Dear Reader,
As you may have noticed, there is a significant departure from history in this story. Napoleon, even after his escape from Elba, did not succeed as well as depicted in this story. The Stranje House novels present an alternate history based on events that happened in A School for Unusual Girls. We are speculating on what might have happened if Louis XVIII had been assassinated and Napoleon garnered the full backing of the people of France.
Other background elements in the story are factual.
Napoleon’s fascination with fate and interpreting dreams is historically accurate. His Oraculum was left behind in his “Cabinet of Curiosities” when he fled Leipzig. He did indeed call it his Book of Fates, and we still have copies of it today.
Mr. Sinclair, Robert Fulton’s nephew, is a fictional character. Although after reading Fulton’s letters and several historical commentaries on his character, I feel certain that if Fulton had a nephew interested in engineering, he would’ve taken that young man under his wing. He was that sort of man. Fulton was extremely generous to his widowed mother and sisters, and even purchased a farm for his mother.
All of Fulton’s inventions mentioned in this story are real. He actually did build a submarine for Napoleon, the Nautilus. As you might have guessed, Jules Verne named his fictional submarine in honor of Fulton. In 1804, after having been frustrated by Napoleon’s rejection of his work, Fulton offered those same ideas to Britain. The prime minister, William Pitt, commissioned him to build a submarine for England and also considered buying his steam-powered gunship. But shortly thereafter Admiral Nelson soundly defeated the French navy at Trafalgar, and Fulton’s projects were no longer needed.
Robert Fulton returned home and built a warship for the United States, the famed Demologos. The warship described in this story is based on that design.
In my letter at the end of A School for Unusual Girls I mentioned the domino effect. One act, by one person, can have global impact. Consider altering one person in history, and follow the ripples through time. For example, what if Abraham Lincoln had died before he became president of the United States? Or George Washington. How would life be different?
Those two men were center stage. It’s easy to see how different our lives would be without them. But there are other people working off stage who change life for millions of people; for instance Jonas Salk, who discovered a vaccine for polio. Or Robert Fulton. What about your family doctor? Your teacher? Or your best friend?
And you.
You make a difference in the lives of the people around you, and be certain, there is a ripple effect around the globe.
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Kathleen Baldwin loves hearing from readers. You can contact her through her Web site, and also find other goodies there: book club guides, a Regency glossary, excerpts, and historical extras.