The Last Empress of France
Petie Kladstrup, Evelyne Resnick
In 1839, a red-haired girl in search of adventure ran away from an English boarding school and attempted to board a ship headed for India. Her name was Eugénie de Montijo, and within fifteen years, she would be Empress of France, and one of the most powerful women in the world.
Eugénie’s unconventional life began in the dying days of the Spanish empire, would take her to the literary salons of Paris and, finally, to the throne of France itself as the wife of Napoleon III. Famed for her beauty and her athleticism, she would become a powerful advocate for women and children’s rights. She created haute couture as we know it, all while displaying a razor-sharp understanding of geopolitics. But the triumphs of her life were coupled with heartbreak and tragedy, and today her legacy is barely known.
The Last Empress of France is a gloriously witty and entertaining biography of one of history’s most charismatic figures, and a thoughtful exploration of the century that shaped her, and which she shaped in turn.
Reviews
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'Kladstrup and Resnick offer a wonderful portrait of Empress Eugénie: a trailblazing feminist, rebel, diplomat and cultural powerhouse who championed science and the arts, and who transformed Paris into the world capital of luxury and style. Unjustly forgotten by history, she emerges here as a visionary woman — and as a delight for lovers of history featuring strong, complex women' Ross King, author of Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling
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'The Last Empress of France delights from the very first sentence. Thoroughly researched and gracefully written, this untold story will keep you up reading late into the night' Martin Dugard, author of Taking Midway
