Ambition and Desire: The Dangerous Life of Josephine Bonaparte

Summary (from the publisher): This is the incredible rise and unbelievable fall of a woman whose energy and ambition is often overshadowed by Napoleon's military might. In this triumphant biography, Kate Williams tells Josephine's searing story, of sexual obsession, politics and surviving as a woman in a man's world.

Abandoned in Paris by her aristocratic husband, Josephine's future did not look promising. But while her friends and contemporaries were sent to the guillotine during the Terror that followed the Revolution, she survived prison and emerged as the doyenne of a wildly debauched party scene, surprising everybody when she encouraged the advances of a short, marginalised Corsican soldier, six years her junior.

Josephine, the fabulous hostess and skilled diplomat, was the perfect consort to the ambitious but obnoxious Napoleon. With her by his side, he became the greatest man in Europe, the Supreme Emperor; and she amassed a jewellery box with more diamonds than Marie Antoinette's. But as his fame grew, Napoleon became increasingly obsessed with his need for an heir and irritated with Josephine's extravagant spending. The woman who had enchanted France became desperate and jealous. Until, a divorcee aged forty-seven, she was forced to watch from the sidelines as Napoleon and his young bride produced a child.

 

Review: I won an uncorrected proof copy of this book as a giveaway on Goodreads.

 

The woman who would rise to become Empress was born Marie-Josephe-Rose de Tascher de La Pagerie in 1763 on a plantation on the island of Martinique. Her family called her Yeyette. Although her family had once been wealthy, their fortunes were much diminished. In 1766, a hurricane destroyed their home, and the family moved to the upper floor of the sugarhouse. "No genteel family would ever live over the workrooms - and island society was shocked at the La Pagerie living conditions" (14).

 

When she turned 16, Yeyette's aunt arranged for her to marry the son of her lover, despite the fact that the boy would have preferred to marry one of her younger sisters. Yeyette arrived in Paris to marry Alexandre de Beauharnais. They would have two children together, Eugene and Hortense, but a very unhappy marriage until Alexandre was imprisoned and died by the guillotine during the revolution. Josephine was also imprisoned, and narrowly avoided execution herself.

 

After the revolution, Josephine's social star truly began to rise. "Those who had suffered imprisonment were immediately at the top of the social tree. 'It was the height of good manners to be ruined'" (66). She supported herself and her two children by basically being a kept mistress and was at the center of lewd social debauchery in Paris that thrived post-revolution. Eventually, she met a relative nobody, young Napoleon Bonaparte, who fell madly and passionately in love with her and agreed to marry him, despite the fact that she was passionately in love with another man, Hippolyte Charles. After their marriage, while Napoleon was off conquering his future empire, Josephine continued to sleep with Hippolyte.

 

Josephine and Napoleon had a tumultuous and passionate relationship. He would rage at her, she would weep and prostrate herself before him, they would make up, the cycle would begin again. Although constantly threatening to divorce her, he ended up staying married to her for thirteen years, until he ultimately when through with divorce in order to marry into royalty and attempt to have children, since no children were produced from his marriage to Josephine.

 

During their marriage and Napoloen's climb to power, Josephine lived in luxury and excess that far exceeded Marie Antoinette. "In one year alone, she bought 900 gowns, almost five times as many as Marie Antoinette" (159). Josephine bought and substantially altered a country estate, Malmaison into almost a fairground or theme park, complete with an "exotic orangery" and zoo that "was the most exotic menagerie in Europe" (167, 168). Josephine was a great art collector, "From 1799, she had amassed over 450 paintings, drawings, and miniatures. By the time she died, there were more than three thousand objets d'art at Malmaison" (175). "Marie Antoinette's old jewel box was actually too small for the empress's sparklers," so Josephine had a new one built that stood nearly ten feet tall (238).

 

Both Josephine and Napoleon were obviously both deeply flawed individuals, and their marriage reflects this. However, it's also clear that they seemed to have truly loved one another, and remained close even after Napoleon legally divorced her. "He relied on her emotionally and saw her as his essential helpmate. They divided the labor of imperial success. He stood for aggression, strategy, military triumph, and tyranny, while she assumed all the roles he reviled: patron of art and beauty, manners and sympathy. Her kind heart and gentle words smoothed over his anger and fooled people into thinking that Napoleon had a more humane side" (241-242).

 

Before picking up this biography of Josephine Bonaparte, I could list on one hand the few things I knew about her. While some reviews of this particular biography complain that it adds nothing new to our understanding of her, and others charge that the author uses dubious sources, I cannot comment because of my limited knowledge. I enjoyed Williams' writing style, which packs a lot of information into each short chapter. If anything, I wish this biography had been longer, so I could have been given an even more comprehensive look at Josephine's life.

 

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