The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World [Hardcover]

Patricia Tyson Stroud (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2000

Cited as one of the Best Books of 2000 by Library Journal

In the early years of the Republic, America was a land filled with uncharted flora and fauna, a treasure-trove for every naturalist in the world. One such naturalist was Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano and Canino, nephew of the Emperor Napoleon. Called the father of American descriptive ornithology, Charles-Lucien was the author of the monumental American Ornithology: or, The Natural History of Birds Inhabiting the United States not given by Wilson.

Born in 1803 to Lucien, a younger brother of Napoleon, Charles spent his early childhood in Rome, where his father, an ardent republican and opponent of the Empire, had sought papal protection. In 1810, at the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the family left Italy with the intent of emigrating to the United States; instead, they were apprehended by the British off Sardinia and taken to England, where for four years they lived publicly as celebrated captives. Charles was privately tutored, learning English and concentrating on his favorite subject, natural history.

With his wife—and first cousin—Zenaide, Charles joined his uncle Joseph in exile in Bordentown, New Jersey, in 1822. Stroud recreates the lives of these not quite Americanized Bonapartes in splendid and startling detail. Point Breeze, Joseph's estate, encompassed 1700 acres dotted with formal French gardens and a large artificial lake stocked with imported European swans. Here Charles hunted and studied birds, and encountered such purely American animals as the skunk and the rattlesnake. It was here, too, that American Ornithology took shape, and that he first collaborated with the still-unknown John James Audubon.

When Charles left America in 1828, he traveled to Italy and wrote works of comparative zoology, as well as a magisterial study of the mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish of that country. Throughout the next decades he was instrumental in setting up scientific congresses in Italy, where scientists the world over were welcome. Yet he was also involved in the growing republican movement in Italy, and it was because of this that he was forced to flee the country and eventually settle in France under the protection of his cousin, the hated Napoleon III.

Based extensively on archival sources, including many unpublished letters still in the possession of the Bonaparte family, The Emperor of Nature is the first biography ever written of Charles-Lucien Bonaparte. Forced by the circumstances of his birth to be a perpetual visitor, he nonetheless carved out a place for himself in the science of the natural world. It is at once a compelling story of the fate of Europe's imperial family, and an impressive contribution to the history of nineteenth-century science.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this extensively researched, detailed, and skillfully written work of natural history and familial squabbles, Stroud, a scientific scholar and author of Thomas Say, New World Naturalist, presents a historical, political, and scientific account on the leading ornithologist of the 19th century"who also happened to be Napoleon!s nephew. In a clear, precise, and witty manner, she conveys the life of Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803$57) from birth to death through his own letters and publications and through the letters and correspondence of his contemporaries: Agassiz, Audubon, Gould, Huxley, Owen, Say, and many other great naturalists of the 19th century. A wonderful read, this biography, the first ever of Charles-Lucien, includes a vast bibliography and over 30 pages of notes. Recommended for all libraries."Michael R. Blake, formerly with Harvard Univ. Lib.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Extensively researched, detailed, and skillfully written."—Library Journal

"Patricia Tyson Stroud deserves the highest commendation for this superb biography. She has dug deeply into a virtual treasure trove of European and American archival sources. . . . She has unearthed numerous illustrations of people and places. She details the exceedingly complicated relationships, intrigues, and political machinations within this royal family. . . . This book will be of interest to all ornithologists with a historical bent, and to anyone interested in royalty in general or the Bonaparte family in particular. "—Canadian Field-Naturalist

"Stroud captures the life of an important, but virtually unknown, contributor to American ornithology…captures the man's accomplishments, frustrations, and idiosyncrasies clearly and objectively."—Choice

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; First Edition edition (May 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812235460
• ISBN-13: 978-0812235463
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,282,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating biography, erudite yet highly readable, September 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World (Hardcover)

Fans of the Bonaparte family and of 19th-century science have had to wait a long time for a biography of Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's nephew and the leading ornithologist of his age -- this is the first. Happily, it has been worth the wait. Stroud has crafted a masterly portrait of a gregarious, complicated, hugely talented man, who published the first volume of his famous American Ornithology when he was just 22. By drawing on Bonaparte's own voluminous correspondence and those of others to and about him, which fortunately survive in great abundance, Stroud brings alive a man full of contradictions. Bonaparte was fiercely devoted to his scientific efforts, though drawn away from them by radical politics. He loved his wife and children dearly but neglected them, often for months at a time. He was ever concerned about money, yet on numerous occasions gambled away what little he had. Bonaparte's time and contemporaries are equally well-drawn, with some of the foremost scientific, literary, and political figures of the day drifting in and out of Bonaparte's rich life with pleasing regularity -- luminaries like Louis Agassiz, James Fenimore Cooper, Isadore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, and, of course, Napoleon himself. One of the book's great contributions is a highly readable fleshing out of Bonaparte's close yet often tempestuous relationship with Audubon. Stroud has enlivened Emperor of Nature with luscious illustrations (including a beautiful color insert) chronicling every stage of Bonaparte's life, and she supplies complete reference notes and bibliography. If you liked Stroud's biography of the naturalist Thomas Say, you'll love this.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Engrossing and Engaging, August 27, 2000

By 

Howard W. Harrison, Jr. (Sedgwick Village, Maine USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World (Hardcover)

One does not have to be an ornithologist, and I am not, to become absorbed in this scholarly yet eminently approachable biography. The life of the nephew of the Emperor Napoleon is placed confidently in the turbulent times on both sides of the Atlantic. While its focus is on the man who "helped to lay the foundation for the modern science of ornitholoy, upon which Darwin based his theory of evolution," it is, at the same time, a history of the era in which he lived. Ms. Stroud turns quite a phrase ("the ground rumbling with revolution") and I surprised myself by reading it from start to finish in one long pleasant afternoon.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Resolution for 2001, January 3, 2001

By 

Mary Rose C. Schlatter (Williamsburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World (Hardcover)

Adding The Emperor of Nature to your "must read" list will be one resolution that you will find a joy to keep. The author's graceful style in this scholarly, yet never pedantic, biography of the complex, heretofore little recognized naturalist and ornithologist, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, is sparked by insightful and witty asides. Players in this intellectual and political history--the contraversial Bonaparte family, both its men and women, James Audubon, Thomas Say and other natural historians--emerge as distinct personalities as we read Bonaparte's lively--often impassioned--correspondence. The drama of Bonaparte's life, marked by his lifelong dedication to the science of natural history, is deftly enhanced by rich descriptive detail as each "scene is set". Equal attention is given to the underbrush of family and scientific disputes and jealousies, to the complications of early 19th century travel and the preservation of specimens, and to physical and psychological health issues. The abundant illustrations throughout, including many from the author's own collection, (it is always so disappointing when the illustrations in a biography, no matter how erudite, are limited to a tiny center folio of tired old photographs!) were a delight to this fascinated reader.