Author: Sara A. Van De Geer

Excerpt: "Now that one hundred years have elapsed since the "long-drawn agony" of Saint Helena we think that the time has come for a more impartial estimate. Facts are clearer, motives are better known, much new evidence is available. Let us then endeavor to depict Napoleon as he was, and "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." - Walter Geer

FOREWORD: "In the popular estimation the Empress Josephine is crowned with a halo of goodness which makes the task of her biographer one of peculiar difficulty. The aversion which many feel towards Napoleon is not a little due to what they conceive to be the cruelty with which he treated the woman who for fourteen years was the companion of his glory. The writer of this book holds no brief either for the prosecution or the defence. He wants to draw a portrait - not to pronounce a judgment: his object is to depict Josephine as she was, and he leaves the reader to decide as to her goodness." Walter Geer (Summary by Celine Major)

FOREWORD: In a former volume, the legend of Joséphine was considered, and an attempt was made to substitute for it the truth of History. In the presence of the legend of Marie-Louise, the object is the same. For more than a century the Austrian Archduchess has been an object of detestation in France, and of contempt throughout the world. But we must remember that Marie-Louise was a German by birth and race, and that her stay in France was too short to enable her to change her tastes and her sympathies. She always felt herself an exile and a stranger in her adopted country. Except as the consort of Napoleon, Marie-Louise has no historical interest, and it is only in her relations with him that she will be considered. Our theme is the Austrian marriage and its effect on the Russian alliance: these two events determined the fate of Napoleon. - Summary by Celine Major