Margaret Rodenberg - Napóleon footsteps

"Napoleon's last years, among intrigues, with painful losses, through the eyes of Rodenberg, who deserves all recognition as both a conscientious researcher and a talented writer... He shows the twilight of the life of a fascinating historical figure with expressive power."
- KIRK REVIEWS

"In 1795, twenty-six-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte was a poor but increasingly successful general in the revolutionary French army. He lived in Paris, which, like him, was full of opportunity, bubbling with new ideas and burning with revolutionary fever. He was engaged to his sister-in-law, Eugénie Désirée Clary, but during the long absence the flame went out, her letters became more and more irritable, and Napoleon's brotherly good advice took the place of love lines. At that time, he had not yet met his passionate but unfaithful love, Jozefina. During the short breaks between military duties, he started writing novels.
His manuscript - which consists mostly of sketches and a short dialogue - is less than twenty pages long and ends with the glorious death of the hero. Napoleon gave it the title Clisson et Eugénie. Later, he took out the middle section - in which the hero is happily married - and renumbered the pages. He removed Eugénie from the title. He kept the existence of the manuscript a secret throughout his life, and took it with him into exile on St. Ilona.
I first heard about Clisson in 1999. I immediately decided to expand the short work into a full novel, as if old Napoleon had written it while reflecting on his youth. I lived in France for a few years when I was a teenager, and I've loved the country ever since and I'm fascinated by the person of Napoleon. It was the beginning of a long journey, the end result of which the dear Reader can now hold in his hands." - Margaret Rodenberg