To return to the site, www.napoleon.org, please click here.   Bulletin - Bulletin                    ISLAND OF OPPORTUNITIES "[It] is the origin, but a second origin. From it everything begins anew. The island is the necessary minimum for this re-beginning", wrote Gilles Deleuze in 1953 in a short text on the island (“the desert island”, more precisely), his imagination, his utopia. By choosing St Helena as a place of permanent exile (Jacques-Olivier Boudon explains the context and reasons for this choice in the article that we have selected for this October), the British unintentionally gave Napoleon not only the time but a space where finally he would be able to keep the promise made to his Guard on 20 April, 1814 at Fontainebleau: "I want to write the great things we have done together." A new beginning, a re-creation through an unavoidably subjective narrative (and indeed the political objective is tangible). The Memoirs - with the complicity of the "secretaries" Las Cases, Bertrand, Montholon and Gourgaud, - would serve the history of France under Napoleon. They would be the last stone in the legendary edifice. They speak as much of the events as of the man who led them. (image "The Island and Forts of St Helena" © gallica) Irène Delage Head of Services to the public and documentation at the Fondation Napoléon          ARTICLE OF THE MONTH > WHY ST HELENA? After Napoleon abdicated for the second and last time, the British believed that “after fighting him for twenty years, as a trophy he seems to belong to us”. But when Napoleon landed himself on their doorstep in July 1815, in the hope that “the most generous of [his] enemies” would provide him with a comfortable place for retirement, of all the possible places, little could he have imagined that the British would chose the remote island of St Helena. In our article this month Jacques-Olivier Boudon explains the reasons for this choice. (image: engraving of St Helena, © Gallica)        BICENTENARY OF NAPOLEON'S ARRIVAL ON ST HELENA AGENDA > A programme of events and commemorations to celebrate the bicentenary of Napoleon's arrival on St Helena ONLINE > A selection of over 50 works (memoirs, engravings, documents) concerning the crossing and the arrival of Napoleon on St Helena digitalised and available for consultation on Gallica. NAPOLEONIC DIGITAL LIBRARY 'SPECIAL ST HELENA' > “The exile and Death of Napoleon” brings together several books from the Fondation Napoleon's Library digitalized for consultation online.        A MOUMENT TO NAPOLEON IN PLYMOUTH SOUND On Friday 16 October there will a be an inauguration of a monument on the waterfront of Plymouth and a ceremony to commemorate the bicentenary of the presence of the Emperor in the bay of Plymouth aboard Bellerophon from 26 July to 4 August 1815. The monument will be made of two blocks of granite from Dartmoor prison in Princetown (a few miles from Plymouth) where thousands of French prisoners of war were held between 1809 and 1815 and where more than 1,200 of them died. A stone from Longwood House on St Helena removed during the renovations in 2013 will be incorporated into the monument. The history of this project was told on 28 September on BBC 1 South West as part of a program called “Inside out” which can be seen again on BBC Iplayer (by residents in the UK) until 28 October. (external link)        EXHIBITION> BELLOIR ET VAZELLE, TAPISSIERS DECORATEURS DU SECOND EMPIRE On 13 October the Gallery Jane Roberts Fine Arts in Paris (France) will inaugurate an exhibition about the Second Empire decorators, Belloir and Vazelle. Over fifty pieces as well as numerous documents from the Belloir and Vazelle archive will be on show until 14 November. And for those who are not able to get to Paris or simply to whet your appetite there is a magnificent online catalogue presenting the works in high definition. (external link)        150 YEARS AGO > NAPOLEON III MEETS BISMARCK IN BIARRITZ  From 4 - 12 October, 1865 a series of conversations took place between Bismarck and Napoleon III, on the Basque coast where the court was held at that time. The main challenge was for the Prussian Minister-President was to reassure himself of what France's position would be in the case of a possible hardening of Austro-Prussian relations. No written agreement came out of this meeting in Biarritz but it was heavy with consequences: Bismarck left feeling reassured about the neutrality of France in the case of conflict between the two German powers. Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week!   Peter Hicks and Rebecca Young    THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No. 773, 9 - 15 OCTOBER, 2015 Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or in a specific project, by making a donation?   © This Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon          WATERLOO BICENTENARY 1815-2015 What's on this year relating to the Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo: commemorations, books, exhibitions, news ...  Follow us on our new English-language Facebook page and on Twitter! napoleon.org - related content: JUST PUBLISHED HOOLE, Louise, Black Rock: The Story of an Island, an Exile and an Emperor (a novel) (London, 2014) WHAT'S ON (see our website for all events) Conferences - Waterloo, 1815: The British Monarchy and the Defeat of Napoleon  Windsor, UK [14/11/2015]   Exhibitions - Belloir et Vazelle, tapissiers décorateurs du Second Empire Jane Roberts Fine Arts, Paris, France [14/10/2015 - 14/11/2015] NEW - Splendeurs et misères. Images de la prostitution, 1850-1910 (Splendour and Misery. Pictures of Prostitution)  Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France [22/09/2015 - 17/01/2016] - "1815-1818 : Valenciennes à l'heure anglaise" and "Napoléon gravé à l'acide, une coalition de caricatures!" Bibliothèque de Valenciennes, France  [16/09/2015 - 18/10/2015] - Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842) Grand Palais, Paris, France [23/09/2015 - 11/01/2016] - Le Bivouac de Napoléon : luxe et ingéniosité en campagne Galerie des Gobelins, Paris [18/09/2015 - 13/12/2015] - Daniel Maclise: The Waterloo Cartoon Royal Academy of Arts (UK)  [02/09/2015 - 03/01/2016]  - Murat, King of Naples, at the charge! Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy [19/05/2015 - 19/10/2015] LAST DAYS - Dancing into Battle: The Duchess of Richmond's Ball, Goodwood House, Sussex (UK)  [03/08/2015 - 11/10/2015] LAST DAYS - Pierre-Paul Prud'hon: Napoleon's Draughtsman Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK [23/06/2015 - 15/11/2015] - 'Waterloo and the March of Science', Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Bath, UK  [18/06/2015 - 13/12/2015] - '"Victory Sir, Victory!" Henry Percy and the Battle of Waterloo, 1815', Alnwick Castle, Northumberland, UK [18/05/2015 - 30/10/2015] LAST DAYS - 'The Road to Waterloo' and ‘Waterloo Lives' Gordon Highlanders Museum, Aberdeen, Scotland  [03/02/2015 - 28/11/2015] - 'Waterloo' at the Bomann-Museum, Celle, Germany [02/04/2015 - 11/10/2015] LAST DAYS  - 'Napoleon und Bayern' Bayerisches Armeemuseum, Ingolstadt, Germany [30/04/2015 - 30/10/2015] LAST DAYS  - 'Waterloo 1815 - The Battle for Peace' at Wellington Arch and new display at Apsley House London UK [18/04/2015 - 30/12/2015]  'Alexander, Napoleon and Josephine: a story of war, art and friendship' Hermitage, Amsterdam, The Netherlands [28/03/2015 - 08/11/2015] Commemorations - Bicentenary of Napoleon's arrival on St Helena  [07/10/2015 - 18/10/2015]   SEEN ON THE WEB - Napoleon: An Extraordinary Rendition (surrender St Helena, was St Helena Britain's Guantanamo bay?) - Podcast > Dan Snow teams up with his dad, veteran broadcaster Peter Snow to give a blow-by-blow account of The Battle of Waterloo. - Napoleon Asks For Asylum - A model of first class ship-of-the-line L'Argus given to the eminent prisoner reformer, Elizabeth Fry, by grateful French prisoners of war sells for €25,313 at auction THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY  The library is normally open on Mondays and Tuesdays from 1pm to 6pm and on Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 3pm. The library is closed on Wednesdays.   Online database catalogue Digital Library  Contact NAPOLEONICA LES ARCHIVES Site of digitised Napoleonic archival material: The working papers or 'imprimés' of the Napoleonic Conseil d'Etat, the correspondence of Vivant Denon, etc. http://www.napoleonica.org Contact: napoleonica@napoleon.org    NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE International peer-review interdisciplinary e-review on the history of the two Empires, bilingual French-English, 3 issues per year, free access. Read the review on Cairn.info Contact: napoleonicalarevue@napoleon.org    The Fondation Napoléon's Institutional website: www.fondationnapoleon.org ACCOUNT DETAILS To change your email address, unsubscribe, and sign up for the French information bulletin. 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