The Josephine B. Trilogy (142 page)
“What right had I to make a statement about Josephine? The most difficult challenge has been finding the gall, the courage to take on this subject.”
This brings me to the last and most frightening challenge I encountered: What right had I to make a statement about Josephine? The most difficult challenge has been finding the gall, the courage to take on this subject. How would you like to have Napoleon as a character in a novel you were writing? It’s frightening!
I have a quote by Beckett pinned up over my desk. It says: “How can I do this?” And the answer is: “How can I not?”
An Interview with Sandra Gulland
The dresses worn by women are often described as “gauzy” or “revealing”
—
especially the one worn by Thérèse in
The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
, when she wagers on the weight of her ensemble. This seems so risqué for the time
—
but was it?
Thérèse reputedly would brag that her gown was so flimsy she could pull it through the
ring on her finger. It was a risqué time, similar to the flapper era of the 1920s. The two periods share a celebratory spirit of people who have survived a very close brush with death. No doubt this influenced the times, added to the “live for the moment” fervour.
Malmaison sounds absolutely delightful; you’ve described it and its contents lovingly through Josephine. Have you been to the Musée du château de Malmaison? Did any of your research take you to the other locations mentioned?
“By going to the places where Josephine lived, walking where she walked, looking out a window as she surely did, she began to come alive for me.”
I find it essential to see the places I’m writing about. Researching Josephine’s life, I travelled to France, Martinique, northern Italy and Germany, visiting the places in which she stayed. Some were difficult to find, and all were surprising. I’ve been to the prison where she was held in Paris, attended Mass at her family church in Martinique, had treatments in the mountain spa she frequently went to, seen where she was born, and where she died. By going to the places where she lived, walking where she walked, looking out a window as she surely did, she began to come alive for me.
Josephine’s spirit is most clearly evident at Malmaison. It’s a beautiful home. As a museum, it has been faithfully restored. I highly recommend a trip there. For each book in the trilogy, I went to Malmaison at least once. In the offices or in the attic, rooms that used to house Josephine’s wardrobe, I would meet with historian Dr. Catinat and sometimes with chief curator Bernard Chevallier, two individuals who know more about Josephine than anyone in the world. No matter how many times I visited
Malmaison, I never felt I got enough of the place. After each visit, I would walk into Rueil-Malmaison to the church on the village square, where Josephine’s and Hortense’s tombs lie. If the church was open, I would buy a rose from the flower shop on the square and place it on Josephine’s tomb. I’m hoping that more and more roses will mysteriously appear there over time.
“I would walk into Rueil-Malmaison where Josephine’s and Hortense’s tombs lie. If the church was open, I would buy a rose and place it on Josephine’s tomb.”
There are so many wonderful details about food and drink in the books: Napoleon’s preference for Chambertin (oft-described as “an undrinkable wine”), the rum-and-absinthe cocktail called pétépié, Barras’s Brussels biscuits and, of course, his extravagant dinner menu, to name but a few. Are there stories behind these and why you chose to include them? Were there any other “interesting edibles” that you came across in your research that didn’t make it into the book?
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.
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
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
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
© 2000 by Sandra Gulland.
P.S. section © 2006 by Sandra Gulland.
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The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
