The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoleon's Court [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Michelle Moran (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 14, 2012

National bestselling author Michelle Moran returns to Paris, this time under the rule of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as he casts aside his beautiful wife to marry a Hapsburg princess he hopes will bear him a royal heir
 
   After the bloody French Revolution, Emperor Napoleon’s power is absolute. When Marie-Louise, the eighteen year old daughter of the King of Austria, is told that the Emperor has demanded her hand in marriage, her father presents her with a terrible choice: marry the cruel, capricious Napoleon, leaving the man she loves and her home forever, or say no, and plunge her country into war.
   Marie-Louise knows what she must do, and she travels to France, determined to be a good wife despite Napoleon’s reputation. But lavish parties greet her in Paris, and at the extravagant French court, she finds many rivals for her husband’s affection, including Napoleon’s first wife, Joséphine, and his sister Pauline, the only woman as ambitious as the emperor himself. Beloved by some and infamous to many, Pauline is fiercely loyal to her brother. She is also convinced that Napoleon is destined to become the modern Pharaoh of Egypt. Indeed, her greatest hope is to rule alongside him as his queen—a brother-sister marriage just as the ancient Egyptian royals practiced. Determined to see this dream come to pass, Pauline embarks on a campaign to undermine the new empress and convince Napoleon to divorce Marie-Louise. 
   As Pauline’s insightful Haitian servant, Paul, watches these two women clash, he is torn between his love for Pauline and his sympathy for Marie-Louise. But there are greater concerns than Pauline’s jealousy plaguing the court of France. While Napoleon becomes increasingly desperate for an heir, the empire’s peace looks increasingly unstable. When war once again sweeps the continent and bloodshed threatens Marie-Louise’s family in Austria, the second Empress is forced to make choices that will determine her place in history—and change the course of her life. 
   Based on primary resources from the time, The Second Empress takes readers back to Napoleon’s empire, where royals and servants alike live at the whim of one man, and two women vie to change their destinies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Moran has once again proven her skills as a mesmerizing storyteller with The Second Empress. She gathers her readers into the heart of the story and takes them on an adventure into a world where most would never dare venture. Moran's characters are engaging and her use of historical facts, bits and pieces of correspondence and ephemera tie this story together to create a fascinating tale that won't soon be forgotten.”  —Times Record News

“Stunning in form, theme, and plot. . . Don’t hesitate to purchase this beautifully written gem, which is certain to shoot to the top of the charts, if not start a craze for everything Moran.” —Library Journal

“Colorful… [a] nicely crafted work of historical fiction.” —Romantic Times

Red Hot Book of the Week, SheKnows.com: “Michelle Moran is beloved by readers of historical fiction for her lively and well-researched novels. . . Marie-Louise may be the character that readers will love, but it is Pauline they will love to hate. . . Moran describes the end of Napoleon's empire in vivid, realistic terms. She wastes no time attempting to make the reader sympathetic for the megalomaniac Napoleon, instead providing compelling -- if not always entirely likable -- characters who must make difficult choices: What is the best way to be loyal to one's family? When does self-respect and self-worth require giving up the person you love?” —SheKnows.com

“Compelling fiction. . . Ostensibly the portrait of Marie-Louise of Austria, who became Napoleon’s second wife, the novel’s title could as easily apply to the emperor’s sister, Pauline. . . Another enjoyable historical from Moran.” —Publishers Weekly

“This book covers the last six years of Napoleon’s reign… If you like French history you will enjoy this novel.” —British Weekly

“The Second Empress is a masterful work of fiction portraying the little known history of Napoleon’s desperate attempt to acquire an heir… The Second Empress is another wonderful read by a fantastic author.” –RomanceJunkies.com

From the Inside Flap

THE SECOND EMPRESS

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown; First Edition edition (August 14, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307953033
• ISBN-13: 978-0307953032
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (110 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #243,375 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MICHELLE MORAN is the international bestselling author of Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen, Cleopatra's Daughter, and Madame Tussaud. Her experiences at archaeological sites around the world motivated her to write historical fiction and continue to provide inspiration for her novels. Her fifth book, The Second Empress, comes out August 14, 2012.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't read it for accurate history September 16, 2012

