Finding Napoleon: A Novel

by Margaret Rodenberg

Overview

“Rodenberg inventively uses Bonaparte’s own unfinished novel to tell the story of the despot’s rise to power, which she juxtaposes against the story of his last love affair. Told creatively and with excellent research!” —Stephanie Dray, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of America's First Daughter and The Women of Chateau Lafayette

“Beautiful and poignant.” —Allison Pataki, New York Times best-selling author of The Queen’s Fortune

With its delightful adaptation of Napoleon Bonaparte’s real attempt to write romantic fiction, Finding Napoleon: A Novel offers a fresh take on Europe’s most powerful man after he’s lost everything—except his last love. A forgotten woman of history—the audacious Countess Albine—helps narrate their tale of intrigue, desire, and betrayal.

After the defeated Emperor Napoleon goes into exile on tiny St. Helena Island in the remote South Atlantic, he and his lover, Albine de Montholon, plot to escape and rescue his young son. Banding together enslaved Africans, British sympathizers, a Jewish merchant, a Corsican rogue, and French followers, they confront British opposition—as well as treachery within their own ranks—with sometimes subtle, sometimes bold, but always desperate action.

Amid his passions and intrigues, Napoleon finishes his real novel Clisson that he started writing as a young man. Now it's a father's message to the young son whom his enemies took from him, but how can they get it to the boy?

When Napoleon and Albine break faith with one another, ambition and Albine’s husband threaten their reconciliation. To succeed, Napoleon must learn whom to trust. To survive, Albine must decide whom to betray.

This elegant, richly researched novel reveals the Napoleon history conceals and the Countess Albine history has forgotten.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647420161
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	04/06/2021
Pages:	392
Sales rank:	660,644
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Margaret Rodenberg’s passion for French history began when she lived in France as a young teen with her US Navy family. An avid traveler who has visited over sixty countries, she has journeyed more than 30,000 miles to conduct Napoleonic research, including to St. Helena Island in the remote South Atlantic where Finding Napoleon takes place. She’s a former businesswoman, an award-winning writer, and a proud director of the Napoleonic Historical Society, a non-profit that promotes knowledge of the Napoleonic era. Her website, www.margaretrodenberg.com, reports on Napoleon’s ongoing presence in world culture. Finding Napoleon is her first novel. She lives near Washington, DC. She's as happy in a kayak and she is in a museum.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Finding Napoleon: A Novel
2023 Independent Press Awards Winner in New Fiction
2023 Independent Press Awards Winner in Historical Fiction
2022 NYC Big Book Awards Distinguished Favorite in Historical Fiction
2021 Top Shelf Magazine Awards First Place Winner in Literary Fiction
2021 IPPY Awards Gold Winner in Best First Book—Fiction 
2021 International Book Awards Best New Fiction finalist
2021 American Fiction Awards Finalist in Best New Fiction
2021 American Fiction Awards Finalist in Historical Fiction
2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Honorable Mention in Fiction: Historical (Personage)
2021 Sarton Award Historical Fiction Finalist

“Even more than the complex portrait of Napoleon in his waning years, Rodenberg creates an exciting anti-heroine in Albine, a fading aristocratic beauty in survival mode. . . A novel of conflicting and intertwined stories, desires, and loyalties, Finding Napoleon offers an intriguing new look at one of the most famous men in history.” —The Washington Independent Review of Books

“Napoleon’s last years, awash in intrigue and poignant with loss . . . this intricate tapestry . . . brings to life the twilight years of a captivating historical figure.” —Kirkus Reviews

“In this romantic and earthy novel, Rodenberg has given us a fully fleshed-out Napoleon in his many facets—father, lover, friend, and warrior.” —The Literary Hill

“Napoleon Bonaparte’s life was an incredible, inspiring, and ultimately tragic epic. In Finding Napoleon, readers enter deep into both the beginning and the end of that exceptional drama as Margaret Rodenberg brings to life the inner circle of the ailing emperor as he spends his final years in exile on the remote island of St Helena. No one is more qualified to tell this sweeping tale than Margaret Rodenberg—her research is in a league of its own, and her writing is beautiful and poignant.” —Allison Pataki, New York Times best-selling author of The Queen’s Fortune

“Finding Napoleon is a fascinating look at Napoleon as a writer of romance, a tender father, and a mature lover examining happier times amid the trials of his life in St. Helena—a side to him not often explored, and one I found completely enrapturing. His forgotten lover, Albine de Montholon, adds an intriguing dimension. Rodenberg’s sense of revolutionary culture and period detail sparkle and her storytelling is truly absorbing. A winner!” —Heather Webb, coauthor of Ribbons of Scarlet and author of Becoming Josephine

