1797 March 8 Thérèse sues Tallien for divorce, followed by a reconciliation that results in conception.
April 18 Victorious, Napoleon forces the Austrians to agree to a peace agreement.
May Josephine and Napoleon move to the château of Mombello for the hot summer months.
May 20 General Pichegru, a suspected Royalist agent, is elected President of the Council of Five Hundred.
June 1 Napoleon’s mother, two sisters and a brother come to Mombello, where Pauline and Elisa are married.
July 18-22 Barras persuades Lazare Hoche to bring troops close to Paris. When discovered, Hoche is accused and leaves Paris under a cloud of suspicion.
summer Eugène joins Napoleon’s staff in Italy.
September 4 “Journée du 18 Fructidor,” led by Barras. Fifty-three deputies, suspected Royalists, are arrested.
September 19 Hoche dies at Wetzlar, Germany.
October 17 Napoleon and the Austrians sign the Treaty of Campo-Formio. Eugène takes news of the treaty to Venice, Corfu and Rome.
November 16 Napoleon leaves Milan for Paris by way of Rastadt, where the treaty will be ratified.
December 20 Thérèse and Tallien’s baby dies at birth.
1798 January 2 Josephine returns to Paris.
January 3 Talleyrand gives a ball in Napoleon’s honour.
January 22 Eugène arrives back in Paris.
March 5 The Directors approve Napoleon’s plan to invade Egypt.
March 16 Napoleon and Joseph accuse Josephine of being involved in the Bodin Company.
May 4 Josephine and Napoleon leave for Toulon, where the fleet will depart for Egypt.
May 18 Émilie marries Lavelette.
May 19 The fleet sets sail from Toulon without Josephine.
June 14 Josephine arrives in the mountain spa of Plombières, where she undertakes a treatment for infertility.
June 20 Josephine falls from a balcony and is seriously injured.
July 21 Napoleon is victorious at the Battle of the Pyramids.
July 24 Napoleon enters Cairo in triumph.
July 27 Eugène writes from Egypt that Napoleon had been told suspicious details concerning Captain Charles and Josephine. Napoleon writes similarly to Joseph. Both letters are intercepted by the British.
August 1 The French fleet is destroyed by the British in the Battle of the Nile at Abukir.
September 16 Josephine arrives back in Paris.
November 24 The contents of Eugène’s and Napoleon’s letters are alluded to in the London Morning Chronicle.
December Rumours of Napoleon’s death.
1799 March 19 Both Napoleon and Eugène are wounded during the siege of St. John d’Acre, Eugène seriously.
April 21 Josephine buys Malmaison.
June The Bodin Company comes under investigation.
October 9 Napoleon sails into Fréjus harbour on the French Riviera.
October 13 Josephine and Hortense leave at dawn to meet Napoleon on the road. (They miss.)
October 16 Napoleon and Eugène arrive in Paris.
October 18 Josephine and Hortense arrive back in Paris. Bonaparte has locked Josephine out. Reconciliation.
November 9-10 “Coup d’État du 18 Brumaire.” Napoleon becomes First Consul.
November 12 Napoleon and Josephine move to the Luxembourg Palace.
1800 February 1 Thérèse gives birth to a girl, fathered by Ouvrard.
February 18 Results of the vote on the new constitution announced: 3,011,007 in favour, 1,526 opposed.
February 19 With ceremony, Napoleon and Josephine move into the Tuileries Palace.
