The Second Empress
What can you tell our readers about The Second Empress to whet their appetite?
When people think of the Napoleonic era, my guess is that few of them conjure up images of wild parties, Egyptian-themed parlors, brother-sister relationships, and scandalous divorces. But any visitor to France in 1812 could tell you that this is precisely what Napoleon and his seven siblings brought to a court which, only two decades before, had been ruled by King Louis and Marie Antoinette.
When Napoleon arrived in the Palace of Fontainebleau, he brought with him a cast of characters which even a novelist would be hard-pressed to create. There was his first wife, Joséphine, who spent her new empire into such debt that she was forced to lie about her expenditures. And there was Madame Mère, Napoleon’s severe mother who insisted on perfection and envisioned world domination for her son. Then there was young Marie-Louise, who was forced into a marriage with Napoleon and loathed every moment as his second wife. But none of the personalities in Napoleon’s court could hold a candle to his sister Pauline Borghese.
Considered the most beautiful woman in France (and paintings really do seem to confirm this), Pauline’s appetite for men was as legendary as her beauty. Despite the strict standards Napoleon tried to set for his family, Pauline managed to find herself in not just one extra-marital affair, but several—per week. After posing naked for a marble statue by Canova, Pauline topped even her own scandalous behavior by having the serving bowls in her chateau modeled on her own breasts. But the most shocking aspect of Pauline’s life wasn’t her nudity—or even her use of court-women as footstools. It was her mania for all things Egyptian, and her desire to do as the ancient Egyptian queens did: marry her brother and rule over Egypt.
It was Pauline’s fascination with Egypt which led gossips in Napoleonic France to believe that the Emperor’s sister was obsessed. Her rooms in Château Neuilly were filled with artifacts obtained by Napoleon on his Egyptian campaign, and her chambers were painted with Egyptian-themed murals. And on more than one occasion, Pauline went so far as to make statements to foreign diplomats hinting at an illicit relationship between her and her brother. But there is no doubt that Pauline loved to titillate. Whether or not such a relationship existed, she enjoyed the power this kind of speculation gave her. By linking herself sexually to the most powerful man in the world, she accomplished what even Joséphine couldn’t: a reputation as the most alluring woman in Europe. A woman whose own brother couldn’t resist her. Then again, perhaps it wasn’t all gossip. Perhaps the woman who went to Haiti and experimented with lovers of both genders and multiple races really was intimate with a man renowned for his bedroom conquests.
THE SECOND EMPRESS explores the Bonaparte family from multiple points of view, giving what I hope is a more complete picture of these wild, eccentric, and completely amoral siblings.
How much research was required to make this novel?
A great deal. For more than ten years, I spent every summer in Paris, and I was fortunate enough to be able to visit each of the locations written about in the novel. Napoleon’s life—and the lives of those around him—was very well documented, and I drew mainly from the letters and memoirs of the people who feature most heavily in this book. The letters between Joséphine and Napoleon were especially useful, since they showed a side of Napoleon which he rarely displayed in public. For me, research is the best part of writing a book. There’s nothing like visiting Napoleon’s library in person, or seeing the heavily embroidered gowns that Marie-Louise, or her predecessor, Joséphine, once wore. As an historical fiction author, those are the things you try to capture in a book—a sense of place and style. A well-researched novel can have the power to transport someone through time, and I hope that’s what THE SECOND EMPRESS does for my readers.
Where did your inspiration come from for it?
I knew I wanted to write something that would chronologically follow my fourth book, MADAME TUSSAUD. Toward the end of TUSSAUD, the narrator is imprisoned with a woman named Rose Beauharnais. Those who are familiar with French history will recognize this name, because she later becomes Napoleon’s wife, the empress Joséphine. Originally, I was interested in writing on her. Then I discovered that after Napoleon divorced Joséphine, he married a nineteen year-old Austrian archduchess who was equally fascinating. I wanted to know what it must have been like for this young girl to arrive in France with the expectation that she fill Joséphine’s shoes and command a small army of servants and courtiers. At the time, the French court was a wild place, and Marie-Louise—Napoleon’s second wife—was young, shy, and politically inexperienced. Her arrival shocked many, but no one was a shocked as she was herself.
