The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent historical fiction
Review: Written in diary form, this novel describes Josephines's early years. A rare good historical novel and I can't wait for the 2 sequels.

Rating:
Summary: A feverishly exciting read of substance.
Review: Sandra Guilland created a book that all readers are looking for when they search through shelves of bound pages and pretty glossy covers. Something you don't want to end and you can't wait to finish. I read the entire thing in a day. At the end I was left holding it to my chest as I stared across the room and imagined myself still in Josephine's world. I actually came on to Amazon to search for the two sequels that were suppose to follow Secret. I am dissapointed that there seem to be none. I would recommend this book to any woman. My mother read it even faster than I had. Thank-you Sandra.

Rating:
Summary: Josephine Bonapart Resurrected
Review: When a friend presented Sandra Gulland's Josephine trilogy to me as a gift, I was somewhat dubious. But that night, I opened the front cover, read the first page, and was immediately drawn in to the world of Rose, the girl from Martinique who grew up to survive the Terror of the French Revolution and become Josephine, the wife of Napolean Bonapart.

I understand Sandra Gulland is a complete Francophile and researched tirelessly to bring together the details of the events described in the book. Choosing the first person would have been an excellent narrative technique regardless, but to transform it into a personal diary is incredibly courageous. It is as if Gulland has channeled Josephine herself, convincing us(as well as Arthur Golden did in Memoirs of a Geisha) that the author is completely absent, and the story is quite possibly a genuine artefact.

Gulland has weaved a spell on every page of the book, convincing us we are privvy to the private musings of one of the most famous women of all history. What's more, her conversational descriptive approach forms Josephine, her family, her friends and the events of the French Revolution in such a way that makes them entirely three dimensional. Each character is well defined, as if they dictated their conversations, their quips and their comments directly to Gulland for reproduction on the page.

The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. is pacey, never boring, always compelling, an absolute page turner. When I finished it, I paused a few days to take in the magnitude of the events of the final pages - Josephine's marriage to Bonapart. I dared not even scan the cover of another book lest the spell I believed I had fallen under was broken. Then I plunged into book two...

Rating:
Summary: Josephine B---Sad and Resigned
Review: After viewing the A&E presentation of "Napoleon", I wanted to reacquaint myself with Bonaparte, his wild family and his great love, Josephine. I remembered Annemarie Selinko's novel "Desiree", which tells in diary format the tale of Napoleon's first love, Desiree Clary, daughter to a Marsielles silk merchant. After reading a few pages, I realized that having read it so many times in the past, I almost knew each of Desiree's adventures by heart. Gulland's trilogy about Josephine popped up as a suggestion written in an Amazon review of "Desiree." In fact, the reviewer claimed she enjoyed "Josephine B." far better than my beloved "Desiree". I purchased the novel that afternoon and was pleased to finish it within 24 hours.

I am not going to tout this novel as the greatest historical piece I have ever read. Gulland's Josephine, if living in modern times, would most definitely be diagnosed clinically depressed and fed a daily dose of either Paxil or Prozac; her strength and ability to pass through tragedy is a resigned one. She accepts rather than demands. However, despite the main character's quiet accpetance, the novel does seem to be thoroughly researched---Gulland stars many items in her prose and footnotes in easily read explanations many of the comments and idiomatic conversations of her characters with historical citations. And, once you pick up this first novel of the trilogy also written in diary format, your eyes will move along at a break-neck pace; page upon page will pass from one side to the other and you will delve into the unintentionally hazardous life of a woman swept away by uncertain times.
We meet fourteen year old "Rose" or Marie-Josephe-Rose Tascher in Martinique where a voodoo woman adequately predicts the events that will haunt and and steer her life. She is to marry unhappily, become a widow and then a queen.

Indeed as we follow Rose from Martinique to Paris, we share her most intimate thoughts regarding her lot in life---a woman forced to marry someone she did not love and ignore the humiliation of his many indescrations. Rose is not a femme fatale; she does not think of herself as a great beauty, in fact she worries constantly about her bad teeth, keeping her lips shut tightly whenever in society. Gulland depicts a very real woman whom the reader can well imagine is as ordinary as him/herself. At the same time, the reader can comprehend the role the savage revolutionary times played in shaping her life.

Above all we savor Rose as a loving mother who would sacrifice anything for her children. We commiserate with her loneliness and forgive her her resigned acceptance of her lot in the great scheme of things.

Bonaparte appears only at the end of this installment. Wildly ambitious and oddly intense, he focuses on Rose as part of his destiny while she again seems resigned to deal with what sadness life offers to her.
I will read the second part of this trilogy (I have already purchased it)but I will wait until I am again ready to step into Josephine's rather sad existence. Hopefully this portion of her life with Napoleon will grant her some delicious release and abandonment of her travails. Since Napoleon will eventually divorce Josephine for the sake of producing an heir for his throne, I think I will forego the third and last part of this trilogy. I think "Desiree" a far more satisfying read in terms of the positive power one person has with regard to the history of nations. Rose does not uplift, she survives.

Rating:
Summary: A true heroine
Review: I browsed through the first couple pages of this book as I sat waiting for my mother to get dressed. I was hooked. I devoured the first book, "borrowed" the second one from her as I returned to my home city, and ordered the third from Amazon.com(paced the halls waiting for it to arrive). I never dreamed I would have any interest in Josephine and Napoleon. I highly recommend all three books in the series.

Rating:
Summary: Just buy the whole series at once!
Review: I fell in love with this series somewhere near the beginning of the first book. Seeing the world through Rose's young, naive & inexperienced eyes slowly change as she is forced to grow up via loss of a sister, parenthood, loss of her first love & marriage, loss of family & place, and deal with the increasingly political climate of Paris. Details of the revolution, the confusion, the fear - riveting. Her inner struggle regarding her feelings for Napoleon, her circumstances, her children, and the suspicious circle of friends she had are brilliantly told. I could not put this book down & went to work late the day after I finished it - I could not go without buying the next one to continue reading that night.