From Publishers Weekly
Born in Martinique, her name was Rose when she arrived in France at age 15 to marry her first husband, a handsome man-about-court who quickly neglected his disappointingly provincial wife. 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 an awkward but rising military hero named Napoleon Bonaparte. Stuart (Showgirls) captures the tentativeness of their 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. Sources provide a challenge to the biographer, who must wade through material written much later when writers were fully aware of the importance of the actors and scenes they described. The twin dangers of contemporary romanticization and criticism haunt Stuart's text, yet the shifting sands of identity they create seem appropriate, for Rose and Napoleon were both remaking themselves. The almost pathological ways they complemented each other remain painfully clear as Stuart traces the denouements of their lives. It was hardly a happy marriage, and Stuart's argument that the emperor's harsh treatment of women in the Code Napoléon reflected the dynamics and frustrations of his own marriage seems quite convincing in this context. 16 pages of color illus. not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
Napoleon Bonaparte possessed an acute sense of smell. A few years ago I saw an advertisement for Camembert cheese that purported to relate an incident in the life of the famous general: An aide-de-camp, afraid of drawing Napoleon's ire for awakening him after a fatiguing battle, devised a plan. He cut a ripened piece of one of the general's favorite cheeses and held it close to his nose. After some grunting and moaning, the general murmured, "Ahh, Josephine!" In The Rose of Martinique, Andrea Stuart does not confirm the veracity of the advertisement but provides other details. Napoleon, in one of his more infamous letters to Josephine, begged her not to bathe, for he wanted to enjoy her body odor to the fullest. Thanks to Josephine's meticulous preservation of Napoleon's many amorous letters, the empress's sex life has become legendary. "She changed her appearance incessantly," writes Stuart, "giving her lovers the illusion of infinite variety. She also understood the importance of the . . . settings of her romantic encounters. She paid meticulous attention to the design of her bedrooms. . . . Her fondness for mirrors, evident at the rue Chantereine and in later palaces, multiplied the images of their love, and created the illusion of an orgy." Josephine, as Napoleon preferred to call her, was born far from France on the Caribbean island of Martinique on June 23, 1763. Her parents, owners of a sugar plantation, named her Marie-Josèphe-Rose de Tascher de la Pagerie and called her Rose. Just after her 16th birthday, she was sent to France to marry Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais, who, the author tells us, could have been the model for Valmont, the morally corrupt anti-hero of Choderlos de Laclos's scandalous 1782 novel Dangerous Liaisons. Like Valmont, Beauharnais loved luxury and political intrigue. He was well connected to the powerful aristocrats who were unhappy with the reign of Louis XVI. Three years older than Rose when he married her at 19, Beauharnais already had a mistress -- a married woman 11 years his senior. But Rose became an earnest, loving wife and bore him two children -- Eugène and Hortense. Beauharnais's boorishness eventually led Rose to agree to a separation, and she moved into a convent that housed privileged women in similar predicaments. There she acquired her Parisian sophistication, absorbing not only social skills but also a certain degree of mettle. She won custody of the children and generous financial support from her husband. But her fate was pinned inextricably to his, even after she and the children sailed off to Martinique in 1788, returning to a much different France two years later. Beauharnais had made a swift rise to lead the National Assembly, but the Reign of Terror had just as swiftly brought him down. Rose was rounded up as a traitor of the revolutionary government and ended up in the same rat-infested prison where he was kept. It was the worst of times, but the two managed to have amorous affairs with other inmates. She fell desperately in love with a dashing republican, Gen. Hoche, and carried on the affair after both of them were released from prison. Before the Terror ended, Beauharnais was guillotined in a public square along with many other members of the French nobility. Only after she became mistress of Paul de Barras, one of the ring leaders who overthrew Robespierre, did she meet Napoleon. "Barras had all the vices of a king," one politician said of him, "without having a single one of the virtues," but he did introduce Rose, by then the reigning hostess of Parisian society, to the promising general from the sticks of Corsica. When Napoleon fell head over heels in love with his "Josephine," Barras generously urged marriage, mainly to secure her financial security. The civil ceremony took place in 1796 with Barras as witness. Stuart captures the passion of Napoleon in his letters, from which she quotes liberally. Here is one from December 1795: "How can I rest any more, when I yield to the feeling that masters my inmost self, when I quaff from your lips