"Waterloo: The Aftermath" Topic

"This was the scene around midnight on 19 June 1815:

On the battlefield more than 50,000 men and 7,000 horses lay dead and wounded; the wreckage of a once proud French Grande Armée was struggling in abject disorder to the Belgian frontier pursued by murderous Prussian dragoons; caked in dust and sweat, the Duke of Wellington began writing the dispatch that would send his country into mourning and jubilation; and Napoleon Bonaparte, exhausted and stunned at the scale of his defeat, rode through the darkness towards Paris, abdication and the end of his Empire.

In the hours, days, weeks and months that followed, news of the battle would begin to shape the consciousness of an age; the battlegrounds would be looted and cleared, its dead buried or burned, its ground and ruins overrun by voyeuristic tourists; the victorious British and Prussian armies would invade France and occupy Paris. And as his enemies within and without France closed in, Napoleon saw no avenue ahead but surrender, exile and captivity.

In this dramatic and ground-breaking account of the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo, Paul O'Keeffe employs a multiplicity of contemporary sources and viewpoints to create a reading experience that brings into focus as never before the sights, sounds and smells of the battlefield, of conquest and defeat, of celebration and riot."

See here.
link

Amicalement
Armand

Very similar is RE Foster's book, already out, "Wellington and Waterloo; The Duke, The Battle and Posterity". At £18.99 GBP struck me as good value, when I bought it in Foyle's today. Read half of it on the train home from London this evening. (Brussels to North Yorkshire yesterday and N Yorks back to London day-trip today!). This takes the aftermath up to 2015, which is quite an achievement! Let's not forget why the first centenary was never celebrated as planned and hope Ukraine does not go the way of Serbia…….

The author acknowledges his debt to his battlefield guide Alan Lindsay 2010, in his introduction. Alan took me and my lads around for day the year before and was a brilliant intro to the fields of Waterloo. Recommend him

Just finished Waterloo; The Aftermath.

Had been sitting there for weeks ignored. It proved quite "unputdownable" and far better than I had expected.

I confess the immediate aftermath of Waterloo, at least once the field itself has been considered, never quite gripped me. Grouchy's retreat, the Allied advance, the machinations in Paris and then shall we or shall we not board Bellerophon all seemed lacking in the drama of the earlier of the "Hundred Days".

This changed my mind. It is very well written and, unusually for this year, it does add some novelty to the 1815 story.

I know there are still more books to look forward to and especially Franklin's and Erwin Muilwijk's work.

An "optical impression" had been painted by John Heaviside Clark in 1816 – which is shown in the German Historical Museum in Berlin and which I published on our uniform portal of Napoleon Online – just check link

Kind regards from Berlin
Markus Stein
napoleon-online.de

Many thanks for the info boys!.

Amicalement
Armand

Say Markus, is that painting available for publication?

Ah deadhead, would you recommend it for me?

Frankly I have enjoyed every book I have bought recently on Waterloo. I will even add Cornwall's as, if you knew nothing of the battle, you might just pick this up as it is so high profile and on every seller's bookshelf. Tim Clayton's has proved brilliant on the build up to Ligny and QB, when most histories are just getting started.

For 2015 the authors need to find either something different for the experts or easily digested for the novice. Accounts of the DB contribution, such as your's are few and far between. Fortunately "you know who" has done so much to ensure that the Prussian role is also acknowledged….even then I am not sure that is yet true.

I liked The Aftermath for such coverage of the weeks after the battle, not just the march on Paris, but what was left behind at Mt St Jean. "The Legacy" was clever for dealing with the following century. "Dancing to Battle" or " The Duch of R's Ball" are great social histories for folk like me who love just to walk the fields and stay in Brussels (much nicer place than folk admit to)

I suspect that, with your knowledge of the primary sources, there would be little new here. I loved it.

Barbero for the train journey to London and an easy authoritative read. Adkins for sitting in the toilet if constipated. Mercer for a laugh. But then Glover, John Franklin, Muilwijk, von Hofs…we are spoilt for choice!

Will we see anything between 2015-20? That is my worry……….

@Erwin: I have the right for publication from the museum – do you need it for your publications? Please send an email to stein@napoleon-online.de

Kind regards
Markus