The Last Great Dance on Earth by Sandra Gulland

Books Completed: 16
Completion Date: January 30, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages:
Owned Prior to 2007
Book Three in the Josephine B. Trilogy

The Last Great Dance on Earth is the triumphant final volume of Sandra Gulland's beloved trilogy based on the life of Josephine Bonaparte. When the novel opens, Josephine and Napoleon have been married for four tumultuous years. Napoleon is Josephine's great love, and she his. But their passionate union is troubled from within, as Josephine is unable to produce an heir, and from without, as England makes war against France and Napoleon's Corsican clan makes war against his wife. Through Josephine's heartfelt diary entries, we witness the personal betrayals and political intrigues that will finally drive them apart, culminating in Josephine's greatest tragedy: her divorce from Napoleon and his exile to Elba. The Last Great Dance on Earth is historical fiction on a grand scale and the stirring conclusion to an unforgettable love story.

From other people that have read this trilogy, they say that this book is their least favourite of the three. I find myself wondering if that is because of a decrease in writing style, or because this is the book where everything falls apart. It really is a depressing novel, one bad thing seems to happen after another, but that is not Gulland's fault, that is histories fault. It is not like she can suddenly change history in book three to make for a happier story.

When the book opens, Josephine and Napoleon have been married for four years. Josephine is a few years older than her husband, and as I mentioned in the post for the previous book, unable to have children. This is not her fault, it is just the way things are, but it becomes very important in this book. It is strange to see the two of them now. Josephine was unsure if she even wanted to marry Napoleon in the beginning, but yet here they are and she seems quite happy to be with him. She knew him before he was anything, and she loves him even if he has nothing.

There are good moments in this book, though, I might add. The book starts out on a happy note, but Napoleon begins to have affairs with other women that play a more central role in this novel than they did in others. He loves his wife, there is no question there, but it seems that men just had to be unfaithful from time to time back in those days. We will not get into today's culture. Josephine really battles with the whole idea of turning a blind eye to what her husband is doing, but she tries. It is hard when someone you love is cheating on you, and while other women of the time seem easily to turn the other cheek, Josephine worries. I think for her it is more that she is worried he will divorce her than anything else.

It is not hard to tell through the course of this trilogy that Josephine and Napoleon loved each other, I just wish that things could have been different. Napoleon finally has what he set out to have, the life that he has been planning and working for, and his family is pushing him from all sides to divorce Josephine. You can tell that it really is the last thing that he wants to do, that he honestly loves her, but sometimes the good of the country has to come over the good of your heart. It really is a shame that things could not have gone another way, but in this time, men were more interested in having an heir (someone had to carry on the family name), and less about the love of a good woman. It is clear that with or without an heir, Josephine was better for him, but you can decide that on your own should you choose to read this book.

I found this book sad, I will give people that. I really felt for Josephine near the end. Even when you are reading something that you know the outcome, it still is sad to see it all come crashing down. Not to mention, I was sad to see this trilogy end.

4.5/5

Authors Gender:
Female: 15
Male: 1

Everyone knows I have read this author before, to see the other two reviews for the books in this trilogy click here and here.

Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe by Sandra Gulland

Books Completed: 14
Completion Date: January 28, 2007
Publication Year: 2006
Pages: 378
Owned Prior to 2007
Book Two in the Josephine B. Series

Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland's highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon's impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon's campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals -- both sexual and psychological -- that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her.

I have to admit that I finished this book and almost immediately started book three, so I might have a hard time remembering what happens in book two and what happened in book one.

In the first book the main character was known as Rose, but now she is the beautiful wife of Napoleon. I really liked this trilogy. Josephine is a very interesting character. Some people are not fond of the diary-style of writing, but I thought it worked well for this trilogy. It feels more personal that way. You cannot help feeling bad for Josephine. She has not had a very easy life, most people in France at this time have not, but her luck does not seem to ever fully recover. As a result of her enprisionment during the Terror, she is unable to have Napoleon's child. They try all these methods, but we know that that the stress of her enprisionment likely resulted in her starting menopause at a young age. She can have children, she has two with her first husband, the timing is just wrong for her to give Napoleon any.

I thought that Napoleon is also an interesting character. You are not really sure if Josephine and Napoleon are going to hit it off at first, if you go into it with an innocent impression of what is going to happen. For those that know what happened in history, though, Gulland does a very good job sticking to the main historical facts. I cannot say that I liked Napoleon, though, he just had his good points. He loved Josephine, I never questioned that. He just tried to do what was best for France, and he had an atrocious family. At the end of the third book it tells what happened to all of them, actually.

