Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки, Vol 21, Iss 4(193), Pp 235-240 (2019)

история, т. ленц, наполеон бонапарт, остров святой елены, великобритания, франция, пресса, общественное мнение., History (General) and history of Europe, Language and Literature

The reviewer analyses a new monograph by Thierry Lentz, a well-known French historian, a specialist in the history of the Consulate and the First Empire, and, in parallel, director of the Napoleon Foundation, dedicated to the death of the first emperor of the French. In his book, Thierry Lentz not only makes a detailed description of the events taking place on Saint Helena in early May 1821 and evaluates the role of all direct participants of the events whose testimonies were actually the only source of information for the rest of the world about what had happened. He also traces the main distribution channels of this information during the first three months after the event, assessing the degree of interest of the European public, especially that of England and France, to what had occurred. Having carefully analysed a significant number of sources, T. Lentz comes to the conclusion that in the summer of 1821, Europe was so busy with its pressing problems that the news of Bonaparte’s death, which undoubtedly caused strong emotions in individuals, attracted the attention of the main part of society only for a very short time and did not cause a stir, which, according to the author, could well be expected.