Why Napoleon? Read on to discover how this unlikely man—who’s both revered and reviled—defined an era. But you won’t learn much about battles here. I’m interested in Napoleon himself, in the people around him, and in the culture of his era. St. Helena Island in the remote South Atlantic, where Napoleon spent the last five years of his life in exile (and which I visited in 2011), is a particular fascination of mine.
My novel, FINDING NAPOLEON—with its adaptation of Napoleon Bonaparte’s real attempt to write a novel—offers a fresh take on Europe’s most powerful man after he’s lost everything. A forgotten woman of history, the audacious Albine de Montholon, narrates their tale of intrigue, love, and betrayal.
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After seeing the photo of me riding an elephant, one of this blog’s readers asked if Napoleon had ridden a camel during his Egyptian Campaign (1798). Yes, Melanie! Here’s a photo I took of a small bronze statue of the Man himself on camelback. It’s displayed in the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio, Corsica, Napoleon’s hometown. […]
Napoleon on Camelback in the Musée Fesch Read More »
I’m thrilled to announce that my Napoleon novel won the Best Fiction Award at the San Francisco Writers Conference. I’d submitted the first twenty-five pages of my manuscript several weeks ago and knew it had placed as a top ten finalist. It was a wonderful surprise to have it chosen as winner. This past weekend
Best Fiction Award San Francisco Writers Conference Read More »
In November, 2012, I took a break from writing about Napoleon to travel in Southeast Asia, visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. It was primarily a bicycling trip, and, I assure you, my equipment was higher quality than what you see above in the photo snapped in the picturesque fields of Vietnam. Here’s another method
Finding Napoleon in Southeast Asia Read More »
This portrait of Napoleon, painted in 1812 before the Emperor’s departure on the disastrous Russian expedition, is one of my favorites. The Duke of Hamilton, who, as a Stuart, considered himself the rightful heir to the Scottish throne, commissioned Jacques-Louis David to paint it. It hangs now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC,
Napoleon at the National Gallery in Washington, DC Read More »
As far back as Corsican records go, Napoleon’s family signed their name “Bonaparte.” In 1759, Napoleon’s father, Carlo, in his quest to establish hereditary links to Tuscan nobility, changed to the Italian “Buonoparte” form. Ten years later, his second son, Napoleon, was born under that surname. Because Carlo had succeeded in establishing the family’s noble
Bonaparte or Buonaparte? Read More »
As I wrote in an earlier post, the Corsican assembly, in 1793, voted unanimously “to inflict on the individuals making up [the family] Bonaparte an eternal brand that renders their name and their memory detestable to [all Corsican] patriots.” Six years later, however, during a stopover on Napoleon’s return from the Egyptian campaign, the Corsicans
Bonapartes banished from Corsica and France Read More »
On August 15, 1769, in Ajaccio, Corsica, the Archdeacon Lucien Buonaparte celebrated the festival of the Virgin Mary, the town’s patron saint. Young Letizia Buonaparte, interrupting her devotions, hurried home to give birth to her second son. The boy was named Napoleon after an uncle who had died several months earlier while fighting in vain
Happy Birthday, Emperor Napoleon Read More »
In June 1812, Emperor Napoleon marched from Paris with one of the greatest armies ever raised. By the end of the year, what started out as 600,000 troops had dwindled to the mere 25,000 who made it home alive. One can blame disease, a severe winter, and the Russian scorched earth policy for hundreds of
200th Anniversary of the Russian Campaign Read More »
The recent death of the Galapagos Islands’ iconic tortoise, Lonesome George, sent me scrambling for my copy of The Voyage of the HMS Beagle. Sure enough, Charles Darwin, who made the Galapagos famous, had also stopped at St Helena Island. He arrived there on July 8, 1836, five and half years into his six-year trip
Darwin, Tortoises and St Helena Read More »
Napoleon’s first wife Josephine was born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Martinique on June 23, 1763. If you could ask her, however, she’d probably lie and tell you her birth year was 1767, which was what she wrote on her marriage documents. Napoleon also lied on those documents, saying he, too, had
Happy Birthday, Empress Josephine! Read More »
