Napoleon's Young Neighbor

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reed, Helen Leah, 1860?-1926

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource : multiple file formats

Place of Publication:

Salt Lake City, UT : Project Gutenberg,

Summary:

"Napoleon's Young Neighbor" by Helen Leah Reed is a historical novel written in the early 20th century. The story is set in the years following Napoleon Bonaparte's defeat and his exile to the remote island of St. Helena. It follows the life of a young girl named Betsy Balcombe, who is particularly intrigued and disturbed by the arrival of the infamous Napoleon as a neighbor and political prisoner, bringing the complexities of history into her once-quiet life. At the start of the narrative, the Balcombe family, living in an idyllic cottage on St. Helena, receives the shocking news of Napoleon's imminent arrival from Elba as a prisoner due to his defeat at Waterloo. Young Betsy, initially terrified, grapples with the dichotomy of viewing Napoleon as a monster and as a human being who will live among them. Her feelings evolve as she begins to interact with the Emperor, discovering his charm and intellect, leading to a budding friendship that transforms her perception of him amidst the backdrop of war and political turmoil. The opening chapters set the stage for an exploration of innocence lost, the nature of heroism, and the strange coexistence of personal and historical narratives. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Credits:

Produced by Heather Clark, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

Notes:

Reading ease score: 79.4 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read.

Release date is 2011-01-22