Betsy and the Emperor

Fourteen-year-old English girl Betsy Balcombe and her family have an unusual houseguest: Napoleon Bonaparte, former emperor of France and the most feared man on earth. Once lord and master to eighty-two million souls, now, in 1815, Napoleon is a captive of the British people. Stripped of his empire and robbed of his young family and freedom, he is confined to the forbidding, rat-infested island of St. Helena.

The one bright star in Napoleon's black sky is Betsy, a blazingly rebellious teenager whose family is reluctantly housing the notorious prisoner. Betsy is the only foreigner Napoleon's ever met who is not impressed by him -- and Napoleon is more than intrigued.

An unexpected alliance is formed. And a remarkable friendship between emperor and girl spawns gossip, and inspires Betsy to hatch a daring and dangerous scheme that could threaten both their lives and shake entire empires to their foundations.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

An interesting read, 2008-12-29
I purchased this book at the recommendation of Sonlight Curriculum for my kids to read. I read the book in a couple of evenings and learned a bit about Napolean myself. I found the book one I would recommend more for high school aged girls than any aged boy as it had some details that I wouldn't want my son reading about-things that don't bother girls as much. I wish the author had read Betsey's diary before writing so she could be as accurate as possible in the presentation, but the book did succeed in putting Napolean in an interesting light for young readers.


2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent Book!!!, 2008-03-11
I think this is a great book which tells about history in a great and exciting way. Staton Rabin has outdone herself! I can only hope that she will come out with another book as good as this one. Her characters are very interesting and I loved reading about them. Anyone who doesn't like history will like it after they read this amazing book which combines history in a facinating way.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

This book made me really like Napoleon!, 2007-03-20
This book makes you see Napoleon Bonaparte as something more than an evil ruler. I couldn't stop reading this book; it was awesome! It's a mix of a romance novel and a history novel. This book's well written.

When Napoleon is captured he is sent to St. Helena. There he stays with the Balcombe family. The family has two girls and two boys. Napoleon gradually becomes friends with the youngest girl, Betsy.

This book has such an emotional ending; I almost cried. I highly recommend this book. It could please anyone especially history lovers.




2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

Betsy and the Emperor, 2006-05-08
I highly suggest this book, Betsy and the Emperor. It shows that two opposite people can have a strong compassion for each other. Characters have tension between each other that they must overcome, such as being free of the vast mountains and valleys of ST. Helena, or being stuck there with the one you love. After someone important dies Boney doesn't have a very good chance of escaping. Stricter Laws and Rules are then set on what the Emperor Boney can do. Out side her house when she got back from boarding school she recognized a sickly-sweet smell. Betsy has to make tough decisions and she doesn't always make the right choices. Now it is up to you to find out what happens to the Emperor Boney and Betsy. By: Taylor Farley (6th grade)


3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

I could not finish this book fast enough!, 2006-01-03
It sounded like an interesting enough YA book. Betsy Balcombe, a resident of St. Helena, returns home from her London boarding school. St. Helena, you might recognize, was one of the islands Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled too. Betsy arrives home only to have Napoleon arrive several days later, and with his lodgings not yet finished, he is sent to live in her guesthouse. A relationship begins between the two, and while I'm pretty sure the author was trying to create a friendship between Betsey and Napoleon, I found it sort of creepy that Napoleon would want a purely platonic friendship with a fourteen year old. Putting that bit aside, the book moved incredibly slowly, and while I kept expecting things to really pick up, they didn't till the very end. By that point, I just wanted to finish.

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