most of her time with the world's most famous prisoner, keenly observing all around her, noting down conversations, recording moods. The result is a unique set of memoirs which records in astonishing detail an almost unbelievable story. That of how a precocious teenager and an emperor talked, argued, played, confided and teased their way through grim years of exile on the barren rock of St Helena. This attractive, illustrated edition brings this remarkable story back to life.

This book is suitable for children age 9 and above. Napoleon Bonaparte was the first emperor of France. He was a very successful military general and he led his army into many victorious battles. This is the story of how a lawyer's son rose to become a powerful emperor.

France is embroiled in war with Austria as Napoleon races from victory at Castiglione into the ragged peaks of the Tyrol. His aim: defeat the cunning General Würmser and conquer the fortress stronghold of Mantua. But even while Napoleon pursues Würmser down the Brenta River Valley, Austrian forces are secretly gathering under General Alvinczy. They plan a daring offensive to drive the outnumbered French from Italy entirely. So begins a thrilling campaign that will span continents, from the snow-capped Alps to the swirling sands of Egypt. Pursuing his grand vision of strangling English trade by conquering Alexandria and Cairo, Napoleon must defeat both Ottoman forces and the unforgiving desert itself. Even a prowling British Navy led by admiral Lord Nelson cannot deter the ambitious Corsican from this vital strategic prize. This well-researched history analyses Napoleon’s audacious Italian and Egyptian operations. Can his Army of Italy withstand aggressive Austrian counterattacks in the mountainous Italian theatre? Will the harsh Egyptian frontier thwart Napoleon’s expanding ambitions and grand strategy? This scholarly appraisal provides authoritative perspectives on these pivotal early campaigns of Napoleon’s meteoric career.