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

A "magically idiosyncratic collage of history, biography and travel writing" (The Times), Blackburn's book touched me very deeply. Her portrayal of Napoleon, one of the mightiest and most famous men of history, as a fat, pale, short middle-aged man condemned to live out his life in loneliness, boredom, absurdity, and despair (and great physical pain in the end) makes for compelling reading. However, other portions of the book were to me equally touching: the story of Fernando Lopez, a Portugese nobleman condemned to torture and disfigurement, and finally self-imposed exile on the island for a treasonous crime, who (with the help of gifts) transformed St. Helena into an oasis of extraordinary lushness and beauty; the savaging and disfigurement of the island in later ages; the quietly awful decline that holds sway over it today. Blackburn weaves personal childhood and travel anecdotes into her story, lending it a further poignancy and immediacy. Beautifully done!

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.

I have dined off his fine china and watched him play with the children of his initial host on the island. I have been transported through time and space, a reaction I have had only rarely. Ms. Blackburn has created a reality worthy of attention. The aura of the house, the luminosity of Napoleon's complexion and the thinking of his English overseers are only a part of that reality. The prose is clear and compelling. The past, the natural history of St. Helena and Ms. Blackburn's present day doings complement one another. On the map, St. Helena is as much "in the middle of nowhere" as any place on earth. And Ms. Blackburn makes going there an enlightening journey.

This is a beautifully written book, not in any poetic sense, but in the sense of being readable and thoroughly interesting. I feel that I personally have visited St Helena and viewed the remains of the places visited and lived in by Napoleon during his exile until his death. EXCELLENT!!!!

Julia Blackburn, a finalist for this year's Orange Prize, has crafted a luminous meditation on Napoleon's final exile to the distant island of St. Helena. 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.