and from your heart a scorching flame? Yes! One night has taught me how far your portrait falls short of yourself! You start at midday: in three hours I shall see you again. Till then, a thousand kisses, mio dolce amore: but give me none back, for they set my blood on fire." When Napoleon left to assume command of the Italian campaign, Josephine didn't wait long to have an affair with Hippolyte Charles, a strikingly handsome and debonair officer almost 10 years her junior. Meanwhile, Napoleon' s reputation kept rising after a string of military successes in Italy, despite the near-disastrous campaign in Egypt. He and his family turned against Josephine when they got wind of her affair, but after many tearful encounters, the couple reconciled. In August 1802, Napoleon was appointed Consul for Life, and two years later he became emperor. By then Josephine was able to insist on a religious ceremony, and on the eve of Napoleon's coronation on Dec. 2, 1804, with the official blessing of Pope Pius VII, they were married privately. The Rose of Martinique is a comprehensive and truly empathetic biography. Andrea Stuart, who was raised in the Caribbean, combines scholarly distance with a genuine attempt to understand her heroine. For example, when she writes about the circumstances surrounding Napoleon's edict to reestablish slavery in Martinique and elsewhere, she explores the question of why Josephine did not intervene. One interesting theory is that she and Napoleon shared a complex about being born outside of mainland France and feared being suspected of having mixed blood. As Stuart documents, it was hardly a misfortune for Josephine that Napoleon decided to divorce her and marry the archduchess of Austria, Marie-Louise d'Habsbourg. By then, Napoleon was showing his megalomania not just in matters of state but with his many mistresses and others over whom he held power. The formal divorce ceremony was a tearful one for both parties, during which Josephine declared: "With the permission of my dear and august husband, I declare that, no longer preserving any hope of having children to satisfy the political need for an heir in France, I proudly offer him the greatest proof of love and devotion ever given to a husband on this earth." Josephine was allowed to keep her beloved Malmaison, the vast estate where she cultivated more than 250 varieties of roses and a renowned collection of horticultural specimens from around the world. Her aura of majesty stayed with her, even after she lost her grandiose title. Upon hearing of her death in 1814, Napoleon was devastated. "He retired to bed for three days in a darkened room, alone and without food." When his own death came seven years later on the remote island of St. Helena, "the last word to leave his lips was the name he had given her: 'Josephine.' " She was immortalized in so many ways, but perhaps the most fitting tribute was the naming of two roses in her honor: "Josephine de Beauharnais" and "Empress Josephine." Napoleon had several roses named after him, too, including one that is sometimes referred to as "Madness at Corsica." Then there is the perennially popular "Souvenir de la Malmaison," along with roses named to honor Josephine's children. The plot thickens with such delightful roses. Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.


From Booklist
Even though the lives of lovely Josephine and her insanely ambitious second husband, Napoleon Bonaparte, have become legendary, Stuart takes a fresh and revelatory approach to portraying the Creole from Martinique who became empress of France by emphasizing both Josephine and Napoleon's outsider status as emigres from small islands. She was from a lush Caribbean wonderland poisoned by slavery, and he hailed from Corsica, and both were greatly underestimated when they first arrived in Paris. Writing with magnetic animation and vivid specificity, Stuart tracks the astonishing vicissitudes of Rose's life (Napoleon called her Josephine) as she evolved from a gauche country girl into a "seasoned voluptuary," a "high priestess of style," and the famously kind, poised, and diplomatic wife of the most powerful man in Europe. Part and parcel of this gripping tale of love, adversity, loss, and survival is the story of the rapidly fluctuating status of women in France and the terrors of the French Revolution, harsh realities Stuart chronicles with acumen and finesse. But what makes this altogether moving biography truly unforgettable are Stuart's deep insights into Josephine's devotion to beauty, adaptability, compassion, and capacity for joy and love. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
