The Empress Josephine, Napoleon's Enchantress

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Excerpt from The Empress Josephine, Napoleon's Enchantress: Hutchinson's Library of Standard Lives Writing in 1887, after a trip to Fort-de-France, formerly Fort-Royal, capital of the West Indian island of Martinique, the late Lafcadio Heam remarks that the town has little of outward interest apart from the Savane, the great green public square. But that, continues Hearn in his most enthusiastic strain, would be worth the visit alone, even were it not made romantic by the marble memory of Josephine: "I went to look at the white dream of her there, a creation of master-sculptors. It seemed to me absolutely lovely. Sea-winds had bitten it, tropical rains had streaked it, some microscopic growth has darkened the exquisite hollow of the throat. And yet such is the human charm of the figure that you almost fancy you are gazing at a living presence. Perhaps the profile is less artistically real - statuesque to the point of betraying the chisel, but when you look straight up into the sweet Creole face, you can believe she lives: all the wonderful West Indian charm of the woman is there. She is standing just in front of the Savane, robed in the fashion of the First Empire, with gracious arms and shoulders bare: one hand leans upon a medallion bearing the eagle profile of Napoleon. Seven tall palms stand in a circle around her, lifting their comely heads into the blue glory of the tropic day. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.