The Emperor's Last Island: A Journey to St. Helena download epub

by Julia Blackburn

Julia_Blackburn Writing_Research_and_Publishing_Guides English

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The Emperor's last island" begins with some fascinating natural history of the origins of St Helena and the impact of human settlement on the flora and fauna, but the bulk of the book is given over to reflections about Napoleon's last few years in exile.

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Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821, Blackburn, Julia. New York : Pantheon Books. inlibrary; printdisabled; ; americana. Books for People with Print Disabilities. SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata). Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014).

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In 1814 Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on St. Helena for a surreal exile that would last until his death six years later. Julia Blackburn is the author of several books of nonfiction, including Old Man Goya, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and With Billie, which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award; and of the novels The Book of Color and The Leper’s Companions, both of which were short-listed for the Orange Prize.

Not just a book for history buffs, "The Emperor's Last Island" combines travelogue, natural history, and Blackburn's thoughts on the weight of the past and the corrosive effects of isolation. The writing contained in this slim volume is simply beautiful - limpid, direct, evocative. For all who admire the gentle art of the essay, this book should not be ignored.

The Emperor's Last Stand is a book about St Helena, an island with a sad, strange history, and about the tangle of stories and myths, absurdities and simple facts that have accumulated around Napoleon and his sojourn here. It follows him through the eyes of those who lived with him, who guarded him, who managed only to catch a brief glimpse of him, alive or dead.

Julia Blackburn (born 1948) is a British author of both fiction and non-fiction The Emperor's Last Island: Journey to S. elena (2000).

Julia Blackburn (born 1948) is a British author of both fiction and non-fiction Julia Blackburn's bohemian and troubled upbringing is the subject of her memoir The Three of Us (2008). The Emperor's Last Island: Journey to S. With Billie: A New Look at the Unforgettable Lady Day (2005, Vintage Books, ISBN 0-375-40610-7). My Animals and Other Family (2007).

The Emperor’s Last Island: Journey to S. elena. From the publisher: The Emperor’s Last Stand is a book about St Helena, an island with a sad, strange history, and about the tangle of stories and myths, absurdities and simple facts that have accumulated around Napoleon and his sojourn here.

The Emperor's Last Stand is a book about St Helena, an island with a sad, strange history, and about the tangle of. .

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for The Emperor's Last Island: Journey to.A book about St Helena, where Napoleon spent the last six years of his life - a tiny South Atlantic island with a sad, strange history

A book about St Helena, where Napoleon spent the last six years of his life - a tiny South Atlantic island with a sad, strange history. The book follows Napoleon through the eyes of those who lived with him and guarded him, and is also a description of the author's own journey to the island.

In 1814 Napoleon Bonaparte arrived on St. Helena for a surreal exile that would last until his death six years later. “A resonant meditation on exile, fame, the stories we tell about ourselves (and) the bigger stories we tell about our great figures.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Comments: (7)

Perilanim

This is the factual account of the last 5 years of Bonapartes life on St Helena. Written and researched perfectly. From Emperor as one of the greatest military strategist to a starving, terribly neglected, lonely man. He died of stomach cancer at the young age of 51 with hardly any one around. Such a waste.

Ynap

This book would appeal to anyone interested in history. My interest in the book stems from my own family history as my great great great grandfather went to the Island with his Regiment of the British Army in order to guard Napoleon when he was exiled there.

The book tells the story of Napoleon's day to day life. It shows the hardships that were endured by Napoleon, the staff he brought with him, the soldiers and their families. It tells of the work that the soldiers performed apart from being guards in order to sustain themselves on the Island over the five and a half years that they were stationed there
.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in the History of Napoleons incarceration on the Island
.

Fearlessdweller

This book is not easy to classify � part biography, part memoir, part essay. After Napoleon�s final defeat at Waterloo, the British exiled him to the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he lived the few remaining years of his life. This book, written in the early 1990s, consists of the author's sensitive and insightful musings on Napoleon�s life and death on the island, the relations between him and others in that most unnatural setting and those most unnatural circumstances, the history of St. Helena, the world of Napoleonic studies, the author's visit to St. Helena, and much else. The book is very elliptical and personal, and is perhaps best described as an extended meditation by Blackburne on life and human relationships as displayed in these events. Hard-core Napoleon fans and others looking for a straightforward narrative are likely to be disappointed (though I suspect that more insight into Napoleon's character can be gleaned from this book than from any more prosaic narrative). The book will appeal to readers who enjoy an intimate conversation with a thoughtful woman who, taking as her point of departure the unique and timeless spectacle at the core of the book, has much to say about all of us.

CrazyDemon

A keenest interest in the remotest British overseas territory brought me to purchase this book and to read . Looking back, good that Napoleon was not sent to Tristan da Cunha but Saint Helena Island then. Lucky that his last island was Saint Helena,where I can fly sometime soon if the airport is completed. This amazing book has intensified my interest in history all the more. I will let my sons and daughters as well as my grand-children read this book without fail. Eddie Izumi

Vareyma

I am a great fan of Julia Blackburn and this book is another gem. It's a very good description of his last few years in captivity on this desolate island. It would be rather topical this year on the 200th anniversary of his banishment to Saint Helena. He led a miserable and a frustrating existence but tried to put a brave face on it. Would recommend to history lovers.

Uthergo

yes!

WOGY

Julia Blackburn has produced a fascinating book in the style of travel writing which includes quite a lot of the author's domestic narrative. This is irritating for some readers but I found didn't detract from the larger collection of stories she was imagining and weaving together. "The Emperor's last island" begins with some fascinating natural history of the origins of St Helena and the impact of human settlement on the flora and fauna, but the bulk of the book is given over to reflections about Napoleon's last few years in exile. This isn't a history book as Blackburn makes clear, but it is disappointing nonetheless that she makes some elementary factual errors which either she or her editor should have corrected - including calling Napoleon's uncle, Cardinal Fesch, his brother in law! Sadness fills the accounts of these empty years in the same way damp can take over and eat away at an entire house. One feels so for the once great man, ruler of half the world, left to rot, emotionally, psychologically and physically on a tiny corner of an inhospitable island and constantly watched over by British soldiers and their bitter commander. He is left in the end with nothing but his memories and a few imperial trinkets to play with. Sic transit gloria mundi.

While this book is a history and biography, it can also be read as an interpretive travelogue. Most of the book documents Napoleonâ€™s final incarceration which informs the visit the author makes at the end. It can be read for its history, and in some places, particularly the death and the later exhumation of Napoleon, for the beauty of its prose.

An entourage, including a pastry chef, is all dressed up sitting in rat and bug infested dwellings doing virtually nothing. Guards stand (often at attention) and cannot sit down but for board games. Letters, and the few newspapers allowed, arrive 6 months after they are written. In the first year Napoleon works on his memoirs dictating different portions of his life to attendants. Like others, these transcribing historians get bored and leave.

You follow this existence through time, personnel changes (primarily leavings) and shortages of this and that. Napoleon voraciously reads whatever comes on ships. His health deteriorates and he gains weight. He builds a garden and tries a fish pond and transplants trees to mixed success.

You feel the weight of the life on this lonely outpost.

The Emperor's Last Island: A Journey to St. Helena download epub

Writing Research & Publishing Guides

Author: Julia Blackburn
ISBN: 0679739378
Category: Reference
Subcategory: Writing Research & Publishing Guides
Language: English
Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (March 31, 1993)
Pages: 277 pages

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