Napoleon & Marie Louise: The Emperor's Second Wife

Rating:
Summary: Revised title: Napoleon and Leopold
Review: As I had feared, its a bit dry. I wish that these historians who decide towrite a biography of a female political consort wouldnt rant on about how the woman and her great qualities were "Ignored By History" and then spend most of the book doing an in-depth analysis of the subjects husband, father, brothers and male friends with little mention of their subject, except a few token passage about what she was wearing at some important historical moment. It really is a most insulting irony. I mean, the main market out there is educated affluent women, buying these biographies because they want to read about the role of their gender in History, and hopefully relate to an historical tradition of female strength. The dust jacket will have solitary portraits of the woman herself, littered with phrases like: "finally X is restored to her former stature!" Then you buy the sodding book and its a roll call of every man who passed through a woman's life and what impressions they recorded.

I did NOT buy this book to read exclusively about Napoleon and Leopold of Austria. I took Western Civ for that years ago. I bought this book to read about a French Empress that my Western Civ text devoted a mere two lines to, only to discover that Palmer had done very little more than that, preferring to witter on about the complexity of Napoleons character and the military significance of the towns where Marie-Louise incidentally bought a frock.

The worst part about it is that Palmer is a very good historian, with an eye to detail. Its frustrating to realize that if he had really been interested in writing a book about Napoleons second wife, he could have done an excellent job. It is both well written and informative.

Rating:
Summary: Revised title: Napoleon and Leopold
Review: As I had feared, its a bit dry. I wish that these historians who decide towrite a biography of a female political consort wouldnt rant on about how the woman and her great qualities were "Ignored By History" and then spend most of the book doing an in-depth analysis of the subjects husband, father, brothers and male friends with little mention of their subject, except a few token passage about what she was wearing at some important historical moment. It really is a most insulting irony. I mean, the main market out there is educated affluent women, buying these biographies because they want to read about the role of their gender in History, and hopefully relate to an historical tradition of female strength. The dust jacket will have solitary portraits of the woman herself, littered with phrases like: "finally X is restored to her former stature!" Then you buy the sodding book and its a roll call of every man who passed through a woman's life and what impressions they recorded.

I did NOT buy this book to read exclusively about Napoleon and Leopold of Austria. I took Western Civ for that years ago. I bought this book to read about a French Empress that my Western Civ text devoted a mere two lines to, only to discover that Palmer had done very little more than that, preferring to witter on about the complexity of Napoleons character and the military significance of the towns where Marie-Louise incidentally bought a frock.

The worst part about it is that Palmer is a very good historian, with an eye to detail. Its frustrating to realize that if he had really been interested in writing a book about Napoleons second wife, he could have done an excellent job. It is both well written and informative.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly lucid book about Austrian Napoleonic politics
Review: I have to agree with the earlier two reviews that this book isn't really about Marie-Louise. It rather focuses on the personalities and events surrounding Austrian dealings with Napoleonic France. Napoleon of course comes out as the dominant personality of the age. However, Count Metternich and Emperor Francis I are also brilliantly sketched in, the latter especially in his dealings with his daughter. Surprisingly, I found this coverage to be the main strength of the book as the writer clearly has an excellent grasp of the flow of events and writes with a clear narrative style.
Thankfully, the writer minimises the overly sentimental quotes from Marie-Louise's diaries and also the unnecessary gossips about her amorous affairs.
Marie-Louise is really a walk-on character, to pivot the story and to give the book an interesting title. She could not have been better presented.

Rating:
Summary: Marie Louise remains superficial
Review: Reading this history, I had hoped to gain a broader insight into the character of Marie Louise. But the author only reinforced my first impressions of her as a shallow, frivolous woman whose only claim to fame was her marriage to Napoleon.
Palmer wastes the first third of the book in rehashing the political situation in Europe and detailing Napoleon's rise to power. These things could have been skimmed over with more focus on the imperial marriage as the title suggests. I have read numerous histories on Napoleon and Palmer leaves out details about this second marriage that would have been interesting to the uninformed reader.
Her depth of love for Napoleon during their marriage was a pleasant surprise but only reemphasized the shame of her desertion when he fell from glory.
Louise was influenced by the men around her and seldom acted on her own initiative. Palmer excuses her indiscretions with the fact of her youth. There have been younger women in history who demonstrated far more courage and intelligence in times of crises. Louise did what the men close to her wanted her to do. Her father insisted she never see Napoleon again after his defeat and she placidly obeyed. As Duchess of Parma she was happy to leave governing to her lover. She found such things 'tedious'.
It's impossible to feel sympathy for this young woman who, Palmer emphasizes, made a political sacrifice in 1810 by marrying Napoleon, a man who elevated her to Empress, indulged and loved her, and gave her a status she didn't deserve.
Only interested in musical evenings and surrounding herself with attentive men, Marie Louse remained superficial to the end.