The Invisible Emperor, by Mark Braude

The invisible emperor
Available here

We return to the historical fiction for a fresh take on Napoleon and his last days of struggle for power. The retired emperor, practically ignored and forgotten on a small island, disconnected from a world plotted against him. But the most recognized strategist who knew how to govern with martial instinct any aspect of the social and political life of what became his empire, was not willing to resign himself to a comfortable exile overlooking the Mediterranean.

Evil always returns. From the toothache to the tax inspector. Napoleon was not going to be less and he waited for his moment

And yet Napoleon returned. Nothing was like before and yet he knew that he kept intact his legend and the strength of his image associated with old glories. For the rest, the monarch put in his place, Louis XVIII paved the way for him.

Because a king like him, as desired by some as artificial by others, stood as an easy enemy of the freer homeland that Napoleon then began to advocate, as if he had been the champion of democracy in his days as a sinister emperor.

A few convulsive days without a doubt that ended up exploding in the famous hundred days turned into the second chance for Bonaparte.

The problem was that in those hundred days, which would have required more intensity than ever from a ruler like Napoleon, they pointed to a wear and tear of the old leader, of the triumphant marshal who was already feeling his stomach ulcers as his greatest impediment to fight with all his forces by a power that he was ultimately unable to fully materialize.

And so he came to Waterloo, perhaps less prepared than ever for battle. But willing, yes, to continue to release the blood of the soldiers who, for or against, would spread their ideas in a field and at a time that the emperor himself prepared for certain victory.

But no, it was not. Waterloo was the worst case scenario, the ultimate defeat that, on his return to Paris, condemned him forever to ostracism on an island like Saint Helena where, this time, his enemies tried very hard to prevent him from making a new departure.

An interesting account of those strange days between exiles, an appearance of the great emperor with a taste of defeat.

You can now buy the book The Invisible Emperor, the novel by Mark Braude, here:

The invisible emperor
Available here
5/5 - (7 votes)

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