Dark Room At Longwood

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.

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After Waterloo, Napoleon gave himself up to the British, expecting to end his days leading the life of a country gentleman. Instead he was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena where he was to spend the last six years of his life in a house called Longwood. Jean-Paul Kauffmann, who was himself imprisoned as a hostage in Beirut for three years, visits Longwood and sits for days in the French Emperor s simple room in an attempt to understand those years of exile. The past seeps into the present and the house slowly comes alive with the great man s presence. Napoleon was accompanied to St. Helena by a faithful few whose eye-witness accounts reveal how he coped with his captivity and how it finally crushed him. The Dark Room at Longwood is Kauffmann s journey back into the past and a finely written, highly evocative exploration of Napoleon s final years.