By lit-in-the-last-frontier

Format:Hardcover

After finishing Michelle Moran's fantastic novel of the French Revolution, Madame Tussaud, I did something I very rarely do: I immediately put another of her books on hold at the library. Usually I like to space out an author's novels, as I get bored with reading similar works close together; but that particular book was such a treat that I could not resist one more of her offerings before I dove back into another busy school year. To say that I am disappointed in Ms. Moran's latest release, the story of Marie Louise, the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, would be a serious understatement. It barely made three stars for me.

All of the elements that made Madame Tussaud so powerful are seen only in bare glimpses in this novel-in fact, when they shimmered around the edges of the prose I only felt more frustrated by Moran's inability to adequately develop them here. For instance, character development. To use Napoleon as an example-courtiers were endlessly talking about his personality and actions, as opposed to writing more actual scenes in which he appeared and showing him for what he was. This book, like her previous novel, uses multiple narrators. Personally, I would have given Napoleon a voice, in order to flesh out his relationship with Marie Louise more fully and show us their interactions from his perspective. One narrator, Paul, Pauline Bonaparte's chamberlain, seemed a very unnecessary voice to me, and I could have done without his viewpoint. By the time I finished Tussaud I cared about those people, because Moran had woven me into their psyches, but with this book, the writing just felt like tabloid gossip which never drew me into caring about the characters as human beings.

Her handling of the setting left me feeling similarly flat. Once again she had some wonderful environments to create for her reader, among them the courts of Austria and France and the Isle of Elba. I never, aside from the fact that the hallways were colder in Schonbrunn Palace, got a distinct differentiation of the setting in one place or the other. A small amount of detail was given about clothing, but food, music, art, the palaces themselves, the cities, etc., where skated over but never fully developed-all elements which lend richness to the experience that is historical fiction. The ending was very rushed, and so the reader never gets to know Elba, St. Helena, or Marie Louise's final home in Parma at all.

This book motivated me to spend about three hours on university sites doing research, and I think what bothers me the most is Michelle Moran's statement that she drew her research from primary sources, when it is so abundantly clear that the book is full of inaccuracies. Even my cursory search tells me that. Yes, it is a novel, but don't claim it is anything more if you have not researched it to the bottom of the filing cabinet. I do not mind historical inaccuracies in a novel, but I do mind if there is what appears to be a full disclosure note at the end, and they are not disclosed. Historical Fiction is after all fiction, and that is fine; if you have written a very loose interpretation, just admit that to your readers. Tell them that you took your characters from history, but most of the events are of your own invention. There is nothing wrong with that in a novel, as long as you are up front about it. I found three very credible university papers on the topic, and they all concurred on the following points, diverging from Ms. Moran's telling of the story, yet not divulged by her in her author's note:

***SPOILER ALERT***
Central to this novel is a love story between Marie Louise and Count von Neipperg. In fact, they never met until after Marie Louise separated from Napoleon. Interestingly, he was sent by her father to lure her away from France and get her to come home to Austria. Her father wanted von Neipperg to romance his daughter! He loathed the French and would do whatever it took to get his daughter away from her husband, for whom she still had some feelings of love and loyalty. Von Neipperg and Marie Louise did have a wonderful love story, very much as portrayed at the conclusion of the novel, but not before the Bonapartes were married, as Ms. Moran would have her reader's believe, and Marie Louise certainly wasn't pining for him during her marriage.
***END OF SPOILER***

The second inaccuracy is the friendship that Ms. Moran wrote between Marie Louise and Hortense (the daughter of Napoleon's first wife Josephine). Why she chose to write in that relationship is beyond me, as it made so little sense, but if she really felt that she wanted it in there it is another thing I feel she should have disclosed in the author's note, as in reality the two women rarely interacted. Also, if Michelle Moran wanted someone for the confidante role, history provides a real life woman for her; my research showed that Marie Louise and the Duchess of Montebello developed what would become a close lifelong friendship during those difficult years of her marriage to Napoleon. Why not develop that character?

