Apocalypse of Napoleon Bonaparte: His Last Years from Waterloo to St Helena – a Medical Biography

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A fascinating whodunit with tales of intrigue and scandal.

The Apocalypse of Napoleon Bonaparte deals with the health of Napoleon from Waterloo when he was a fit and active man, until his death on St Helena almost six years later. Our only hope arriving of arriving at the correct diagnosis of Napoleon's ills is to allow the patient to speak for himself. This is precisely what Dr Robert Richardson has done through the writings of the doctors who actually attended him. The story is drawn from the day-to-day accounts of four doctors.

This detailed consideration of Napoleon's life on the island reads like a whodunit and contains intrigue and scandal concerning those around him. We are lead to the conclusion that the condition most apparent at the time of his death was a bleeding gastric ulcer. However, the most important thing the day-to-day history has to tell us is that Napoleon had become seriously dehydrated. The consequent metabolic effects resulted in what today might well be termed multiple organ failure.


This is truly unique account of Napoleon's last days.

AUTHOR:
Robert Richardson qualified in medicine at Oxford University. He worked as editor for a medical publisher before becoming a freelance editor. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a committee member of the West Sussex History of Medicine Society. His other books include Heart and Scalpel, Through the Ages with Dr Baldassare and more recently Napoleon's Ulcer.

ILLUSTRATIONS
24 pages of colour plates

ISBN: 9781846890635
Author: RICHARDSON ROBERT
Format: Hardcover
Publication date: 20/10/2009
RRP: $59.99
Pages: 292
Dimension: 234mm X 156mm