Characters
Adélaïde Hoche: Lazare Hoche’s young wife
Agathe: Josephine’s scullery maid
Alexandre Beauharnais: Josephine’s first husband; guillotined during the Terror
Antoine: the coachman
Barras, Paul: a director; Josephine’s friend and mentor
Botot, François: Barras’s secretary
Bruno: Barras’s hall porter
Callyot: Josephine’s cook
Caroline (Maria-Anunziata) Bonaparte: Napoleon’s youngest sister
Charles, Captain Hippolyte (“Wide-Awake”): Josephine’s intimate friend and business partner
Crény, Madame de: one of the Glories
Désirée Renaudin: Josephine’s godmother and aunt; she lives with the Marquis
Elisa (Maria-Anna) Bonaparte: the oldest of Napoleon’s sisters; married to Félix Bacchiochi
Émilie Beauharnais: Josephine’s niece
Eugène Beauharnais: Josephine’s son
Fauvelet Bourrienne: Napoleon’s secretary
Fesch: Bonaparte’s uncle (by marriage)
Fortuné: Josephine’s first pug dog
Fortunée Hamelin: one of the Glories
Fouché, Joseph: Josephine’s friend, talented in undercover work
Gontier: Josephine’s manservant
Hortense Beauharnais: Josephine’s daughter
Hugo and Louis Bodin: Josephine’s business partners
Igor: Barras’s parrot
Jérôme (Girolamo, Fifi) Bonaparte: Napoleon’s brother, his youngest sibling
Joseph (Giuseppe) Bonaparte: Napoleon’s older brother, married to Julie Clary
Julie Clary: Joseph’s quiet wife
Junot Andoche: one of Napoleon’s aides
Lazare (Lazarro) Hoche: Josephine’s former lover
Lavalette: one of Bonaparte’s aides-de-camp
Letizia Bonaparte: Napoleon’s mother
Lisette (Louise) Compoint: Josephine’s lady’s maid
Louis (Luigi) Bonaparte: Napoleon’s younger brother whom he raised like a son
Lucien (Lucciano) Bonaparte: Napoleon’s fiery younger brother
Marquis de Beauharnais: the father of Alexandre, Josephine’s first husband, and François, Émilie’s father
Mimi: Josephine’s childhood maid, a mulatto from Martinique
Minerva (Madame de Châteaurenaud): one of the Glories
Moustache: Napoleon’s courier
Napoleon (Napoleone, in Italian) Bonaparte: Josephine’s husband.
Ouvrard: a financial genius
Pauline (Maria-Paola, Paganetta) Bonaparte: Napoleon’s beautiful and spirited younger sister
Pegasus: Eugène’s horse
Père Hoche: Lazare Hoche’s father
Pugdog: Josephine’s second pug dog
Talleyrand, Charles–Maurice: a former bishop, sometimes Minister of Foreign Affairs, always influential
Tallien, Lambert: Thérèse’s husband
Thérèse (Tallita, “Amazon”) Tallien: Josephine’s closest friend, one of the Glories
Toto: Barras’s minature greyhound
Genealogies
Selected Bibliography
In addition to several hundred reference and general texts, I largely depended on the following books in writing Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe. I’ve starred the titles I recommend to readers who wish to read more about Josephine and the Napoleonic era.
Allinson, Alfred. The Days of the Directoire. New York: John Lane, The Bodley Company, 1910.
Aulard, A. Paris pendant la Réaction Thermidorienne. Vol. 3–5. Paris: Maison Quantin, 1902.
----------. Paris sous le Consulat. Vol. 1. Paris: Maison Quantin, 1903.
Barras, Paul. Memoirs of Barras, Member of the Directorate. Vol. 1–4. Edited, with a general introduction, prefaces and appendices by George Duruy. Translated by Charles E. Roche. London: Harper & Brothers, 1895.
Bernard, J. F. Talleyrand, A Biography. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1973.
Bonaparte, Napoleon. Letters and documents of Napoleon. Vol. 1, The Rise to Power. Selected and translated by John Eldred Howard. London: The Cresset Press, 1961.
Bonnechose, Emile de. Lazare Hoche. Translated by Emile Pernet. Toronto: Willing & Williamson, 1881.
Bourrienne, Louis Antoine Fauvelet de. Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte. Vol. 1
– 4. Edited by R.W. Phipps. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892.
*Bruce, Evangeline. Napoleon and Josephine: The Improbable Marriage. New York: Scribner, 1995.
*Catinat, Maurice, Bernard Chevallier and Christophe Pincemaille, editors. Impératrice Joséphine: Correspondance, 1782-1814. Paris: Histoire Payot, 1996.