Her final inaccuracy is in her portrayal of Napoleon with regards to his treatment of Marie Louise. My research shows quite clearly that he was not the complete villain that she paints him to be, and it is an accepted historical fact that he loved Marie Louise and doted on her, and she in turn fell in love with him and had to be convinced by her family to leave him after his final defeat in Russia-something the book does not show at all.

In the final analysis, this book lacks all of the depth that made Madame Tussaud so powerful. The reader doesn't get to be transported to the Imperial court, to wear the gowns and feast and experience the drama of life with Napoleon. And in the end you probably won't care if you end up on Elba, in Parma, or just about anywhere else, because you never wanted to spend time with any of the characters anyway. If you have not read one of Michelle Moran's works, please don't start with this one.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Napoleon's final years. July 2, 2012

By Julie Lovisa VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

THE SECOND EMPRESS covers the last six years of Napoleon's reign and specifically touches on his relationships with his second wife, Maria-Lucia of Austria and his sister, Pauline. It is told through the alternating voices of Maria-Lucia, Pauline, and Pauline's chamberlain, Paul Moreau who came to serve her after Haiti was freed from French rule. According to the author's historical notes, the novel is based almost entirely in fact from letters and memoirs that were written by Napoleon and the people around him.

The novel begins just after Napoleon's divorce from his one great love, Josephine, who he has discovered has been having an affair and who has been unable to give him an heir. He takes the opportunity to legitimize his rule by marrying into royal blood and chooses Maria-Lucia, Princess of Austria, to be his bride. She does not want to go, but he blackmails her by threatening to depose her father, the king, if she refuses to become his wife. And so Maria-Lucia unwillingly travels to France to face not only the petulant and grandiose emperor, but his vain and equally grandiose sister. There, she is given everything she might desire in exchange for giving Napoleon a child. Pauline is incredibly jealous of Marie-Louise (her name has been changed by Napoleon to sound more French) as her ambition is to rule alongside Napoleon as his consort, just as Egyptian brothers and sisters did. She is self-centered and mentally unstable, but does as her brother orders and tolerates having Marie-Louise in the palace.

Marie-Louise has been in love with Adam Neipperg, an Austrian Count for many years and is heartbroken to leave him behind, but he, along with her father, promises to come for her. After Napoleon's defeat in Russia, he is banished to the island of Elba and Marie-Louise is free of him, but when he makes an escape and attempts a French power-grab, she is not sure where her life will lead.

I am a huge fan of the historical fiction of Michelle Moran. She writes character driven novels that rather than focusing on historical minutiae, give you a clear picture of the people behind the history, and in this case the lesser known people behind the history. I'm sure most historical fiction readers have read about Napoleon and Josephine, but this is the first time I've read about his relationship with his sisters and his desperation to secure an heir by any means necessary. Pauline is undoubtedly the most fascinating person in the book ... she seemed to be Napoleon's female counterpart with her desire for power, domination, and adulation, and I was completely intrigued by her.

35 of 45 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Hard-Cover Version of the National Enquirer August 19, 2012

By Margaret Chrisawn

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I enjoy historical fiction when it is well-written and, above all, well-researched. Because I am a historian with a specialty in the French Revolution and Napoleonic era, the kind that teaches college classes, and writes books and articles with lots of endnotes and bibliographies, reading historical fiction is a pleasure. However, I generally avoid books about the Revolution and Napoleon because I'm hypercritical and tend to throw them against the wall or in the garbage at the first sign of a factually challenged scene. So why did I read this one? I read it because the reviews were amazing, most of them, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

The fuss, unfortunately, was about nothing at all. This book can be charitably described as the National Enquirer version of the brief life of an utterly forgettable Austrian teenager who married into a Corsican mafia clan, whose don was a misogynist with no manners and an ego the size of Mars, and whose female family members were casting extras from Jersey Shore.

