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, 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.

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Excerpt from Napoleon at Fontainebleau and Elba: Being a Journal of Occurrences in 1814-1815; With Notes of Conversations Some friends to whom it was then shown, agreed in thinking that, over and above the value of every fragment bearing upon Napoleon's history, the Diary of Sir Neil Campbell contained much information not hitherto disclosed, touching the conduct of Napoleon during his residence at Elba, the preparations for his escape, and his consummate skill both in veiling and executing the manoeuvres which led to the crowning event of his career. It was therefore decided that the Journal should no longer remain in its manuscript form, but be laid before the general reader. In the next place it seemed necessary to prefix a brief Memoir of the Author, in order to Show (how ever imperfectly) what manner of man he was. But here many difficulties arose from the scarcity of materials. There were few of Sir Neil Campbell's letters or papers at hand, by help of which to trace out the story of his life from year to year.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.