Napoleon

Finding Napoleon in Berlin

Napoleon carrying off Berlin's Quadriga

The city’s iconic Brandenburg Gate gained international prominence on October 27, 1806, when Napoleon Bonaparte paraded his victorious Grand Armée through its arches. The Quadriga, a bronze statue of Victory and her four-horse chariot by the artist Johann Gottfried Schadow (1764- 1850) graced the arcade, as it does now. That day in 1806, Napoleon Bonaparte instructed his cultural minister Vivant Denon to send it home to Paris.

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Napoleon on St Helena: Reading Books

My last post covered a few of the ways Napoleon Bonaparte filled his days during his five-and-a-half-year exile on St Helena Island. However, his most important pastime—the one he did every day—was reading. Throughout his life, Napoleon was a voracious reader and book collector. As an impoverished young man, he lived a monkish life, often

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Napoleon’s Pastimes on St Helena

Napoleon At Rest on St Helena

How did Napoleon Bonaparte spend the 2,029 days of his exile on St Helena? After all, the Great Man (or Monster, depending on your point of view) jam-packed his previous forty-six years. At sixteen, he rushed through Paris’ École Militaire to graduate after one year instead of the normal two. In 1798, on his way

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Napoleon Bonaparte, A True Corsican?

Angry drummers during parade in Ajaccio on August 18, 2011. To celebrate the Virgin Mary, patron saint of Corsica

A belated happy birthday to Napoleon Bonaparte who was born 246 years ago, on August 15, 1769, in this house on the island of Corsica. That lightly-populated island’s strategic position in the Mediterranean led to its repeated conquest and colonization, starting with the Phoenicians in 565 BCE. Over the next two millennia, Romans, Vandals, Ostrogoths,

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Finding Napoleon Bonaparte FACE-to-FACE

During my travels to do research on Napoleon Bonaparte, I’ve taken hundreds of photographs of Napoleonic sites, art, memorabilia, and related objects. I’ve learned a lot about about military campaigns, geopolitics, and daily life in his times. I’ve become fascinated (and distracted by) the countless characters who surrounded Napoleon, from his birth in Corsica through

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