If Moran had stated her objective in the beginning of this book, rather than in the completely misleading "Historical Note" at the end, I still might have saved my time and money. She states she is harsh in her treatment of Napoleon because "the evidence warrants it," and that "even the most outrageous aspects of this book were taken from primary sources." I do not believe Moran would recognize a real primary source if she met it in a well-lit room, and she certainly does not have the ability to discern which sources, primary or otherwise, are credible and which are not. She cites memoirs by Marie-Louise, who never wrote any herself, Hortense de Beauharnais, who never wrote anything herself, and Napoleon, who certainly never wrote his memoirs. She also mentions a Madame Durand, whose alleged memoirs were ghost-written after her death, and Count Montholon, who is known by credible historians of the period to be notoriously unreliable. Even so, there is enough material available for any author to use for a hatchet job on the Bonaparte clan--the British writer Corelli Barnett was a master at venom-filled diatribes against Napoleon and his family.

Moran also says we should read Flora Fraser's book about Pauline Bonaparte, but reviewers disagreed, many calling it the literary equivalent of gossip tabloids for undiscerning readers. At least her other two suggestions for additional reading are more palatable.

I don't mind the somewhat extreme bias Moran has shown in depicting Napoleon and his sisters Pauline and Caroline, but what I do mind in a book that purports to be a historical novel is an absolute plethora of factual inaccuracies, one right after the other. I mind because this sort of historical sloppiness gives the genre a bad name. I also mind when I read the gushing five-star reviews here and on other sites where readers applaud the "historical accuracy" and the fact that they are now so delighted to know all about Marie-Louise and Napoleon. I mind that these people have bought into misinformation and blatant inaccuracies as easily as some people buy into the recent negative campaign ads here in the US. Finally, I mind because I know the history better than Moran ever will, and felt at times as if I were reading something set in a parallel universe where facts didn't matter.

For example, the historical bloopers range from the fact Moran doesn't seem to know where Marie-Louise's son is now buried--he's in Les Invalides in Paris, not the crypts beneath Saint Stefan's in Vienna--to not understanding the distinction between the Hapsburgs and the Hapsburg-Lorraines to many other inaccuracies that cannot be explained away by fictional tweaking. One of the most risible aspects of this book is the alleged relationship between Marie-Louise and Neipperg. Moran would have us believe she and the count were lovers before she was told about her marriage to Napoleon. On the contrary, Marie-Louise never had a moment alone. She was guarded night and day by governesses and ladies-in-waiting; everything she read was heavily censored, and all her pets, including her dog, were female. Thus it is not realistic to suggest such a relationship, despite the fact it is blatantly false. Marie-Louise met Neipperg for the first time in Dresden in May 1812, and then not again until he came to Paris in late April 1814.

The other historical stretch is making Hortense de Beauharnais
Marie-Louise's Mistress of the Robes. In the first place, the Maison de l'Imperatrice included no such position, ever. In the second place, Hortense carried Marie-Louise's train in the religious ceremony in the Louvre, and left for Holland to join her husband shortly thereafter. Thus she was never around to have all those heart-warming conversations with Marie-Louise. The member of her household that Marie-Louise was closest to was the Duchesse de Montebello, with whom she corresponded regularly until the early 1820s. The other important person, Madame de Montesquiou, who was the head of the King of Rome's household and took personal care of the child, is never mentioned, but instead we get a mysterious Monsieur Laurent.

The book gains nothing from the odd convention of inserting two additional points of view. I can understand perhaps wanting to include Pauline, since for Moran she serves the purpose of representing the sexual extremes of the Bonaparte clan. I see no validity whatever for Pauline's chamberlain. As it is, we get almost nothing of value about Marie-Louise herself, little of significance about her feelings other than a superficial whitewashing, and nothing worthwhile about the world around her unless it somehow serves to validate Moran's view of the evil Bonapartes in general and Napoleon's crassness in particular. And where did 'Maria Lucia" come from? Marie-Louise was never called that when she lived in Vienna; she was known familiarly as Luisl or Lisl.

So go ahead and read this book. But don't say you weren't warned.