This book is set between 1809 and 1815 or thereabouts. It chronicles the story of the Bonapartes. It is an interesting and easy read which transported me back to my history lessons. Although, the author indicates that she has 'altered some of the history' in trying to spin the tale, she has nonetheless tried to keep as close as possible to the facts as they happened.
The book reminds me - not sure if I came to the same conclusion in my history class - of the fickleness of the masses. They see-sawed between the Bourbons, the Bonapartes, the Bourbons, the Bornapartes...It must have been a very confusing period for the french citoyens or perhaps they did not really have much choice in their destiny. Like many people now...they were just like pawns on a chess board...watching the political class making decisions that would ultimately affect their lives - for better or for worse.
One must admire Napoleon...Love him or hate him, he was and is an enigma. He rose from nothing, led a coup d'etat, charmed the French, brought his enemies to the brink, fell and rose again. Even whilst in Elba in exile, he was down but not out. No wonder Shaka said that one must never leave an enemy standing - even on an Island!! What is amazing is that Napoleon was not even French...being as he was from Corsica hence Italian. His story reminds me that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Surprisingly, Napoleon craved the very trappings of nobility that he fought against including divorcing his commoner wife - The Pope be damned - to marry the unwilling Maria-Lucia (great niece of Marie-Antoinette with 800 years of Hapsburg blood in her veins) so that his children could be of noble blood. What better pedigree would one desire? He desired that which he did not otherwise have. One can only wonder at the madness that drove him to invade Russia which eventually brought his downfall. This reminds me of a question in the film Serafina. What brought Napoleon down? Was it the Russian winter or was it the people who burned their homes to ensure that the French soldiers did not get any respite from the harsh elements of russian winter. Historians say that the French had won the war until the Russian governor ordered the muscovites to burn their homes rather than capitulate. Napoleon's downfall was precipitated by the French masses and their nobles who now wanted their dead back - they wanted their dead husbands and sons back alive. Even Napoleon could not achieve that feat. Luckily for him he received extreme unction upon death, received a state funeral and has a place in French history. If only we, africans, could revere our leaders - despite their faults and teach our children to remember them as heroes and not villains - only then would we, as a people, have achieved nirvana.
The supporting character I admired most - though in the shadow - was Madame Mere - Napoleon's mother (Letizia Ramolino) who believed in her son despite everything. Reminds me of the verse that I paraphrase to mean that a mother does not often forget her child. A mother stands by her children, protects them and believes in them, despite everything. This is the Joy of Motherhood.
The character I hated most is Prince Metternich, the diplomat who supposedly brokered the marriage between Maria Lucia and Napoleon. He was the Austrian Ambassador to the French court. The world is full of the duplicity of such people who cannot always be trusted.
The book is written mostly through the eyes of Maria-Lucia...The Second Empress...So one cannot but love her, feel for her and be happy for her.
Not much is said in the book about Josephine...The First Empress and Napoleon's talisman except that his luck began to dip when he divorced her. Interestingly, he still communed with her, kept her children and her name was the only one he uttered in death.
Not much is said in the book about Josephine...The First Empress and Napoleon's talisman except that his luck began to dip when he divorced her. Interestingly, he still communed with her, kept her children and her name was the only one he uttered in death.
The book tempts me to brush my memory about Saint-Domingue a.k.a Haiti and the Egyptian ptolemies that so mersmerised Pauline Bonaparte. Pauline Bonaparte herself epitomised the foibles of the French court - the less said about her character, the better! Except that she was faithful to the end.
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