Waterloo: The Aftermath

Description

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AFTER ONE OF HISTORY'S MOST PIVOTAL BATTLES and a dramatic retalling of its devastating aftermath. After midnight, 19 June 1815... On the battlefield more than 50,000 men and 7,000 horses lie dead and wounded; the wreckage of a once proud French Grande Armee struggles in abject disorder to the Belgian frontier pursued by murderous Prussian lancers; and Napoleon Bonaparte, exhausted and stunned at the scale of his defeat, rode through the darkness towards Paris, abdication and captivity. In the days, weeks and months that followed, news of the battle shaped the consciousness of an age. Drawing on a multiplicity of contemporary voices and viewpoints, Paul O'Keeffe brings into focus as never before the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield, of conquest and defeat, of celebration and riot.

Paul O'Keeffe is a lecturer and writer based in Liverpool. His acclaimed books include Some Sort of Genius- A Life of Wyndham Lewis, A Genius for Failure- The Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon and, most recently, Waterloo- The Aftermath.

If you buy one book to mark this Waterloo anniversary, buy this one -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times * It is all here - and all told with the same verve, eye for anecdote and command of the material. This is a very good book, and a model of how narrative history should be written... anybody remotely interested in the battle should read * The Spectator * Invigorating and compelling * Daily Telegraph * I was gripped by the wealth of detail and humanity in the book... This is how the tales of battles should be told, whatever the time, place or outcome -- Emily Mayhew, author of Wounded A grim story - but well worth the telling -- Saul David * Evening Standard *