author: sandra gulland
completion date: 05/08/10
method: borrowed (debbie)
let me preface this with the fact that i am a HUGE sucker for biofiction. i loved philippa gregory's novels and really any other novel based on a real person but is a fictional account of their lives (as a girl there was this royal diaries series i was into about cleopatra and elisabeth and mary). i think i just love when some things have a spark of reality to them, because it feels like you're reading non fiction but its a bit more fun. i also like knowing whats going to happen to the main character at the end of the book without asking anyone.
what i like about this trilogy so far after the first instalment is that it focuses on the lessor of the two heros. many books have been written and stories told about napoleon and his conquests, but gulland focuses on his wife, josephine, who is fascinating. this instalment starts when josephine is a young girl on the island trois-olets, martinique, almost 20 years before she is married to napoleon. something that i didn't know about josephine is that she led an extremely hard life before napoleon and becoming the empress (although i'm sure it wasn't a cakewalk). her fist marriage was miserable. she was married to someone who did not love her and who kept trophies of his conquests both before and after their wedding. luckily for josephine though, his family was kind and loving, and after his death they still helped and supported her as much as they could.
i don't know a lot about the french revolution. i know that it was very messy and very bloody and pretty horrifying to be anyone. peasants had no money (and the revolution didn't really help this) aristocrats couldn't hold onto their heads long enough to style their hair, and no one could be trusted. i also know that the revolution was just followed by an emperor which i think is the last thing everyone wanted.
something about gulland's books that i am totally amazed by so far: they are impeccably researched. they feel so authentic and are backed by an impressive bibliography. there is of course lots and lots of padding (it is fiction after all) but it is so convincing and well put together that it feels like josephine's true account of her life.
its funny to hear a description of napoleon from someone who grew to love him. a tiny man with short little legs and long, stringy hair. exactly the person you'd want after you'd married a gorgeous letch.
xo-ellebee
"aristocrats couldn't hold onto their heads long enough to style their hair"
ReplyDeleteI'm smiling, that's an amazingly funny line.
You should check out if you haven't the Scarlet Pimpernel. It's basically if Zorro was around during the French revolution.
And by Zorro, I of course also mean Batman.