Fact, Fiction, & Finding Napoleon with Historical Fiction Author Margaret Rodenberg

San Francisco Writers Conference Podcast

* Margaret Rosenberg has journeyed more than 30,000 miles to conduct Napoleonic research, including to St. Helena Island in the remote South Atlantic. She is director of the Napoleonic Historical Society, a non-profit that promotes knowledge of the Napoleonic era, and on her website, margaretrodenberg.com, she reports on Napoleon’s ongoing presence in world culture.

* Margaret's new novel, Finding Napoleon, was inspired by Napoleon's real-life unfinished novel, which Margaret first learned about twenty years ago. * Margaret shared the origins of her interest in Napoleon, and she explained to podcast host Matthew Félix why Napoleon continues to be revered by some, reviled by others. * Margaret explained that rather than in the soldier and politician, she was more interested in Napoleon the man, and what sort of research she did to find out who he was. * Matthew and Margaret discussed key themes in the book, including Napoleon's relationship with slavery, his love of children, and his ability to forgive those who betrayed him. * Asked about craft, Margaret explained her choice to write part of the book from the first-person perspective of one of the characters and the other part—Napoleon's story—in the third person. She also discussed the challenges of writing a novel within a novel. * Margaret shared how travel revealed to her the driving force for the novel. * Matthew asked Margaret about a well-known myth about Napoleon, which she debunks in the book—and the dubious origins of that myth.

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