Napoleon's Last Island by Thomas Keneally
Atria Books: 10/4/16
eBook review copy; 432 pages
ISBN-13: 9781501128424
Napoleon's Last Island by Thomas Keneally is a recommended
historical fiction novel of Betsy Balcombe's account of Napoleon
Bonaparte's banishment to the island of Saint Helena.
The story, written as journal entries, opens with Napoleon's death, as
told by a British teenager, Betsy Balcombe, who befriended Bonaparte and
then goes back to October of 1815 when Napoleon Bonaparte was first
exiled to St.
Helena, an island governed by the English. He is taken in by William
Balcombe, a representative of the East India Company who is the
provisioner of goods on the island. Bonaparte stays in the guest house
because his resident wasn't ready. Napoleon and his small French
entourage are well provided for while with the Balcombe's. He and
Balcombe's daughter, Betsy, eventually become friends. When St. Helena’s
new British
governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, arrives, he is determine to make Napoleon's
stay on the island painful and closer to being imprisonment. He also
makes the Balcombe's suffer for their hospitality to Napoleon. The
family struggles after their association with Napoleon, and move to
Australia..
The formality of the language in the journal entries helps set the
period tone for the novel. While it is technically well written and full
of accurate, period details, and some interesting facts, the novel
starts out strong and later slows down, especially as it details Betsy's
growing up. The problem is that Betsy is not interesting enough to
carry the story and after time the novel becomes slow and tedious. As
noted by other reviews, there is some fictional ridiculousness and some
obvious prejudice shown by Keneally toward the British, which lessens
the impact of the rest of the narrative.
Disclosure:
My advanced reading copy was courtesy
of the publisher for review
purposes.
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