Articles

A selection of publications from the last year to put you in a Napoleonic mood this summer. Have a look at last year’s Summer reading list or our most recent Christmas selection for more ideas.

Off St. Helena: Friday, 15th August, 1817 Copied by his great-grand-daughter, M.C. Bernard, from the diary of Lieut. Herbert John Clifford, R.N, 1817 [written on board H.M. sloop Lyra on the homeward voyage from China, whither the Lyra had gone with Lord Amherst’s embassy.] We arrived at St. Helena late in the afternoon of the 11th […]

What follows is a first-hand account of dinner with Napoleon at Longwood House in the new year of 1816. This dinner was not recorded by Las Cases in the Memorial. The authoress, Catherine, was the wife of a military man on the island, Robert Younghusband.…

There’s a bumper crop of new publications this year, so there’s bound to be something for all tastes and budgets. Check out this year’s new section: Audiobooks! For even more choice, have a look at our Summer Selection 2016 or last years selections:  Summer  2015, Christmas 2015.

This is the English translation of Pierre Branda’s introduction to Volume XIII of the Correspondance générale de Napoléon Bonaparte.  

Introduction Late May- early June 1856 was marked in France by a sudden and massive rise is the water levels of  major French rivers. The flood of 1856 went down as one of the major floods in the history of France. Exceptional rise in water levels From 29 May, 1856, local authorities began to be alarmed: […]

We’ve made a selection of recently-published (or just re-published books) concerning the First and Second Empires that should slip easily into your luggage or your bag to while away those spare moments this summer. And there’s plenty more to choose from in last Summer’s Reading…

In the 18th century, Louisiana was not just today’s smallish southern state bordered by the Mississippi on one side and Texas on the other. It encompassed the modern states of Montana, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana itself, and parts…

The first canal joining the Red Sea to the Nile and from there, via the Eastern branch of the so-called Pelusian river, to the Mediterranean, was dug around 2,000 B.C. on the orders of Pharaoh Ramses I. It was a mediocre work allowing the passage of light sail boats, either pulled along by horses or […]

The Treaty of Vienna, also known as the Treaty of Schönbrunn, was signed on 14 October, 1809, and ratified by Napoleon one day later, on 15 October. The treaty officially brought to an end France’s war with Austria, although hostilities had ended the day after…