About the Book:

Young Josephine Bonaparte shines at the center of a new, sweeping, romantic work of historical fiction by Sandra Gulland: detailed and exhaustively researched, compelling and powerful, The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. is the first in a trilogy of fictional novels tracing the actual rise of a young European noblewoman who would one day stand next to Napoleon. From the heartbreak of lost loves to the horror of revolution to the hope of new days, it’s an intimate epic any romance lover will love.

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I am probably like most people when it comes to Josephine Bonaparte.  I knew that she was married to Napoleon, and that he was completely enamored of her.  But beyond that I have never looked into her life, separate from that of her famous/infamous husband.  Where Josephine was concerned, history has completely eclipsed her in the shadow of her meteoric husband.  So when I came across this book I was interested to see what Gulland has presented.  And when I started this book I was a little confused, and even more intrigued with the life of Josephine — before she became Josephine.

Gulland’s research really sets this book apart.  And while it is historical fiction — the background setting is amazingly accurate and surprisingly insightful.  Rose de Beauharnais, aka:  Josephine Bonaparte had an amazing life before her marriage to her general husband.  First married to Alexandre de Beauharnais, a strong advocate of the French Revolution, and a member of the French nobility — Rose’s life was both heart-breaking and fairy tale like.  Her husband’s overbearing dictatorial style towards Rose left her feeling unloved, unwanted, and living life in a precarious position.  In a time when the nobility, as supporters of the French crown, were being hunted down, imprisoned and guillotined, Rose found herself balanced on a knifes edge of her noble lifestyle provided through her husband’s family, and the revolutionary cause her husband so vociferously advocated.  As the family was slowly self destructing between the two Beauharnais brothers, Alexandre and Francois represent the difficulties that all of the French people faced during this time; the French revolution and the issues driving really come to life in this book.

The one thing I didn’t like about this book was the format.  Written in a personal diary form, recorded through the point of view of Rose, I kept feeling like I was always missing something between the various entries.  And while the story is complete — and it reads more as a narrative than a diary — the insertion of the dates, times, and places kept reminding me that I was reading a journal type work, and breaking the flow of the read.  And something about this format kept reminding me that there was potentially a background story — leaving me feeling like I might be missing a lot in between the entries.  However, with time I got past this feeling.  And while it would crop up at various times through out the book, I eventually settled into the format and realized I was really enjoying the read.

The characters are well developed, and Rose really comes to life in this book.  But it was the issues that developed into the French revolution that really hold this story together.  Following closely on the heels of the American Revolution — the spirit of the ideals of freedom and democracy take center stage in this story — in a powerful way.  The book magnifies the difficulties that the American Revolution really never had to fight — which was the strangle hold the nobility held on the country and government — prior to the outbreak of revolutionary spirit.  It was this issue of nobility that lead to a vastly different outcome in the French revolution — and set the stage for the struggles the European countries were forced to confront in their bid for independence, and ultimately laid the groundwork for the rise of Napoleon.  This issue comes through loudly in this book — and it carries the reader into the political struggle and the dangers that consumed this time, and dramatically destabilized the country under the volatility which ultimately came to be known as “The Terror.”  When the guillotine became more than an instrument of terror, and the daily events were the execution of martyrs by the hundreds, this book leaves the reader struggling to come to terms with what happens when a nation turns on itself, and eventually consumes itself in the convoluted and corrupted ideals of men.

Tags: Family, France, French Revolution, Government, Grief, Historical Fiction, Josephine Bonaparte, Love, Memory, Napoleone, Romance, Suffering, Survivor

Category: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance