This volume has a singular history, it was published in London and had a resounding success. Written in the first person, it presents itself as a biography written by Napoleon himself, something that the publisher neither denied nor confirmed. In reality the writing was not from Napoleon, much less did it come from Saint Helena. It had been brought to London by Frederick Lullin de Chateauvivieux on behalf of an old enemy of Napoleon, Madame de Stael, widely believed to be the true author of the story. That the work was not by Napoleon is confirmed by his personal valet Saint-Demise who in his memoirs reports that in 1817 a copy of the volume was brought to Saint Helena by Admiral Plampin. Napoleon read the volume, noticed some errors, which he then commented with some notes reported in the thirty-first volume of the "Correspondance...". Napoleon, knowing his opponent's writings well, did not hesitate to confirm the attribution to Madame de Stael.