the many lives and secret sorrows of josephine b

The first volume covers Rose's life up to the point she marries Napoleon and it's an absolute page turner. I'm not a fan of the diary narration format usually, but this was a fast read and I felt like a fly on the wall of Josephine's life and that tumultuous time of history when a young girl from the Colonies will eventually become Empress of France. The reader will also learn more about the influence that women have in political and historical events. A pragmatist who became a politician's mistress, she later marries the young Bonaparte to gain security and respectability.

We read about her unhappy marriage to the philandering Alexander de Beauharnais and about the births of her children, Eugene and Hortense. We meet numerous characters through Rose's diary, many of them both familiar and famous. During these years, Rose is surrounded by revolution, intrigue, poverty and fear. Told in the form of diary readings and correspondence to young Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie (later Josephine) the first volume reveals her early life, adolescence, first marriage, children, imprisonment, and introductory relationship to Napoleon. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B is the first of three volumes about Josephine Bonaparte. I certainly want to learn more about this fascinating woman.

This book ends just after their marriage but Sandra Gulland has continued the story of Josephine in two more books. One of the reasons she agreed to marry Bonaparte was to provide some stability for her children. But Rose was determined to educate her children and provide them with a decent home and she managed to do so. Rose and her two children were still not able to return to their house and Rose had little in the way of income. Rose was also put in prison but she was released soon after Robespierre was ejected from power and also guillotined. Then he lost a battle and he was taken prisoner and eventually killed by guillotine. He was a man of some influence becoming a general in the army and a Deputy in the Republican government. Her husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais, was a Parisian noble who turned Republican when the French Revolution began. I also did not know that Rose/Josephine was married and widowed prior to meeting Bonaparte. Bonaparte decided to rename her and so she goes down in history as Josephine. She was born Marie-Joseph-Rose and was known as Rose until she was 32 years old. What I didn't know until I read this book is that she did not become known as Josephine until she was married to Napoleon Bonaparte. referred to in the title is, of course, Josephine Bonaparte.

The many lives and secret sorrows of josephine b