Josephine: Desire, Ambition, Napoleon

 
From the publishers:
 
“Josephine de Beauharnais began as a kept woman of Paris and became the most powerful woman in France. She was no beauty, her teeth were rotten, and she was six years older than her husband, but one twitch of her skirt could bring running the man who terrorised Europe. She was born in Martinique in June 1763, and came to France as a young wife. Pretty and flirtatious, she revelled in the ancien regime. Then, as France burned, and the Revolution was followed by the Terror, she survived terrible imprisonment. Her husband died and her health was wrecked forever. Afterwards, she and other survivors tried to forget the pain in wild debauchery, clutching at the sensual pleasures that they had come so close to losing forever. Glamorous, stylish and a mistress of erotic arts, she understood that her only asset was her body and she became a mistress and courtesan to rich men. As she passed thirty, Josephine realised that her star was beginning to wane. She had to secure her future – and the men who kept her were too jaded for love. And so she turned her eye to a small, stocky, Corsican soldier, six years her junior and bursting with rude spirit. Society tolerated him for his bravery but laughed at him behind his back. No one could believe it when the stylish, feted Josephine began encouraging his advances. They were bound together by a scorching erotic fascination. He would gallop home to be with her, burst into her room, toss her into bed, and write long paeans of praise while he was away to her 'little black forest'. With her, he became the greatest man in Europe, the Supreme Emperor. But her inability to give him a son finally tore them apart. This is a searing story of sexual obsession, war, heartbreak, affairs, devastating love, plots and murder and politics – in a world that was being altered forever.”

Also see this article by Kate Williams in the Mail Online, with a video interview of the author herself: “Life story: Napoleon's secret weapon – Joséphine Bonaparte“.

Review in the Daily Mail by Jane Shilling, 4 January 2014.