You visit archeological sties which inspired you to write historical fiction, can you expand on this for us?
Certainly! My travels to archaeological sites around the world have been enormously influential in my writing career. In fact, my inspiration to write on the Egyptian queen Nefertiti happened while I was on an archaeological dig in Israel. During my sophomore year in college, I found myself sitting in Anthropology 101, and when the professor mentioned that she was looking for volunteers who would like to join a dig in Israel, I was one of the first students to sign up. When I got to Israel, however, all of my archaeological dreams were dashed (probably because they centered around Indiana Jones). There were no fedora wearing men, no cities carved into rock, and certainly no Ark of the Covenant. I was very disappointed. Not only would a fedora have seemed out of place, but I couldn’t even use the tiny brushes I had packed. Apparently, archaeology is more about digging big ditches with pickaxes rather than dusting off artifacts. And it had never occurred to me until then that in order to get to those artifacts, one had to dig deep into the earth. Volunteering on an archaeological dig was hot, it was sweaty, it was incredibly dirty, and when I look back on the experience through the rose-tinged glasses of time, I think, Wow, was it fantastic! Especially when our team discovered an Egyptian scarab that proved the ancient Israelites had once traded with the Egyptians. Looking at that scarab in the dirt, I began to wonder who had owned it, and what had possessed them to undertake the long journey from their homeland to the fledgling country of Israel.
I would say that my time in Israel had the biggest impact on my writing. If not for that experience, it may have taken me years to discover that what I wanted to write was historical fiction.
What advice can you give aspiring writers who want to write historical fiction?
Learn as much as you can about the business of writing. Because we writers feel an emotional connection to our stories, we tend to feel that publishing is also emotional. If I’m nice, they’ll publish me. If I send them chocolate with my query letter, they’ll see what a good person I am. But publishing isn’t personal and most of the time it’s not emotional either. It’s about numbers and sales and - at the end of the day - money. So learn everything there is to know about the business before you send off your material, especially once your material is accepted for publication. That’s when business savvy matters most, and knowing important publishing terms like galleys, remainders and co-op is extremely important when trying to figure out how you can best help your book along in the publication process. Learn everything, but above all, keep writing!
You are well known for historical fiction, do you write any other genres in your spare time?
No. But I read across genres, and I have a special love for narrative nonfiction.
When did your flair for writing begin?
This may not be the most fascinating answer, but the truth is, I’ve always known I would be a writer. I began my “career” at twelve by terrorizing the publishing industry and sending them copies of my three hundred page novel – handwritten and photocopied on a local Xerox machine! Since then, I’ve progressed to a computer, and if I’m really far away from home, I’ll jot down notes on my cell phone. The romantic element of my novels comes from my personality, I think. I’m a romantic at heart, and although I probably shouldn’t admit this, I always flip to the back of a book before reading it to see whether the characters live or die. I want the stories I read to have a happy ending! Of course, it doesn’t mean I won’t read a book without one. After all, English literature with only happy endings would be no fun at all.
There is a fine line between interspersing historical details in the text and information overkill, how have you perfected getting this balance right?
I think the research done for an historical novel should be like underwear. It should certainly be there, but it is best left unseen. As you pointed out, there needs to be a balance, where the reader is so involved in the plot that they don’t realize how much they’re taking in and learning.
What have you in store next for fans of your work?
For my sixth novel, I will be returning to the East to write about a culture as rich, powerful, and fascinating as ancient Egypt. This is the story of the warrior-queen Lakshmi, who defended India from the British and rode into battle, like Joan of Arc, to save her kingdom. I will be traveling to India in two months to begin my research there (and get married!). Needless to say, I am very excited!
Lucy Walton Female First