As often as possible, I try to use factual details. Napoleon did drink the red wine Chambertin (mixed with water) and I was delighted to find the actual dinner menu for one of Barras’s parties. It brought the elegance of the evening to life for me. Napoleon’s table manners and tastes were less refined than those of Barras, to be sure. It was said that Napoleon’s manners were of the barrack room, and I think his taste in food was as well. He preferred simple food, and ate quickly, with his fingers. Speed seemed to be what he valued most. He liked chicken but hated to wait for one to be cooked. He would have his cooks prepare a fresh one every half hour so that one was always ready for him. Chicken Marengo, which I didn’t mention in the diaries, is a chicken dish Napoleon came to be very fond of, one that was initially cooked for him after a victory when on campaign. From that time on, it was served after each victorious battle.
There seems to be no other breed of dog than the pug in all of France! Was the breed the height of fashion, or is there another explanation for Josephine and “the Glories’s” fascination with them?
“The story of David’s creation of the magnificent coronation scene could be a book in itself.”
There were many types of dogs favoured by the aristocratic families of that era: Newfoundlanders and mastiffs (as guard dogs), spaniels, hounds for hunting—but ladies preferred small dogs like toy poodles and pugs, dogs that could charmingly be carried about in a travelling basket. Josephine’s first pug, Fortuné, was famous for his bad temper; he even bit Napoleon on the leg on their wedding night.
The artist Jacques-Louis David makes a cameo appearance just prior to Napoleon’s coronation. He complains of inappropriate sightlines for his work on what eventually became the grand mural The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Coronation of the Empress Josephine in Notre-Dame Cathedral. An inconvenience to Josephine, perhaps, but his painting proved a great help to you in preparing the setting, the costumes, and the details, one would imagine.
The story of David’s creation of the magnificent coronation scene could be a book in itself. All of what is related in the novel is based on fact, but there was much more that I would have liked to include as well. I wrote several additional scenes about the painting, which I ended up cutting. One man was furious because he was portrayed without his wig; the artist proclaimed that he would not sully his paintbrushes to create such a lie—yet there are lies aplenty. Napoleon’s mother, who never showed up to his coronation (a humiliation to him), is shown prominently. Maids, not Napoleon’s sisters, are shown holding Josephine’s train (the sisters insisted on this). In the duplicate of this painting at Versailles, David was somehow persuaded to show Napoleon’s vain sister Pauline in a pink gown, making her stand out from all the others. Napoleon said of the painting that one didn’t look at it so much as walk into it. It does have that effect.
“Napoleon said of the painting that one didn’t look at it so much as walk into it. It does have that effect.”
You create a believable scene of a “regular family” as the members of the court in the Yellow Salon chatter about the coronation: the ladies having to traipse through mud, Napoleon poking Uncle Fesch in the behind, the stone falling on Napoleon—and, of course, the significant moment when Bonaparte crowns himself emperor. Are all of these details fact?
There is so much documented detail available on the coronation that writing this scene was really a matter of describing it moment by moment as it had been described by others. The terrible weather is fact, as is Napoleon playfully poking his uncle, the stone falling during the ceremony, the gasp of the crowd as Napoleon crowned himself. Some of what happened could not have been seen by Josephine at the time, so it had to be related to her (and therefore, to the reader) later, in discussion. In all of the amazing events that unfolded during this era, it was important for me to remember that these were essentially family occasions.
The Last Great Dance on Earth opens with Napoleon presenting Josephine with the Regent diamond. Where is the diamond now?
“In all of the amazing events that unfolded during this era, it was important for me to remember that these were essentially family occasions.”
When Napoleon went into exile in Elba, his second wife, Marie-Louise, fled, taking the Regent diamond with her. Her father, Emperor Francis I of Austria, later returned it to France where it became part of the crown jewels. In 1887, France sold many of the crown jewels at auction but kept the Regent. When the Germans invaded Paris in 1940, the diamond was hidden behind a stone panel in Chambord, a royal château near Blois in the Loire Valley. The Regent diamond is now displayed in the Galerie d’Apollon of the Louvre in Paris.
