Book Review: "Josephine" by Carolly Erickson

Josephine is a figure from history that there has been much assumption about - so don't think there is going to be no assumptions in this particular book. Married to Napoleon, from the French aristocracy and within her own right, the empress of France as depicted in the painting by Jacques-Louis David - Josephine is a figure of complexity. There are many things within this book which make it an interesting read for anyone who enjoys learning about French history, especially during the revolutionary eras. But there are also some setbacks which made this book a bit wonky if I'm being honest. Again, it is definitely to do with assumption and how much one can actually assume.

Josephine Beauharnais was born to the small aristocracy - on the border between the upper and the middle class, not quite part of the 'rich people' of Europe but definitely not a slave. She was called 'Rose' and grew up on the island of Martinique. So this was, as we can imagine, quite far removed from the political atmosphere of mainland France - which was anxious and rambuncious thanks to the horrors caused by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The French Revolution was well underway. When she got married to her cousin however, she witnessed things in the mainland and we see her first real character change. Her life in Paris becomes part and parcel of what will shape her as a human being. Her family may be from the island but she was quickly thrown into the midst of the political atmosphere - somewhere nobody wanted to be anybody at that particular moment. I will say that if you don't know anything about Josephine and you're going in blind, you may want to read her Wikipedia page before attempting the book. It sorts out some difficulties the author assumes the reader already knows.

When she marries Napoleon though, her life changes entirely. We all seem to assume what happens here but one thing I don't understand about this book is the way it portrays Napoleon compared to what has been researched about him. There is not much research that I have seen to support the way in which this author's book portrays the emperor. Erickson shows him to be a violent and abusive man towards Josephine whereas, sources from the actual time do not confirm this at all. In facr, they state the opposite. We cannot assume that Napoleon was without his faults because he definitely had a lot of faults, but I feel like depicting him to be more abusive and falliable than he actually was is more of a way of portraying Josephine as a victim. I mean, she probably was some kind of victim of him in terms of his affairs and eventually him basically ruining her life politically, but there's not a lot of evidence for the other claims made.

This leads me on to another point that was a bit shaky - the author makes several pressumptions about the feelings and thoughts of Josephine at many different times in her life. I mean, it is one thing to take away the agency and possibly the ruthlessness of Josephine when it came to being practically the most powerful woman in France, but it's a whole different thing when you're basically trying to tell the reader 'she perhaps thought/felt this...' at a particular time. Something that cannot be proven and, on top of that, takes you out of the formality of the story. I would prefer these thoughts and feelings to have some sort of backing to them, maybe some sources to show us rather than just being assumed by the author and trusted by the reader.

All in all, though the story was very well written and seemed to be mostly well researched when it came to Josephine herself, there was a bit of a discrepancy between what I have read about the marriage of Josephine and Napoleon (and what others have said in the sources regarding them) and what this author has stated in her book. I'm not sure but it does feel like this author is definitely trying to push an image/narrative about Josephine having no agency and being the 'poor baby' of the whole situation. Yes, she was probably out of luck in many ways and I do feel sorry for the fact that she couldn't join Napoleon in exile whilst she was dying, but there was a time where she was doing considerably better than the vast majority of the French population - that we cannot ignore.