Before and After Waterloo

Views of Europe during the Napoleonic Age

The last years of the 18th Century and the first years of the nineteenth century were typified by revolution and warfare. Europe was torn apart by conflict as the hereditary rulers of the Continent fought to defeat first Revolutionary, then Consulate and finally the Imperial France of Napoleon Bonaparte. The authors of the letters which comprise this book were distinctive in that as educated and well placed English people they travelled to the Continent during or after its most turbulent or significant events. Their correspondence, written from the Continent after the Peace of Amiens of 1802-03, after the Peace of Paris of 1814 and after the conflict at Waterloo in Belgium, has left posterity a collection of impressions and insights into the effects of these great times on the nations, cities, towns and people of Europe from a British perspective. Stanley's examination of the field of battle at Waterloo is often quoted and his water colour paintings (reproduced here in monochrome) are often utilised as illustrations of the battle's main locations. Available in softcover and hardcover with dust jacket.