Read on
Recommended Reading
Citizens; A Chronicle of the French Revolution, Simon Schama
Napoleon and Josephine: The Improbable Marriage, Evangeline Bruce
Memoirs and biographies:
The Memoirs of Queen Hortense, Hortense, consort of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, 1783–1837
The Rose of Martinique, Andrea Stuart
More Than a Queen: The Story of Josephine Bonaparte, Frances Mossiker
Napoleon, Vincent Cronin
Napoleon’s Viceroy: Eugène de Beauharnais, Carola Oman
If the actress Mademoiselle George intrigued you, read her life story in these books:
A Favourite of Napoleon: Memoirs of Mademoiselle George, Marguerite Joséphine Weimer George
Napoleon and Mademoiselle George, Edith Saunders
For more on Madame Mère, the imposing matriarch of the Bonaparte clan:
Napoleon’s Mother, Alain Decaux
For further reading on the court fashion designer Louis Leroy, and on Napoleon’s influence on fashion:
Dressed to Rule: Royal and Court Costume from Louis XIV to Elizabeth II, Philip Mansel
For more information on the “Corsican Clan”:
Napoleon and His Family: The Story of a Corsican Clan, Walter Geer
Web Detective
For more information on the author and the books in the series: www.sandragulland.com
For a very thorough website devoted to the Napoleonic era, with emphasis on military history and warfare: www.napoleonguide.com
Discover Martinique, the island on which Josephine was born and raised: www.la-martinique.net
For more on the French Revolution: http:// chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/chap9a.html
For an interesting lesson on the placement of mouches—the beauty marks placed on faces, often to hide pock marks: http://collections. ic.gc.ca/louisbourg/weird.html
For more on Fanny, Josephine’s eccentric aunt: http://poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/beauharnais.html
For more on Malmaison (in French only): www.chateau-malmaison.fr/
For more information and images of Fountainebleau and the Tuileries Palace: www.georgianindex.net/Napoleon/Fontainebleau/Fontainebleau.html www.georgianindex.net/Napoleon/Tuileries/Tuileries.html
For a history of the Regent Diamond: www.georgianindex.net/gems/Regent_diamond.html http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com/regentdiamond.html
For more on Mademoiselle George, the actress and mistress of Napoleon: www.cadytech.com/dumas/related/napoleon_by_morlock.php
To view Jacques-Louis David’s painting of the coronation: www.artchive.com/artchive/D/david/consecration.jpg.html
To better understand the French Republican calendar: www.gefrance.com/calrep/calen.htm
For a list of films about Napoleon: www.napoleon.org/en/gallery/cinema/
For an interview with Sandra Gulland as part of an educational website for the PBS Napoleon series: www.pbs.org/empires/napoleon/n_josephine/courtship/page_1.html
Copyright
The Josephine B. Trilogy
© 2005 by Sandra Gulland.
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
© 1995 by Sandra Gulland.
Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
© 1998 by Sandra Gulland.
The Last Great Dance on Earth
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© 2000 by Sandra Gulland.
P.S. section © 2006 by Sandra Gulland.
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
Originally published in hardcover by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1995.
First trade paperback edition 1996.
Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
Originally published in hardcover by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1998.
First published in trade paperback by Harper Perennial Canada, 1999.
The Last Great Dance on Earth
Originally published in hardcover by Harper Flamingo Canada, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2000.
First published in trade paperback by Harper Perennial Canada 2001.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gulland, Sandra
The Josephine B. trilogy / Sandra Gulland.
Contents: The many lives and secret sorrows of Josephine B.—Tales of passion, tales of woe—The last great dance on Earth.
1. Joséphine, Empress, consort of Napoléon I, Emperor of the French.
1763-1814—Fiction. I. Title.
