Product Description

After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to the island of St Helena, where he was to spend the last six years of his life at Longwood. Jean-Paul Kauffmann visits the termite-infested house and sits in the Emperor's room. The house slowly becomes alive with the great man's presence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #881865 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-01
• Original language: French
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
This is an unusually intelligent, elegiac book; not merely an account of Napoleon's last days in exile on the remote Atlantic island of St Helena, but also a meditation on the inter-relations of past and present and the shadow a figure as gigantic as Napoleon casts into futurity. On one level the book is a travelogue, as Kauffmann revisits modern St Helena and describes what he finds; the small-scale lives of the islanders are related with tenderness as well as humour. But we also learn a great deal about Napoleon as Kauffmann passes through the places associated with him, and attempts to get inside the head of the deposed emperor.

There is a danger of pretentiousness, and there are moments where the Gallic gush is a little much; but overall the sheer force of Kauffmann's imagination fuses the whole into a powerful and affecting unity. In particular, his lyrical, poetic style has been well translated and there are many striking moments. The beaches of St Helena, for instance, are described as "black shingle, shiny as nuts of coal". Even the sunrise in this part of the world has a prison- like feel to it: "only one ray from the rising sun manages to pierce the clouds, falling on a corner of the coast as through a basement window." Thought-provoking and often exquisite, this is a unique sort of history. --Adam Roberts

Customer Reviews

The Darkroom at Longwood, a superb read!
I very much enjoyed this book by Jean-Paul Kauffmann. It has made me forever curious about the island Saint Helena and the voyage on the (last) english Royal Mail Ship that serves it.
Kauffmann brings close the odours and colours of the windswept mountain on which Longwood stands, flying the French tricolor, guarded by the French consul who takes care of the building and museum, and who seems somewhat reluctant in disclosing it to strangers. The writer's description of his fellow travellers on the ship is amusing and one can feel the Kauffmann's fascination with Napoleon. Especially if one has this fascination oneself!

Poetic, brooding but dull
There is some lovely writing in this book but this doesn't make up for the fact that there aren't really many insights into the mind of Napoleon or much vigour about the descriptions of his daily life in exile. It is full of the Author's broody musings which are very nicely written but after a hundred pages of these they wear pretty thin. It has prompted my interest in Napoloeon and I will be looking for a good book about his life. This is a very subjective collection of musings but it doesn't amount to much. It's a shame, I was really looking forward to reading it.