About the Author

Jean-Paul Kauffmann was born in 1944. A journalist, he was kidnapped in Beirut in May 1985 and was not released until May 1988. He is currently the editor of L'Amateur de Cigare. His The Dark Room at Longwood, in Patricia Clancy's translation, won the Scott Moncrieff Prize for 2000.

Reviews

"Written between every line are the sufferings of his own captivity; his own struggle to come to terms with the loss of freedom, hope and time" Andrea Stuart, The Independent of The Dark Room at Longwood; "The story of Napoleon's last years is beautifully interwoven with Kauffmann's attempt to understand how Napoleon felt in captivity... On these pages the very ghost of loneliness walks, vaporous, interminable" Susan Salter-Reynolds, Los Angeles Times