num_pages: 320
description: Like his subject, Napoleon, author Jean-Paul Kauffmann has experienced captivity, as a three-year hostage in Beirut. He brings his insider's knowledge to this moving account of the most famous French soldier's last years in seclusion on a tropical island. After his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was exiled and imprisoned by the British on the island of St. Helena. He became increasingly withdrawn, surviving on a diet of memories that he recounted to the few people around him. But the book -- part history, part travelogue -- portrays the leader as a prisoner also of his mind, poisoned by nostalgia for his triumphs and grief over his defeats. "A haunting, unforgettable book....Kauffmann captures the desolate atmosphere of Napoleon's last home with evocative precision." -- Boston Globe
language: English
title: The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on Saint Helena
titlecomplete: The Black Room at Longwood: Napoleon's Exile on Saint Helena
genres: Biography, France, History, Nonfiction, Travel
ratings_count: 124
awards: awardedAt: 852105600000
name: Grand Prix RTL-Lire, awardedAt: 915177600000
name: National Book Critics Circle Award
category: General Nonfiction, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Scott Moncrieff Prize
category: Patricia Clancy
publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows