Napoleon's Exile

Patrick Rambaud closes his epic trilogy, which began with The Battle, winner of the Prix Goncourt and the Grand Prix Roman de l'Academie Francaise, and The Retreat, with this stunningly intimate look at Napoleon. In 1814 Napoleon is racing back to Paris from the debacle of his Russian invasion. A plot afoot in the capital--to return a royal to the throne--succeeds, and Napoleon's marshals force him to abdicate and go into exile. Octave Senecal, Napoleon's loyal aide and savior and one of Rambaud's marvelous creations, tells the tale of their journey south through the angry, mob-filled countryside to Elba, a tiny island off the coast of Tuscany. Here Patrick Rambaud brings to life not the Napoleon of the history books, but Napoleon the man--a man horribly bored by exile, gambling with his mother to pass the time, spearing the occasional tuna with local fishermen, and fretting constantly that secret agents and murderers surround him. He is soon planning his escape, while in France his former soldiers spend their evenings drinking to the return of "l'absent." They won't have long to wait.Rambaud, Patrick is the author of 'Napoleon's Exile' with ISBN 9780802118264 and ISBN 0802118267.