Exclusive interview with author Michelle Moran and a review of her novel of Marie-Louise the second empress of France
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera
“Discovering the fact that Pauline – in order to scandalize her guests – had the serving bowls in her chateau molded on her own breasts was a surprise,” says The Second Empress author Michelle Moran. “To call Pauline wild for her time (or any time, really) would be a grand understatement.” Moran is referring to Napoleon’s sister Pauline who was as obsessed with power as her famous brother.
Michelle Moran has written about Egyptian Queens and Madame Tussaud and now she writes about the Hapsburg princess and second empress of France, Marie-Louise who was great niece of Marie Antoinette. This books covers the last six years of Napoleon’s reign. The novel is told from three different perspectives; Marie-Louise, Pauline, Napoleon’s sister and Paul, Pauline’s Haitian chamberlain. Paul arrived in France with Pauline when she came back to France after her husband died there. The book is evocative of France at the time. Moran did her homework. If you like French history you will enjoy this novel.
Marie-Louise is a princess in her own right and Napoleon thinks that marrying her will do two things: produce an heir and legitimize him to the rest of the world as Emperor. Never one to miss an opportunity to advance his cause he still keeps in touch with the love of his life, the beautiful Josephine.
Marie-Lucia, the eighteen year-old daughter of the King of Austria, is told that Napoleon wants to marry her and if she doesn’t agree her beloved country would once again be at war with France. Knowing her duty is she says yes. Napoleon changes her name to Marie-Louise.
Once in France the shy Marie-Louise learns to deal with the political intrigues of the French court. She win’s her husband’s trust to such an extent that he is prepared to make her regent when he is off campaigning. And Marie Louise doesn’t forsake France or Napoleon, not even to help her father, until the tide starts turning against her husband.
“I knew I wanted to write something that would chronologically follow my fourth book, Madame Tussaud,” says Moran. “Toward the end of Tussaud, the narrator is imprisoned with a woman named Rose Beauharnais. Those who are familiar with French history will recognize this name, because she later becomes Napoleon’s wife, the empress Joséphine. Originally, I was interested in writing an entire novel on her. Then I discovered that after Napoleon divorced Joséphine, he married a nineteen year-old Austrian archduchess who was equally fascinating.”
“I wanted to know what it must have been like for this young girl to arrive in France with the expectation that she fill Joséphine’s shoes and command a small army of servants and courtiers,” says Moran. “At the time, the French court was a wild place, and Marie-Louise was young, shy and politically inexperienced. Her arrival shocked many, but no one was as shocked as she was herself.”
“For more than ten years, I spent every summer in Paris, and I was fortunate enough to be able to visit each of the locations in the novel,” says Moran. “Napoleon’s life and the lives of those around him were very well documented and I drew mainly from the letters and memoirs of the people who feature most heavily in this book.”
Moran was born is Los Angeles and is currently living in Northern California.
The Second Empress: A Novel of Napoleon’s Court by Michelle Moran. Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Crown (August 14, 2012) Language: English ISBN-13: 978-0307953032 $25.00
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