St Helena is one of the most remote, and yet most famous, islands in the world—it was the final place of exile for Napoleon Bonaparte until his death in 1821. The island remains a place of mystery as a unique colonial survivor, with the island’s inhabitants still dependent on the support of the British government.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
It is a curious fact, observes Willms, that Napoleon always came to grief on islands. He was forced to flee his native Corsica, failed to conquer Britain, was exiled to a miniature empire on Elba and pitifully ended his days banished to a tiny, rocky speck in the South Atlantic. It is on the last—St. Helena, the world's best-known, little-known island—that Willms, a German journalist and biographer of Napoleon, concentrates, in this absorbing travelogue and history entry in the Armchair Traveller series. The former emperor complained mightily as to his fate, but eventually settled down to a life of constant surveillance, grinding tedium and thoroughly bad food. His loneliness was relieved only by the British taxpayers' hefty subsidy for a 38-person household—who he insisted wear full dress uniforms and observe courtly rituals—and sometimes the games of blind-man's-bluff he played with his guardians' children. Willms traces the aftermath of the emperor's death and the birth of the Napoleonic legend, as well as continuing the story of St. Helena to the present, in a book that will appeal to Napoleonogists and inspire travelers looking for an undiscovered destination. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Johannes Willms, born 1948, is a historian and journalist. He was in charge of the editorial office at ZDF (German TV Channel) and later the feature section at the Süddeutsche Zeitung. He now works for the Süddeutsche Zeitung as the culture correspondent in Paris. His latest book is Napoleon. A Biography.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Napoleon and St. Helena,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Napoleon & St Helena: On the Island of Exile (Armchair Traveller) (Hardcover)
Had hoped to learn more about his activities on the Island. Seemed sparse; probably because there was very little information available. Not so on the book written about his time on Elba.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No Man Is An Island,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Napoleon & St Helena: On the Island of Exile (Armchair Traveller) (Hardcover)
An interesting, short book on the remote island of St. Helena and its most famous resident. A good purchase for that next cross-country flight.
Not a believer in the overblown legend of the alleged mistreatment of Napoleon by the British, Johannes Willms, a German, weaves a good story about St. Helena, both past and present. (It is an island really not suited for human settlement.) His material on the politics surrounding the return of Napoleon's body to France and of later ineffectual efforts to preserve the site of Longwood (the residence of Napoleon while on the island of exile) is quite good. I recommend that the interested reader on this subject obtain the excellently written book by Jean-Paul Kauffmann "The Black Room At Longwood" published in 1997 for thoughts on this same basic topic from a different perspective. At the end, one is amazed at the time and expense taken to imprison, and then bury, one physically small man.
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