This book is from the personal library of 1,600 volumes that Napoléon had at St. Helena. He said he needed at least 60,000 books to deal with the boredom he felt on the island. Several of the volumes bear English inscriptions. Much of his library was lost in the fire at the Tuileries Palace in 1871.
Napoléon received Memoirs and Correspondence of Joséphine before he died in March 1821, and read it just days before he became gravely ill. It was the only book he ever read about Joséphine and the questionable veracity of some of the content upset him greatly.
Historical Provenance - Bertrand family collection
