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by Gilbert Martineau
| Hardback in Very Good condition, in a Very Good Dust Jacket. The book in pale blue cloth, with gold lettering down spine, title enclosed in a long black label, gold saw-tooth edging. The Dust Jacket has been price clipped. No nicks, tears or crease, spine sun faded.
Published by John Murray (Publishers) Ltd 1976.
Translated from the French by Frances Partridge.
206 pages, with four pages of black and white pictures.
14.2cm x 22.3cm x 2.1cm.
Weight: 375gms.
Jacket Design by: Craig Dodd.
Jacket illustrations: (front) The transhipment of Napoleon's coffin from La Belle Poule to the Normandie at Cherbourg; (back) The Catafalque in the Chapelle Ardente from a book of contemporary lithographs by Victor Adam.
The news of Napoleon's death in exile on St Helena on May 5, 1821 created as much stir in London as in Paris and resulted in a wave of Bonapartism. The drama that followed had wide repercussions in France and in England and greatly affected the lives of all the Bonaparte family, especially Madame Mere (who wrote to Lord Castlereagh asking for her son's remains to be returned to France but received no reply), the ex-Empress Marie-Louise and Napoleon's young son, the King of Rome. Yet it was not until 1840 that an expedition was sent to St Helena headed by the Prince de Joinville, son of the French King Louis Philippe, to bring back Napoleon's mortal remains to the Invalides. The elderly survivors of his suite were present at the simple burial ground near Longwood House, in tears at seeing their Emperor almost as they remembered him, for the brief moment before the coffin was closed for ever.
French and English soldiers lined the route to La Belle Poule, the ship that was to take Napoleon back to France. There were vast crowds in Paris to watch the final triumphal procession to the Invalides with veterans of Napoleon's campaigns in their faded uniforms and Louis Philippe himself receiving the coffin. The extraordinary scenes which greeted Napoleon's return are admirably described by this distinguished French writer. His book also covers the birth of the Napoleonic legend, St Helena after 1840 and the beginning of better relations between France and England. It is illustrated by remarkable original engravings made at the time.
Gilbert Martineau, O.B.E. is the French Consul at St Helena and lives at Longwood House.
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Publisher: John Murray Ltd
ISBN: 0719532930
Condition: VG / VG |
1976
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| Postage & Handling to UK mainland: £4.00 | Price: £4.50
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