Book Review, DESIREE by Annemarie Selinko

From Historically Obsessed 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2010

 I never would have guessed that before Napoleon loved Josephine there was someone else in his life, someone who played a very important role in the French Revolution. Désirée Clary the daughter of a silk merchant in Marseilles loved Napoleon before he was anything to the French people. She fell in love with him when he was a poor low ranking officer in the military. I knew that Napoleon’s mother Mme. Letizia never really liked her daughter in-law Josephine and now I know why. He was supposed to marry Désirée and I do not think Letizia ever really accepted Josephine for that reason. Napoleon was engaged to Désirée and her sister Julie married Napoleon’s older brother Joseph. It was when Napoleon left Marseilles to go to war and then onto Paris to clear up his military standing that he left Désirée behind. It was one thing to borrow her money she had been saving to buy him a fancy new uniform but to not come back for her that was just too much. Désirée took it upon herself to sneak off to Paris and track him down like the dog he was.

Upon arriving in Paris Désirée knew exactly where to find him. She went to the infamous “La Chaumiére”, Mme. Tallien’s salon where all the important people of France hung out. After being mistaken at the entrance for an escort Désirée was not admitted in until she approached a man in uniform and asked him to be “a part of him”. Désirée quickly discovered the reason Napoleon never came back for her. Josephine, the enchanting Josephine from the saucy island of Martinique was hanging on him. Désirée had the unfortunate coincidence of showing up at the salon at the precise moment that the couple announced their new engagement to each other. Like any other woman who had just found she had lost the only love she knew, she furiously threw her glass of champagne at Josephine’s feet and stormed out into the rain. Wandering Paris in the rain and tears she found herself by the Sein River. Emotionally distraught she tried to climb the fence to throw herself into the river but something held her back. Even I was shocked that when she turned around to see what or who it was: it was the man in uniform at the salon who had saved her two times in one day.

They say what is meant to be is meant to be and it is just fate. It was mean to be that the hero General Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte pulled her off the bridge and saved her life. Jean-Baptiste was a realist; he loved France with every fiber of his being and did his duty to his country which during the times of the revolution was not an easy thing to do with the fractions constantly shifting. After Bernadotte met Désirée by the river she disappeared into thin air. It was not until her brother in law had arranged a special dinner party to impress a heroic general did the two cross paths again. This time though Bernadotte was not going to let her disappear again.

4.5/5 Really really liked it. If there ever was something I did not understand about Napoleon and his life it is covered in this book. He made so much sense in this book that you actually seem to get the insanity that was going around at the time. The French Revolution as I have said before is a complicated time period and sometimes the stories get all mashed up. It is hard to decide where one story starts and one ends because they all blend and link together. This book is not the case at ALL. It makes everything click into place and just make sense of a messy situation. I have to implore anyone who wants to get the full picture on Napoleon and all the amazing people in his life, this book will give you everything you can possibly want to understand in the most unconfusing way possible.

PG Rating, very mild with sexual references and violence
FTC-Book was sent to me by the publisher

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BROKEN TEEPEE Review: Desiree by Annemarie Selinko

BROKEN TEEPEE

From the Publisher's Website:

To be young, in France, and in love: fourteen year old Desiree can’t believe her good fortune. Her fiance, a dashing and ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte, is poised for battlefield success, and no longer will she be just a French merchant’s daughter. She could not have known the twisting path her role in history would take, nearly breaking her vibrant heart but sweeping her to a life rich in passion and desire.

A love story, but so much more, Désirée explores the landscape of a young heart torn in two, giving readers a compelling true story of an ordinary girl whose unlikely brush with history leads to a throne no one would have expected.

An epic bestseller that has earned both critical acclaim and mass adoration, Désirée is at once a novel of the rise and fall of empires, the blush and fade of love, and the heart and soul of a woman.

About the Author: (from Wikipedia)

Annemarie Selinko (September 1, 1914 - July 28, 1986) was an Austrian novelist who wrote a number of best-selling books in German from the 1930s through the 1950s. Although she had been based in Germany, in 1939 at the start of World War II she took refuge in Denmark with her Danish husband, but then in 1943, they again became refugees, this time to Sweden

Many of her novels have been adapted into movies and all have been translated into numerous languages. Her last work Désirée(1951) was about Désirée Clary, one of Napoleon's lovers and, later, a queen of Sweden. It has been translated into 25 languages and in 1956 was turned into a movie with Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons. It is dedicated to her sister Liselotte, who was murdered by the Nazis.

My Opinion:

Sourcebooks is re-releasing this delightful novel for a new generation of readers. I actually read this book a long, long time ago. Before I was married if one can imagine such a thing - I was married in 1982 so I am talking ages ago! I remembered it as an excellent book and one I would not mind reading again.  I was right.

I have always loved historical fiction and have tended to read books full of rich, personal histories based on real people. Desiree Clary was a young silk merchant's daughter when she met a very young Napoleon Bonaparte. She actually met his brother Joseph first, brought him home in the hopes he would fall in love with her sister - which in fact he did. They ended up marrying but that is another story.

Napoleon and Desiree have a courtship and he proposes to the 14 year old girl leaving her in Marseilles as he goes to Paris. Of course while in Paris Napoleon meets Josephine and the rest is history.  But Desiree's story is still to be told.

And it is a remarkable story.  The book is written as Desiree's diary and this is my one complaint. The voice does not change as Desiree ages. In fact the 14 year old writes more like the Queen of Sweden.  But it is a small complaint for so rich a tale.  Napoleon feels guilty over jilting Desiree and sends her a long line of possible suitors; suitors who feel nothing for Desiree but feel compelled to propose to her because Napoleon told them too.

She finally puts her foot down and finds herself a General to protect her. But the marriage was more one of convenience than love but it did bring her financial independence and ultimately she ended up Queen of Sweden.

The book is fascinating, well written and brings to life a woman from history about which I knew nothing. These are the kinds of books I truly adore.

UNRAVELED APPROVED!

UNRAVELED has been approved by the author!

Dalston Junction, a chilling novella with a twist, by MeiLin Miranda, is in the ACX quality check queue.  Unraveled by NY Times bestselling Harlequin Romance author, Courtney Milan, will join the approvals line today!

Dalston Junction is Victorian, atmospheric, baby-farming with a sci-fi twist.

Unraveled is an epic romance set against the backdrop of the legal system of Bristol, England, 1894.  A Dickensian cast of characters in a literate romp - I laughed and I cried.

Street: Empathy, book one of a cyberpunk series by Ryan A Span is on sale now! (Audible, Itunes, Amazon)

I've started giving voice to Desiree by Annemarie Selinko, and with each new chapter I'm reminded anew of why I have read this sweeping account of Napoleon's first love, again and again.   Wonderful intimate storytelling set against the backdrop of epic history (herstory?).  The narrator is cheeky and bright, a shaper of history, as all women are, by just living her life!

Many thanks to  Annemarie Selinko's estate -  Annemarie and Erling Kristiansens Foundation, and to Anneli Høier, of the Leonhardt & Høier Literary Agency, in Copenhagen, Denmark, for making this happen.