Ambition and desire : the dangerous life of Josephine Bonaparte / Kate Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, Kate, 1974- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Josephine, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1763-1814.

Josephine.

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821--Marriage.

Napoleon.

Empresses--France--Biography.

Empresses.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

viii, 384 pages, 16 pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Ballantine Books, 2014.

Summary:

From CNN's official royal historian, a highly praised young author with a doctorate from Oxford University, comes the extraordinary rags-to-riches story of the woman who conquered Napoleon's heart -- and with it, an empire.

Contents:

Prologue

La Pagerie

Sophistication

"Beneath all the sluts in the world"

Revolution

"The height of good manners to be ruined"

"What strange power you have over my heart"

"The single object in my heart"

A million kisses

"I am so distressed at being separated from him"

"All I have suffered"

"He owes me everything"

"The most beautiful thing in the world"

Scenes with Bonaparte

"My stepfather Is a comet"

"Your imperial majesty"

"The king of diamonds"

"I have fulfilled my destiny"

"I wish you would be more reasonable"

"Cold and often embarrassed"

"Like a wounded soldier"

"More full of charm"

Epilogue.

Notes:

Originally published under the title Josephine: desire, ambition, Napoleon in the United Kingdom by Hutchinson, a member of The Random House Group Limited, London, in 2013.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [355]-365) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Beerman Fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780345522832 ;