![]() ![]() But the dissembling that she must do before the book ends takes on a darker hue.Īlthough Josephine is resourceful and enterprising, her perspective on events is personal and domestic. The contrast between what Josephine says and what she really thinks is often comical. ![]() Josephine vows that, however much she is required “to dissemble, to flatter and cajole,” she will speak the truth in her journal. Brief footnotes fill in gaps without disrupting the flow of the story. Josephine’s journal entries have a spontaneity that is entirely convincing, and are nicely leavened with dialogue and period lore. It begins in 1796 with the widowed Josephine’s marriage to Napoleon, who by the end of the book – and the century – has risen from obscurity to First Consul of the Republic, while Josephine has become ensconced in the Palace of Kings. Her second novel, Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe, continues in the same vein using the fictionalized diary of the heroine to tell the story. Sandra Gulland’s fictional trilogy of the life of Josephine Bonaparte began with The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B, published in 1995. ![]()
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