INVENIRE

 Following the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte could do nothing but reminisce. Exiled to Saint Helena, he spent the twilight of his life imprisoned by the British. An ocean away from the land-roaming and strategising of a few years prior, Bonaparte was relegated to comparatively dull pastimes. He spent the hours complaining (probably justly) about his living conditions at Longwood House; playing cards with the small band of Frenchmen permitted to travel with him and, most productively, dictating memories of his storied career to them. At one point, Napoleon Bonaparte had ruled everything between the Atlantic and the Niemen; no activity would prove an adequate substitute, but writing his memoirs had to suffice. Napoleon's tales were duly recorded and published by Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases, as  Le Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène. With a preface that refers to Napoleon Bonaparte as "the most extraordinary man that ever existed", the writer's goal - glorifying Napoleo...