Napoleon and the Rebel
A Story of Brotherhood, Passion, and Power
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Lucien was the most talented of the Bonaparte brothers, who not only can be credited for helping Napoleon seize power, but who also had a promising political career of his own. He was a romantic, an idealist, and an anti-monarchist whose love for Alexandrine, the woman he married in spite of Napoleon's objections, caused him to fall out of favor with his powerful brother.
In Napoleon and the Rebel: A Story of Brotherhood, Passion, and Power, authors Simonetta and Arikha draw from a massive trove of first-hand documents, allowing them to present a rare, detailed portrait of this remarkable dynasty that reveals Emperor Napoleon and his family at their most intimate and vulnerable moments. The turbulent relationship between Napoleon and his favorite brother, Lucien, of whom the emperor said, "of all my siblings, he was the most gifted, and the one who hurt me most," creates the perfect springboard to illustrate the bloody power struggles, romantic idealism, and corruption that characterized nineteenth-century Europe, as well as the rise and fall of the French empire.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Husband-and-wife historians Simonetta (The Montefeltro Conspiracy: A Renaissance Mystery Decoded) and Arikha (Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours) offer a biography of Napoleon's younger brother, Lucien Bonaparte (1775 1840). Lucien had only a brief public life, first aiding Napoleon in becoming First Consul in 1799 and, in 1804, emperor. Lucien also served as minister of the interior and ambassador to Spain. But Simonetta and Arikha's central narrative concerns the estrangement of the brothers when Lucien married his mistress, Alexandrine, rather than the woman Napoleon had chosen for him. Furious, Napoleon tried to get Lucien to divorce her and join the other siblings in ruling the empire. Instead, Lucien, Alexandrine, and their seven children spent most of their lives in exile in Italy. The authors hew too closely to the fraternal drama, often giving short shrift to the larger historical picture; they devote only one sentence to Lucien's active role in negotiating the 1801 Concordat between Napoleon and the pope. The authors portray Lucien as a gifted and principled man with republican sympathies, an art collector, and a poet praised by Byron, but the book downplays his significance as anything other than the emperor's rebel brother.