Cerf, Léon, ed. Letters of Napoleon to Josephine. New York: Brentano’s, 1931.
*Chevallier, Bernard, and Christophe Pincemaille. L’impératrice Joséphine. Presses de la Renaissance. 37 rue du Four, Paris 75006. 1988.
Cole, Hubert. Fouché: The Unprincipled Patriot. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1971.
*---------. Joséphine. London: Heinemann, 1962.
---------. The Betrayers: Joachim and Caroline Murat. London: Eyre Methuen, 1972.
*Cronin, Vincent. Napoleon. London: Collins, 1971.
Dupre, Huntley. Lazare Carnot: Republican Patriot. Philadelphia: Porcupine Press, 1975.
Goodspeed, D. J. Bayonets at St Cloud; the Story of the 18th Brumaire. Toronto: Macmillan, 1965.
*Hortense, Queen. The Memoirs of Queen Hortense. Published by arrangement with Prince Napoleon. Edited by Jean Hanoteau. Translated by Arthur K. Griggs. Vol. 1 and 2. New York: Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1927.
Hubert, Gérard. Malmaison. Translated by C. de Chabannes. Paris: Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1989.
*Knapton, Ernest John. Empress Josephine. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
Markham, Felix. Napoleon. New York: New American Library, 1963.
Mossiker, Frances. Napoleon and Josephine: The Biography of a Marriage. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1964.
*Oman, Carola. Napoleon’s Viceroy: Eugène de Beauharnais. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1966.
Saint-Amand, Imbert de. Citizeness Bonaparte. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1899.
Sorel, Albert. Bonaparte et Hoche en 1797. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1896.
Tourtier-Bonazzi, Chantal de, ed. Napoléon Lettres d’Amour à Joséphine. Paris: Fayard, 1981.
Woronoff, Denis. The Thermidorean Regime and the Directory, 1794-1799. Translated by Julian Jackson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Notes
This novel spans the most controversial years of Josephine’s life. If she has what one would call a bad reputation, it arises largely out of her actions during these four and a half years—or rather, her actions as described by a number of historians. When I began my work on Josephine, I assumed that these scandalous stories about her were true. Through years of research and consultation, however, I came to change my view. I am well aware of the accepted version of Josephine’s life, well aware that this novel presents a view of her that is unique in the literature. It is my hope that a study of Josephine will someday be undertaken reexamining primary sources, and that the rumours surrounding her will then be reassessed.
The following have been excerpted from authentic documents: the letters from Napoleon throughout; Director Barras’s dinner menu on page 53; the Hoche letter that Eugène quotes on page 91; Dr. Martinet’s medical report on page 216; the article from London Morning Chronicle on page 234; the letter Eugène writes Josephine on page 235; Citoyen Chanorier’s letter regarding Malmaison on page 240; the musical score written by Hortense on page 338; the various passages quoted from Jean Astruc’s A Treatise on All the Diseases Incident to Women and other medical books. Note, as well, that the prediction that Josephine would become Queen of France is referred to as early as 1797, well before she is crowned in 1804.
Some readers may have noticed that the Hoche child was a boy in the early printings of The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., and a girl in Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe. In researching this novel I discovered my error.
Regarding currency: It is difficult to determine the value of a franc at this period in French history. Before the Revolution, estimates place the value of the franc (then called a “livre”) somewhere between $1.25 and $4.50 U.S. In the period after the Terror, the economy was unstable and inflation soared. In 1795, for example, the year before Napoleon and Josephine married, a loaf of bread could cost as much as 1,400 francs, and a barrel of potatoes, 17,000.
Acknowledgements
At times the creation of this novel resembled a team effort. Although solitary in my work, I could feel the collective goodwill of a number of people. First and foremost I’d like to credit my editor and publisher, Iris Tupholme, for the hours of creative think-sessions, her ebullient good humour, sound advice and inspired suggestions. Thanks also to Karen Hanson at HarperCollins Canada for her careful scrutiny, Valerie Applebee, who volunteered to be part of the editorial team, Becky Vogan for her sensitive final polish, and Maya Mavjee, for her editorial feedback in the early stages. Warm thanks to Carol Shields, who was closely involved in the first draft, for her encouragement and wisdom. Both Peggy Bridgland and Fiona Foster were perceptive and supportive editors.
