Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte [Kindle Edition] Author: Carol Berkin | Language: English | ISBN:
B00EMXBE6A | Format: PDF, EPUB
Download Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte
Download electronic versions of selected books Download Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte from 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link From the award-winning historian and author of Revolutionary Mothers (“Incisive, thoughtful, spiced with vivid anecdotes. Don’t miss it.”—Thomas Fleming) and Civil War Wives (“Utterly fresh . . . Sensitive, poignant, thoroughly fascinating.”—Jay Winik), here is the remarkable life of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, renowned as the most beautiful woman of nineteenth-century Baltimore, whose marriage in 1803 to Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, became inextricably bound to the diplomatic and politicalhistories of the United States, France, and England.
In Wondrous Beauty, Carol Berkin tells the story of this audacious, outsized life. We see how the news of the union infuriated Napoleon and resulted in his banning the thenpregnant Betsy Bonaparte from disembarking in any European port, offering his brother the threat of remaining married to that “American girl” and forfeiting all wealth and power—or renouncing her, marrying a woman of Napoleon’s choice, and reaping the benefits.
Jérôme ended the marriage posthaste and was made king of Westphalia; Betsy fled to England, gave birth to her son and only child, Jérôme’s namesake, and was embraced by the English press, who boasted that their nation had opened its arms to the cruelly abandoned young wife.
Berkin writes that this naïve, headstrong American girl returned to Baltimore a wiser, independent woman, refusing to seek social redemption or a return to obscurity through a quiet marriage to a member of Baltimore’s merchant class. Instead she was courted by many, indifferent to all, and initiated a dangerous game of politics—a battle for a pension from
Napoleon—which she won: her pension from the French government arrived each month until Napoleon’s exile.
Using Betsy Bonaparte’s extensive letters, the author makes clear that the “belle of Baltimore” disdained America’s obsession with moneymaking, its growing ethos of democracy, and its rigid gender roles that confined women to the parlor and the nursery; that she sought instead a European society where women created salons devoted to intellectual life—where she was embraced by many who took into their confidence, such as Madame de Staël, Madame Récamier, the aging Marquise de Villette (goddaughter of Voltaire), among others—and where aristocracy, based on birth and breeding rather than commerce, dominated society.
Wondrous Beauty is a riveting portrait of a woman torn between two worlds, unable to find peace in either—one a provincial, convention-bound new America; the other a sophisticated, extravagant Old World Europe that embraced freedoms, a Europe ultimately swallowed up by decadence and idleness.
A stunning revelation of an extraordinary age.
From the Hardcover edition. Direct download links available for Download Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte [Kindle Edition]
- File Size: 2449 KB
- Print Length: 256 pages
- Publisher: Knopf (February 11, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00EMXBE6A
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,728 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #5
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Europe > Western - #9
in Books > History > Europe > Western - #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > 19th Century
- #5
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Europe > Western - #9
in Books > History > Europe > Western - #14
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > History > Americas > United States > 19th Century
Before reading this biography of Betsy Patterson Bonaparte I didn't realize Napoleon Bonaparte had a Baltimore connection, but it's a fascinating story, well told here, that encompasses both European and early American history and culture. Betsy met Napoleon's younger brother Jér?me in 1803 while he was in Maryland avoiding military service and the two teenagers fell in love and married within that year, against the wishes of their families and governments. Betsy's strict controlling father did not trust the aristocratically unemployed foreigner, but Betsy was eager to escape the limiting and prosaic social strictures she felt awaited her if she was forced into a more conventional match. Because Betsy and Jér?me were courting during the unsettled period while Americans debated whether to choose sides or remain neutral in the conflict between France and Britain their romance became a political event monitored closely on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the early days of their marriage Betsy and Jér?me enjoyed mingling with the major political players of Washington, where Betsy scandalized party goers with her risqué French fashions, but their happy days did not last long. Napoleon wanted to further his empire building ambitions by arranging a royal marriage for Jér?me, so when the young couple arrived in Europe Napoleon declared their marriage annulled. Unable to stand up to his older brother Jér?me abandoned Betsy, then pregnant with their child, and married the highly titled but much less scintillating Princess Catherine Fredericka Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg to become the king of Westphalia.
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