Napoleon: Centres of Power

This useful, slim volume is a beautifully illustrated compilation of details concerning the private properties, offical residences (both in France and abroad), occupied palaces and residences in exile. Comprising thirty-two short chapters, it ranges from Casa Bonaparte in Ajaccio through Malmaison, the Tuileries, and Saint-Cloud to the royal palaces in Italy (Milan, Venice, Mainz), the occupied palaces in Austria and Poland (Schönbrunn and Finckenstein) to end with Elba, Aix and Saint Helena. And each treatment is enlivened by quotations from contemporary memoirs and remarks made by Napoleon himself. I for one was struck by how much I didn't know about these buildings – notably, the Petit-Luxembourg, the Elysée Palace, the palace of Rambouillet, Strasbourg and Bordeaux. Each building is shown either by photographs or period illustrations where the building no longer exists (Saint Cloud being an example of the latter), and the book is completed by a genealogy and a timeline. A particularly interesting feature of the publication is that it has been published simultaneously in French and English versions.