PS8563.U643J67 2006 C813’.54
C2005-905570-7
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*The family home was destroyed by a hurricane in 1766. They moved into the sucrerie, the building used to boil down sugar syrup.
*The belief that a menstruating woman could spoil a ham was maintained into the nineteenth century. Doctors published papers in medical journals theorizing that when a woman was menstruating her skin became moist, preventing the pork from taking in salt.
*From The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
*A narrow line of green that can occasionally be seen as the sun sets or rises. It is believed to bring luck to those who see it.
**France was unofficially supporting the American War of Independence against England by providing supplies to the American troops from Fort-Royal, so British ships blockaded the port.
*Like all the other members of her family, Rose had terrible teeth.
* The once-prosperous neighbourhood was now quite poor, situated close to the entrance of the “cour des miracles”—a haven for beggars and thieves made famous in Victor Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre-Dame, written in 1831.
* Breeches were difficult to run in so footmen wore skirts. They also wore bright colours so that they could be more easily seen in the dark.
* Jean-Jacques Bacon de la Chevalerie (1731–1821) was a celebrated Freemason. In 1773 he’d been Grand Orateur of the Grand Orient of France.
* Men who intended to dance wore a hat to a soirée. However, it was considered inappropriate for an elderly man to dance, much less to declare his intention to do so. It was acceptable, however, for an elderly man to be spontaneously recruited—to dance hatless.
*To be presented at Court, one had to prove noble blood back to 1400. Alexandre’s nobility was relatively new and made less impressive by the fact that the government was selling titles by the thousands in order to raise money.
*The Comtesse de Lingiville d’Autricourt ran what some considered the most brilliant salon in Paris, surrounding herself with Angora cats, each with a bright silk ribbon.
*At Versailles, the public was allowed to watch members of the royal family eat. Crowds would race from one part of the palace to another in order to observe various courses being consumed by the different members of the royal family.
*Monsieur Joron’s father described Rose in the following way to his wife: “a fascinating young person, a lady of distinction and elegance, with perfect style, a multitude of graces and the most beautiful of speaking voices.”
*She is referring to Genesis, “Let there be light.”
*The separation agreement stipulated that Alexandre would pay Rose an annual allowance of five thousand livres plus an additional one thousand livres for Hortense’s expenses up to the age of seven, fifteen hundred livres thereafter. (Unfortunately, this was rarely paid.) As for Eugène, the agreement stipulated that Alexandre would take custody when the boy turned five.
*Joseph acted as manager of all the Beauharnais properties in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, he was not a good one.
**Approximately forty thousand babies were abandoned a year.
*In June, Marie-Adélaïde (Adèle) was born. Monsieur and Madame d’Antigny became her foster parents. Rose contributed to the child’s upkeep. In 1804, Rose—as Empress—arranged Adèle’s marriage to a Captain Lecomte, and provided her with a farm as a dowry and a trousseau.
*France was bankrupt in part because of its support of the American Revolution.
*Fanny is plagiarizing, something she was known to do with regularity. The statement about the destroying angel was in fact made by the great economist Mirabeau.
*Marie-Josephine Benaguette, “Fifine,” born March 17, 1786, to Marie-Louise Benaguette. Eventually Rose’s mother took the girl into her own home and in 1806 Rose, as Empress, provided her with a dowry of sixty thousand livres.
*This delegate was hanged when he returned to Saint-Domingue.
**Stephanie Beauharnais was later to be adopted by Napoleon and wed to the Grand Duke of Baden, which made her a Grand Duchess of the Court of Würtemberg.
*France took the American Bill of Rights one step further. Where Americans proclaimed men free and equal in their country, the French proclaimed men free and equal everywhere.
*Claude de Beauharnais, the Marquis’s brother and Fanny’s ex-husband, died December 25, 1784.
*Captain Scipion du Roure-Brison was on the crew of the Sensible, the boat that returned Rose and Hortense to France. He is thought by some historians (lack of evidence notwithstanding) to have been Rose’s lover.