The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon Bonaparte on Elba

FAIN: FZ-256495-17

Mark Braude
Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305-2004)

Research leading to publication of a monograph on Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile on Elba and short-lived return to power in 1815.

The Invisible Emperor offers a narrative history of Napoleon’s exile on Elba as a case study through which to consider the intertwined histories of politics, celebrity, and mass media in the modern era. Spanning from Napoleon's abdication as emperor of France in April of 1814 to his escape and return to the mainland the following March, this project considers how Napoleon became the first modern political figure to fully harness the power of emerging mass media technologies, as he framed himself as the charismatic protagonist in a heroic narrative to be consumed in words and images. This project suggests that Napoleon gained widespread support for his unlikely return to power in 1815 precisely because of the mystique he fostered while seemingly out-of-sight and silenced during his ten months in exile on Elba, as Europeans delighted in this latest twist in his already storied career.

Associated Products

The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon On Elba From Exile to Escape (Book)
Title: The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon On Elba From Exile to Escape
Author: Mark Braude
Abstract: Part forensic investigation, part dramatic jailbreak adventure, Mark Braude's The Invisible Emperor is a gripping narrative history of Napoleon Bonaparte's ten-month exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba In the spring of 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. Having overseen an empire spanning half the European continent and governed the lives of some eighty million people, he suddenly found himself exiled to Elba, less than a hundred square miles of territory. This would have been the end of him, if Europe's rulers had had their way. But soon enough Napoleon imposed his preternatural charisma and historic ambition on both his captors and the very island itself, plotting his return to France and to power. After ten months of exile, he escaped Elba with just of over a thousand supporters in tow, landed near Antibes, marched to Paris, and retook the Tuileries Palace--all without firing a shot. Not long after, tens of thousands of people would die fighting for and against him at Waterloo. Braude dramatizes this strange exile and improbable escape in granular detail and with novelistic relish, offering sharp new insights into a largely overlooked moment. He details a terrific cast of secondary characters, including Napoleon's tragically-noble official British minder on Elba, Neil Campbell, forever disgraced for having let "Boney" slip away; and his young second wife, Marie Louise who was twenty-two to Napoleon's forty-four, at the time of his abdication. What emerges is a surprising new perspective on one of history's most consequential figures, which both subverts and celebrates his legendary persona. The Invisible Emperor is both a riveting story and an original examination of how preposterous, quixotic, and grandiose ideas can suddenly leap from the imagination and into reality.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: http://https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549595/the-invisible-emperor-by-mark-braude/9780735222601/
Publisher: Penguin Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780735222601
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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