The Secret Life of Josephine: Napoleon's Bird of Paradise, A Novel

This royal historical fiction is a very good book! I enjoy these types of books as it is told in the first-person-sense, so I really felt like I was Josephine herself. The book tells of Josephine's life on Martinique to her life in France with a her first husband and two children to her marriage with Napoleon and being the toast of French society. It very much reads like a romance novel with historical characters and intrigue as many of them face situations of light drama to life-and-death. Josephine not only survives the snooty aristocracy, lecherous political figures, and the Reign of Terror, but plays any instrumental part in Napoleon's life with hers changing at the rapid pace that it does. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and/or romance.

Seller shipped very fast and the book was in great condition. Will order from this seller again!

Not at all what I expected. Josephine has always seemed a sympathetic historical figure but this book portrayed her as a sort of trailer park trollop. And the whole trip to Russia was just preposterous.

Great book by Carrolly Erickson about Josephine, the wife of Napoleon of Bonaparte, the most important figure in French history, an emperor. It looks and reading like her own memories, from first face. Private thoughts and her life, moments she suffered and what she had in her mind and her heart, her soul and inner world of her feelings. I like such kind of historical fiction book that makes interesting to know more about such personalities.

In her "A Note to the Reader" the author does mention that she isn't going for historical accuracy here. In the same note she makes references (Hippolyte Charles, etc.) to show she has done some research, and goes on to explain that the intent of this book is "historical entertainment" and not to create a "historical novel"Having said that (user sighs) I appreciate the idea, but really disliked the implementation... it just didn't "do" it for me. Like many readers, I had to force myself to finish it. (And I only managed *that* by constantly repeating, "Any resemblance between the fictional characters depicted herein and any real persons living or deceased who bear the same names is totally accidental.")Josephine, as mentioned in previous reviews, is an uninteresting, unsympathetic character. What *anyone* sees in her is hard to tell. (Oh, wait, she does mention having large breasts; that must be it ;-) After a couple of chapters I hit the point of not caring what happened to her... not a good start. Napoleon (believe it or not) fares even worse. He hates her early on, and loathes her by the end (and since the story is told from her point of view, one starts to wonder what she did -and didn't bother reporting to her reader- that made him feel that way). *He* is basically smelly, neurotic, sadistic, cruel, homicidal, and easily lead by the woman he can't stand the sight of. She's boring beyond words. The Perfect Couple.(I suppose that someone who loves romance novels, and either isn't too familiar with the era and its famous characters or isn't bothered by Extreme Deviations might enjoy this book. And I use "might" loosely.)If you absolutely have to read this, go to your local library. I'm donating my copy to mine, so at the very least it won't occupy shelf space at home.(And where'd she come up with the "Bird of Paradise" tag... did she change the plot-line after that was written???? No signs of paradise in the relationship depicted in this book.)

Nice, in depth intersting and well written. Easy to read and give information historical bases and some of the fashion fluff that was so Josephine

Entertaining read!

Although fiction, it tells a lovely story of a fascinating lady.Easy to lose oneself in historical events woven in a greatnovel.