Another thing I liked about the books were the footnotes. They explained things that happened in the previous book so you understood references, but they also included letters and things from historical records of Josephine and her family, plus providing references for off-hand remarks that were not explained. To someone living in Josephine's time, they likely made sense, but to people living today, unless you are very up on the time period, you might miss the reference. I have to admit that while I like history, and have taken many history courses in university, I have never had a course that covered the Napoleonic Wars in any great detail. They were mentioned, I know who they were, but even if it is a fiction book, this is the most I have ever read on Napoleon. When I graduate and reading non-fiction history books becomes fun again, this is a subject matter I would like to read more about.

I also have to briefly comment on the medical practices of the time. Normally I might have overlooked them, but I am taking a history of medicine course this year, and we just talked about medicine in about the time that this book covers, so it was interesting to see the methods I learned about in use in this novel. I mean, obviously I have seen it before, but in the past I did not have a medical history course to provide background information.

I wish I had not got sick, I should have wrote this review right after I read the book because now the three books are crowding together in my head.

4.5/5

Just so everyone knows, I really have all the books together in my mind, so I am writing individual reviews, but I am rating the books more as one full novel than three separate ones.

Authors Gender:
Female: 13
Male: 1

I have, obviously, read this author before. You can see my review on The Many Lives and Sorrows of Josephine B. by clicking here.

The Many Lives and Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland (Book 1 of the Josephine Series)

Books Completed: 2
Completion Date: January 4, 2007
Publication Year: (3-in-1 edtion) 2006
Pages: 429
Owned Prior to 2007

From the back of the book:

Sandra Gulland's irresistible epic draws the reader into the passionate relationship between Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte. Comprising three acclaimed bestsellers, this omnibus traces Josephine's transformation from an impressionable young girl to the empress of France and one of the most sophisticated, powerful women in history.

I have the three-in-one edition of this book, so you will find that the back will be the same for each review. I hope to read the whole trilogy this month, and include them all in the From the Stacks challenge, but we will have to see how that goes.

I have had this book since March of last year. I bought it when it first came out as a 3-in-1 book, and it is has been on my to be read pile since. I have no idea why, but I was on my way out the door the other night to work, and while I had a book picked out to read, I came back downstairs and selected this one off my shelf. It was really random and a spur of the moment thought, but I am glad that I read it!

I have a strong liking for historical fiction novels, so when I heard about this trilogy I knew I had to eventually buy it. Other than Naomi Novik's historical fantasy series about the Napoleonic wars, this is the first time that I can remember reading a book about this particular period in time. It was not an intentional thing, but for whatever reason, this is the first time I got around to reading about this time period.

I really liked this book. Let me point out that I am totally clueless. I was reading the book, and the main character in the novel is named Rose. It never even came to mind that it should be Josephine. I really wonder about myself sometimes, as it was clear that she was going to be the main character in all three books. It was not until she met Napoleon that her name became Josephine. I am still kicking myself for being so totally unobservant!

It is amazing what Josephine becomes in this novel. She begins the book living with her family, having never even been to France before, but one of her aunts sends a letter looking for one of her nieces to marry a young man that her aunt knows, Alexandre. For a large period of the novel, he is an important person in France's history. This naive young girl comes to France, and winds up married to a very important man. Too bad that he is not a very nice husband, and treats her more like a friend than anything else. He does give her two wonderful children, that present themselves and their personalities several times during the course of the book. It is hard to believe that the woman that marries Alexandre becomes Empress of France, because she can be quite naive. She is brave, but she holds onto romantic notions that make you wonder how she ever gets ahead. She grows up, though.

During the course of just this first book you see her go from this naive little girl to this very important woman in France. She may not have a lot of money, but she is very brave and puts her fellow man ahead of herself more times than I can count. She does not seem to care what happens to herself, she is more interested in helping others. She makes wonderful connections in doing so, though, that help her out in the end. I have to say, I know who Napoleon is, of course, but he was never given a lot of study in the history courses that I took. As far as I can tell, Sandra Gulland put a lot of time into making this diary-format book as close to accurate as possible. I learned a lot, and plan to track down a non-fiction book in the future to get a clearer idea of the validity of this historical fiction novel.

I give this first installment a 4.5/5.

I am going to start adding a few stats as I go along to the end of my reviews. Just things that I found myself wishing I had kept track of last year.

Authors gender:
Female: 2
Male: 0

This author was new to me.

I also received one of the books I ordered with my Christmas gift certificates in the mail today: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. I really stretched out my gift certificates this year. If I remember I will post a complete list of what I got when the rest of my order arrives next week.