“From the first words, Finding Napoleon enchanted me. Exceptionally well researched, the writing is vibrant, the details evocative. The story of Napoleon’s final years is conveyed with moving compassion, humor, and wit. I love Margaret Rodenberg’s writing and I look forward to reading more by her. Highly recommended!” —Sandra Gulland, author of The Josephine B. Trilogy and The Game of Hope

“Rodenberg inventively uses Bonaparte’s own unfinished novel to tell the story of the despot’s rise to power, which she juxtaposes against the story of his last love affair. Told creatively and with excellent research!” —Stephanie Dray, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of America's First Daughter and The Women of Chateau Lafayette

“Vive l’Empereur! In Finding Napoleon, the Bonaparte endgame becomes a new beginning—and a rousing, delightfully peopled adventure. Margaret Rodenberg’s superior scholarship, exquisite scene-setting, and crackling storytelling mark her as a historical novelist to watch.” —Louis Bayard, New York Times notable author of Courting Mr. Lincoln

“Margaret Rodenberg has an outstanding knowledge of and empathy for the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, especially his time in exile on St. Helena. And unlike many, she has actually visited that remote island and seen the actual conditions of his captivity. In Finding Napoleon, she combines that knowledge and empathy with her exceptional ability to weave her imaginative story of Napoleon and Albine de Montholon. In so doing, she leaves readers greatly entertained and, I hope, wanting to read more about one of history’s most fascinating personalities. I highly recommend this fine book by an outstanding author.” —J. David Markham, president of the International Napoleonic Society; Knight, Order of the French Academic Palms; and author of Napoleon for Dummies and Napoleon and Dr. Verling on St. Helena

“A tale within a tale, Finding Napoleon creates three vivid characters—Napoleon in exile, Napoleon becoming a young military hero, and Albine de Montholon, his last and little-known love. Through superb writing, Margaret Rodenberg brings history to life while offering insights into the passions that drove this man to greatness. Highly recommended.” —M.K. Tod, author of Paris in Ruins and Time and Regret and creator of the popular website WriterOfHistory.com

“In her haunting historical novel Finding Napoleon, Margaret Rodenberg bookends the Emperor’s life. She enlarges upon his own semi-autobiographical novel, giving us insight into his early days, contrasting them with the contracted, duplicitous court that accompanied him into captivity on St. Helena after Waterloo. And yet it is through unexpected friendships forged on the island, his tumultuous final love affair with Albine de Montholon, and a longing for the son he’s lost that we truly do find Napoleon during these his last days. Highly recommended.” —Michelle Cameron, author of Beyond the Ghetto Gates

From the Publisher

2021-01-04
This historical novel focuses on Napoleon’s last years, awash in intrigue and poignant with loss.

After the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon is exiled to St. Helena in the South Atlantic, about as far away from France as possible. He comes with a small entourage, among them his faithful valet, Marchand; Albine, Countess de Montholon, and her husband, Charles; and Napoleon’s childhood friend Francesco Cipriani. Napoleon’s nemesis on the island is the governor, Gen. Sir Hudson Lowe, a petty and vindictive bureaucrat. The five years on St. Helena are filled with Napoleon’s longings, chiefly that he will likely never again see his young son, “the Eaglet,” who was spirited off to Vienna by his mother, Marie Louise. These are years of treachery—an underlying theme is Napoleon’s lifelong realization that he can never completely trust anyone—and plots to escape or seek medical release that, as readers know, will come to naught. The narrative consists of those parts focusing on Napoleon, those sections related by Albine, and excerpts from the novella Clissonet Eugénie that the former leader worked on his whole life. The novella is fleshed out by Rodenberg, who deserves kudos as a rigorous researcher and gifted writer. Two characters really stand out in this intricate tapestry: Napoleon (no surprise) and Albine. Napoleon comes across as imperious when need be but also kind and unpretentious, reflecting his humble beginnings on Corsica. And Albine is a true wonder. Good at heart, she is the classic survivor. She always has a crust of bread in her pocket—a very nice touch—and is not above petty thievery and the useful lie. She is also Napoleon’s mistress and bears him a daughter, Joséphine, who, alas, dies some months after Albine makes it back to Europe. And then there’s Tobyson, the little boy who adores Napoleon and is a stand-in, in a way, for the Eaglet. The little acolyte brings out the best in the fallen emperor. An afterword helpfully separates fact from fiction.

A well-written tale brings to life the twilight years of a captivating historical figure. (acknowledgements, author bio)

Kirkus Reviews