Josephine Bonaparte was one of the most remarkable women of the modern era. In this acclaimed biography, Andrea Stuart brings her so utterly to life that we finally understand why Napoleon's last word before dying was the name he had given her, Josephine. Using diaries and letters, Stuart expertly re-creates Josephine's whirlwind of a life that began with an isolated Caribbean childhood and led to a marriage that would usher her onto the world stage and crown her empress of France. Josephine's life gives us a picture of the terrible vicissitudes of the times. She managed to be in the forefront of every important episode of her era's turbulent history. After the Terror in Paris, the brilliant corrupt director Paul Barras rescued her from near-starvation. She epitomized post revolutionary Paris with its wild decadence and love of all things exotic, and it was there as its star that she first caught the eye of a young Corsican general who was to become the colossus of the age, Napoleon Bonaparte. A true partner to Napoleon, she was a political adviser, hostess par excellence, his confidante, and passionate lover.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Although eventually married to the colossus of her age, Josephine Bonaparte's life was dramatic and eventful before ever meeting Napoleon. Josephine was one of the most remarkable women of the modern era. Andrea Stuart focuses on the woman herself and brings her so utterly to life that we finally understand why Napoleon's last word before dying in exile was the name he had given her, "Josephine." Using diaries and letters, Stuart expertly re-creates Josephine's whirlwind life, which ranged from an isolated Caribbean childhood to being crowned Empress of France. Born Rose de Tasher on her family's Martinique sugar plantation, she was vivacious, pleasure-loving, sensual, and compassionate -- a true Creole. This particular background contributed so immeasurably to who she was as a person that it's impossible to imagine her emerging from any other society, and as a London-based Jamaican, "Stuart is particularly well qualified to appreciate Rose's idyllic Caribbean childhood and her sense of strangeness when she arrived in Europe" (Irish Times) as a dowdy sixteen-year-old to marry a Parisian nobleman.

Josephine's life, even more than Napoleon's, gives us a picture of the terrible vicissitudes of the times. She managed to be in the forefront of every important episode of her era's turbulent history: from the slave plantations of the West Indies that bankrolled Europe's rapid economic development; to the last days of the ancien regime; to the Revolution itself, from which she barely escaped the guillotine. She epitomized the wild decadence of post-revolutionary Paris and it was there, as its star, that she first caught the eye of a young Corsican general, Napoleon Bonaparte. The fact that both Josephine and Napoleon were immigrants may explain the intensity of their bond. A true partner to Napoleon, she was a political adviser, hostess par excellence, his confidante and lover. Whether at the Tuileries Gardens or her beloved chateau Malmaison, she contributed to the atmosphere of the court and to the style of the times.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Born in Martinique, her name was Rose when she arrived in France at age 15 to marry her first husband, a handsome man-about-court who quickly neglected his disappointingly provincial wife. 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 an awkward but rising military hero named Napoleon Bonaparte. Stuart (Showgirls) captures the tentativeness of their 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. Sources provide a challenge to the biographer, who must wade through material written much later when writers were fully aware of the importance of the actors and scenes they described. The twin dangers of contemporary romanticization and criticism haunt Stuart's text, yet the shifting sands of identity they create seem appropriate, for Rose and Napoleon were both remaking themselves. The almost pathological ways they complemented each other remain painfully clear as Stuart traces the denouements of their lives. It was hardly a happy marriage, and Stuart's argument that the emperor's harsh treatment of women in the Code Napol on reflected the dynamics and frustrations of his own marriage seems quite convincing in this context. 16 pages of color illus. not seen by PW. Agent, David Godwin. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Jamaican-born author Stuart (Showgirls) believes that her understanding of Caribbean heritage makes her especially well equipped to profile Napoleon's famous consort, who was born Rose de Tasher on a sugar plantation in the French colony of Martinique. The future Empress Josephine came to Paris as an unsophisticated 16-year-old intended in marriage to nobleman and legendary philanderer Alexandre de Beauharnais. Using diaries and letters, Stuart re-creates Josephine's story in painstaking detail. She sensitively explains how Josephine's seemingly glamorous life was really marked by a series of difficult adjustments: facing life as an immigrant outsider, emerging from a failed marriage, raising two children alone, and suffering the infidelities of two husbands. Stuart also describes Josephine's daily routine; seeks to uncover her political views, especially on race and slavery; and, most important, demonstrates how she adapted to the many challenges she faced. While removing herself from historiographical debates, Stuart does try to make sense of Josephine's reputation "for easy morals and gold digging," admitting that she was a passionate and sensual woman who used her charms to survive. Hence, she emerges as a startlingly modern woman. This engrossing, well-researched biography should interest general readers fascinated by the romance of the Napoleonic period.-Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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