The Death of Napoleon

"Simon Leys is an excellent fabulist." (New York Times Book Review)

Part fable, part alternative history, Leys's brief, funny, and compulsively readable novel in which Napoleon escapes exile just before death is as deep and compelling as it is quirky and fresh

As he bore a vague resemblance to the Emperor, the sailors on board the Hermann-Augustus Stoeffer had nicknamed him Napoleon. And so, for convenience, that is what we shall call him.
Besides, he was Napoleon. . . .

Napoleon has escaped from St. Helena, leaving a double behind him. Now disguised as the cabin hand Eugène Lenormand and enduring the mockery of the crew (Na­po­leon, they laughingly nickname the pudgy, hopelessly clumsy little man), he is on his way back to Europe, ready to make contact with the huge secret organization that will return him to power. But then the ship on which he sails is rerouted from Bordeaux to Antwerp. When Napoleon disembarks, he is on his own.

He revisits the battlefield of Waterloo, now a tourist destination. He makes his way to Paris. Mistakes, misunderstandings, and mishaps conduct our puzzled hero deeper and deeper into the mystery of Napoleon.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Published: 05/05/2015
ISBN: 9781590178423
Pages: 144
Weight: 0.30lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.40d