A number of readers gave invaluable feedback at various stages: Janet Calcaterra, Thea Caplan, Dorothy Goodman, Marnie MacKay, Jenifer McVaugh, Carmen Mullins, Sharon and Bob Zentner. Two book clubs took the time to read a draft of this novel and meet to discuss it. I’d like to thank the members of the Scarborough Book Club IV in Calgary, Alberta, and the Chapters 110 Bloor St. Book Club in Toronto, Ontario, for their insights.
A number of men and women helped me in my travel research. Prof. Egmont Lee provided the information I needed to locate Mombello north of Milan. Maurice Moncet was kind enough to open up Grosbois (now a museum) after closing hours and give me a private tour. As well, I’d like to credit the many individuals whose names I do not know who went out of their way to help: the caretaker who showed me around Mombello (now a school); the housekeeper who showed me Josephine’s rooms in the Serbelloni Palace (now government offices) in Milan; the men and women at Plombière-les-Bains who enthusiastically subjected me to a variety of water treatments.
I’d like also to thank Marc Sebanc for his help with Latin translations, Simone Lee and her mother, Prof. Valeria Lee, for help with Italian, and Translingua at the University of Ottawa (especially Christine Hug) for help with French.
A very special thanks to my two historical consultants, Dr. Margaret Chrishawn and Dr. Maurice Catinat, who gave generously of their time and knowledge. And thanks as well to Tony Kenny for passing on his extensive Napoleonic library to me: it is a daily blessing.
Story ideas come from far and near. In my community, specifically, I’d like to thank Christina Anderman for her ghost story and Fran Murphy for her parrot tales. Jim and Tish Smith put aside a stack of old medical books for me that inspired me to delve further. Chaz Este showed up at my door with a beautiful book on eighteenth-century interiors that he was willing to lend “indefinitely.”
I’d also like to thank my readers, especially Lady Corry, who kept asking, “When is it coming out?” For emotional support, thanks to WWW (Wilno Women Writers), my Humber group, and to Internet writing cronies. But most of all I give a heartfelt thanks to my family: my son Chet, my daughter Carrie, and especially, my husband Richard. I could not have written this book without their support, both tangible and emotional.
Book Three
The Last Great Dance on Earth
History is a story, as told by the victor.
—Napoleon
The Last Great Dance on Earth is a work of fiction based on (and inspired by) the extraordinary life of Josephine Bonaparte.
For Chet and Carrie,
prince and princess
I will not stand before you as time passes; I will stand before you eternally.
—Oscar Bearinger, “Masks and Shadows”
I
La Bonaparte
I was not born for such grandeur.
—Josephine, in a letter to her daughter Hortense
In which peace seems an impossible dream
March 2, 1800—Tuileries Palace, Paris.
“Josephine…Come see the moon.”
I woke with a start. A man was nudging my shoulder, his face illuminated by candlelight. “Bonaparte, it’s you,” I said, clasping his hand. I’d been dreaming of home, of my beautiful Martinico, dreaming of the sea. But I was not on a tropical island. I was in the dank, opulent palace, in the bed of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI—the bed of the dead. I pressed Bonaparte’s fingers against my cheek. “What time is it?”
“Almost three. Come outside with me.”
“Now?” I asked, but threw back the covers.
“It’s a little chilly,” he said, draping a cape over my shoulders.
A full moon hung over the river, bathing the gardens in a radiant light. “It reminds me of something you once wrote to me,” I said, taking Bonaparte’s hand. “That we are born, we live and we die—in the midst of the marvelous.”
“I don’t remember writing that,” he said, heading toward the steps that lead down to the flower beds.
The fertile scent of spring was heavy in the air. Bonaparte brushed off a stone bench for us to sit on. I leaned my head on his shoulder, overcome with a feeling of longing. It is the season of renewal, yet I remain barren—in spite of love, in spite of prayers.
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