Josephine
Desire, Ambition, Napoleon
-
- £5.99
-
- £5.99
Publisher Description
This is the incredible rise and unbelievable fall of a woman whose energy and ambition is often overshadowed by Napoleon’s military might. In this triumphant biography, Kate Williams tells Josephine’s searing story, of sexual obsession, politics and surviving as a woman in a man’s world.
Abandoned in Paris by her aristocratic husband, Josephine's future did not look promising. But while her friends and contemporaries were sent to the guillotine during the Terror that followed the Revolution, she survived prison and emerged as the doyenne of a wildly debauched party scene, surprising everybody when she encouraged the advances of a short, marginalised Corsican soldier, six years her junior.
Josephine, the fabulous hostess and skilled diplomat, was the perfect consort to the ambitious but obnoxious Napoleon. With her by his side, he became the greatest man in Europe, the Supreme Emperor; and she amassed a jewellery box with more diamonds than Marie Antoinette’s. But as his fame grew, Napoleon became increasingly obsessed with his need for an heir and irritated with Josephine’s extravagant spending. The woman who had enchanted France became desperate and jealous. Until, a divorcee aged forty-seven, she was forced to watch from the sidelines as Napoleon and his young bride produced a child.
Customer Reviews
Superb biography of a fascinating woman
This is a thoroughly engrossing biography of one of history’s most fascinating women. Her life was turbulent, passionate and packed full of incidents and events that mirrored the changing political landscape of post revolutionary Europe. Not only famous for the willing wife and consort of Napoleon, she survived the terrors of the French Revolution and entered into what has become one of history’s most famous relationships. Kate Williams has written a wonderful biography of a well known historical figure and given it a fresh insight and bringing the woman and her times alive for the reader. Superb!