The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon’s Josephine

 
Born in Martinique, her name was Rose when she arrived in France at age 15 to marry her first husband. Rose matured and built alliances in unlikely places, including the convent where her husband forced her to retire and the prison where she spent the last months of the French Revolution. It was after this period and her husband's execution that she became one of Paris's great hostesses and attracted the attention of a rising military hero named Napoleon Bonaparte. Stuart describes the first years of marriage, when letters of the often-absent, sexually inexperienced Napoleon raged with jealousy while Rose, whom he renamed Josephine, continued to have the affairs common in her social circle. Stuart's argues that the emperor's harsh treatment of women in the Code Napoleon reflected the dynamics and frustrations of his own marriage.