Napoleon's Last Island

August 1, 2016
Australian author Keneally (The Daughters of Mars) once again uses fiction to illuminate a little-known aspect of history. In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte is exiled to the English-governed island of St. Helena. His residence not yet ready, he and his retinue are taken in by William Balcombe, a representative of the East India Company, who has two daughters, Betsy and Jane. The Balcombes, as well as everyone else on the island, find Napoleon to be a charming houseguest, instead of the Great Ogre. But 13-year-old Betsy, smart and independent-minded, is not so easily won over, and her relationship with the former emperor is initially fractious. Eventually, though, their friendship becomes the talk of the island. Then, a new governor to St. Helena, Sir Hudson Lowe, cracks down on Napoleon’s life in exile, cutting his household budget and staff and confiscating Christmas gifts, and even the Balcombes are made to suffer. Ultimately, a shocking scene forces Betsy to reevaluate everything she thinks she knows about her parents, her neighbors, and her new friend. Narrated by Betsy, Keneally’s book gives readers a persuasive account of this precocious teenager’s view of the world’s most infamous man. He makes Betsy an engaging and witty presence, and he charts her destiny into her post–St. Helena existence, where the short general’s long shadow continues to affect her life. Like the late E.L. Doctorow, Keneally adapts his style to suit his subject matter, and here the high formality of 19th-century journal-keeping helps bring alive the bittersweet last days of Napoleon.

Napoleon's last exile on the island of St. Helena as related by a British teenager who befriended him.First, we witness the painful death of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose suffering is raised to the level of punishment by the grisly ministrations of drunken and or/quack physicians. The suspense does not lie in what happens to Napoleon but in how he gets to this pass. That is a story told with as much meandering as St. Helena's mountain roads by Betsy Balcombe, teenage younger daughter of William Balcombe, who's employed by the East India Company as a provisioner of goods on the island. When he's first brought to St. Helena, Napoleon, known variously according to one's patriotic bent as the Ogre, OGF (Our Great Friend), the Emperor, or the General, is kept under very commodious house arrest in a guesthouse of the Balcombe residence, the Briars. There, an affinity grows between him and Betsy, nurtured by reciprocal childish pranks and a mutual interest in horsemanship. With a small French entourage and a brimming larder supplied by the East India Company, Napoleon maintains a semblance of court life. The plot drags, though, as the book details Betsy's growing pains. Gradually she becomes aware of male suitors and also of her superior attractiveness vis-a-vis her long-suffering older sister, Jane. Her incipient womanhood threatens her cherished identity as a hellion, and she's disillusioned when a resentful admirer tells her that Napoleon was overheard extolling her feminine charms. There are far deeper disillusionments and betrayals to come. St. Helena's new British governor, Sir Hudson Lowe (in "Name and Nature," as he is dubbed by Betsy) arrives determined to make sure that Napoleon's exile more closely resembles jail. The strictures he places on the emperor and his ruinous allegations against William Balcombe for befriending him bring about the novel's dispiriting and attenuated denouement. The faux regency prose is convincing without being unduly daunting. Clearly, Keneally's sympathies lie firmly with Napoleon and the Balcombes, as will the reader's. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2016
Despite the title, Keneally's (Shame and the Captives, 2015) latest historical novel is an agonizing coming-of-age story, rather than a predictable chronicle of Napoleon's final years. Permanently exiled to the southern Atlantic island of Saint Helena ( the cursed rock ) after his disastrous defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon befriends a young girl and her family. Awaiting the completion of his permanent quarters, the former emperor is billeted with the Balcombe family. Fascinated by their temporary houseguest, each family member is inexorably drawn into his exotic and dysfunctional orbit to varying degrees, none more so than young Betsy. Though lopsided in many ways, the quirky friendship that blossoms between the two is understandable, given the spiritual and geographic isolation of both Bonaparte and Betsy. Unfortunately, Napoleon exacts as heavy a price in his personal relationships as he did in his military campaigns, and the Balcombe family is permanently splintered in his emotional war of attrition. Loosely based on actual events and real-life historical figures, Keneally's retelling of Napoleon's Saint Helena years through the eyes of a young girl on the cusp of womanhood makes for a deeply intriguing, if somewhat fanciful, read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

Keneally will always be identified first with Schindler's List, but he's written 32 novels before this current offering, including the recent New York Times best-selling The Daughters of Mars. This novel focuses on Napoleon's last years on the island of Saint Helena, where he was banished after losing the Battle of Waterloo. There, he befriends an energetic British girl named Betsy Balcombe with whose family he lives while his own accommodations are being constructed. To say that this changed life for all involved would be an understatement.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2016

In 1815, Napoleon arrives on the remote island of St. Helena to begin his exile under British control. He moves in temporarily to an empty house on the grounds of another residence occupied by a British family, the Balcombes. Their strong-willed, independent-minded teenage daughter Betsy tells the tale of their relationship to the former emperor. Almost immediately, Betsy and her family come under the spell of this charismatic and sympathetic character, cast as a villain by the British establishment and most of Europe but charming, deferential, and witty in the flesh. Later, Napoleon is relocated to another residence on St. Helena, and a new, more severe British commander assumes control of the island. Betsy and her family's friendship and helpfulness toward the exile come to be viewed as treasonous by the new authorities. VERDICT Evidently based on true accounts, the novel as told by Betsy has accurately reproduced the diction of a 19th-century writer, which occasionally slows the pace of this engaging work by well-known Australian author Keneally (Confederates; Schindler's List). [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16.]--James Coan, SUNY at Oneonta Lib.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.