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Bonaparte survived St. Helena?
An auction and a couple of films have sparked a bit of interest in the possibility that Bonaparte survived poisoning by his own wallpaper.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1063739,00.html
I also liked his quote:
"Man's passion for the fantastical is such that they will sacrifice reason to it."
Emps
An auction and a couple of films have sparked a bit of interest in the possibility that Bonaparte survived poisoning by his own wallpaper.
Today, a piece of wallpaper less than one and a half inches long and one inch wide will be auctioned at the Assembly Rooms in Ludlow, Shropshire. It is expected to fetch up to £1,000. As you may have guessed, this is no strip of emulsioned Anaglypta from a Shrewsbury semi, but something of considerable age and potentially great historical importance. For this piece of paper was originally pasted to the bedroom wall of Longwood House: Napoleon Bonaparte's last - or at least last known - address. It was here, on the bleak South Atlantic island of St Helena, that the portly Corsican was held in British custody from his defeat at Waterloo until his death six years later at age 52. And it was here that Napoleon, it's believed, suffered death by wallpaper
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Perhaps there is a great deal of truth in Napoleon's remark: "History is a lie that nobody contests." Or maybe not: there are more theories about Napoleon's death than there were Bonapartes on European thrones in 1810. Napoleon was closer to the truth when he said: "Man's passion for the fantastical is such that they will sacrifice reason to it." This surely explains the most outlandish theory about Napoleon: that he contracted a hormonal disease and gradually turned into a woman. No wonder De Caunes says: "What fascinated me was the idea of fiction anchored in a reality that is open to various interpretations."
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These fanciful cinematic interpretations gain plausibility from questions surrounding Napoleon's remains. For instance, how did his famously rotten teeth become so white after his death? And why did his death mask bear greater resemblance to the face of his butler, Cipriani, than to any of his own portraits?
The cause of death is another area of contention. The official cause determined at autopsy was stomach cancer, but that is only the most boring possible explanation. The more interesting ones involve conspiracies and murder (one theory has it that he was poisoned by a French count in his entourage, with the support of the British), or accidental death, such as the toxic wallpaper theory.
The French government has recently announced that it is prepared to consider conducting DNA tests on the body lying in Les Invalides. Such tests may resolve whether it is really that of Napoleon, but they will hardly solve the mystery of the cause of death.
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Of course, none of this brings us any nearer to the truth of Napoleon's final years. Nor, no doubt, will the sale of the Napoleonic wallpaper later today. In fact, it may confuse the issue - like other auctions of Napoleonic memorabilia in Britain that have raised more questions than answers. A few years ago, a piece of his (presumed) coffin and a fragment of his shroud, taken from the St Helena grave by a British soldier in 1840, were auctioned; they solved nothing. Ten years ago, Sotheby's sold a pair of Napoleon's socks containing a bag of his foot dust; these, too, shed no light on the strange events on St Helena.
And then there was the bizarre incident at Christie's in 1972, when a one-inch "micro-penis", supposedly cut from the dictator's body during the autopsy and stored in a jar of formaldehyde, was put up for sale. This lot, which reportedly looked like a grape, was withdrawn because it failed to make its reserve price. But whose historical artefact was this? Was it Cipriani's, the obliging butler? Did it belong to Lenormand, the lookalike nobody? Or was it the very private property of Napoleon Bonaparte, the great lover and even greater emperor? We may never know. But it does put the mockers on the notion of him mutating into a woman because of a hormonal disorder. Or does it?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1063739,00.html
I also liked his quote:
"Man's passion for the fantastical is such that they will sacrifice reason to it."
Emps