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Napoleon III and his carnival empire

by Bierman, John.

Format: Print Book 1988
Availability: Available at 2 Libraries 2 of 2 copies

Available (2)
Location Collection Call #
CLP - Main Library Mezzanine - Non-fiction DC280 .B53 1988
Location  CLP - Main Library
 
Collection  Mezzanine - Non-fiction
 
Call Number  DC280 .B53 1988
 
 
Carnegie Library of McKeesport Biography B N163b
Location  Carnegie Library of McKeesport
 
Collection  Biography
 
Call Number  B N163b
 
 

Summary
Louis Napoleon, nephew to the famous Bonaparte, is one of the most colorful historical actors of the nineteenth century. Bohemian, adventurer, compulsive Don Juan, he managed, to the astonishment of virtually everyone, to be elected President of France in 1848 and within three years staged the coup d'etat that made him Emperor.
Published Reviews
Booklist Review: "Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was the nephew of the great general-emperor, Napoleon I; he was president of France from 1848 to 1852, and then, until 1870, he reigned as emperor under the name Napoleon III. In the prologue to this solid journalistic account of Napoleon III's life, Bierman states that the emperor was ``a confirmed womanizer and a compulsive conspirator.'' It is those two threads that make up the central weave in the author's detailed tapestry of the empire this half-baked ruler created, an epoch in French history Bierman calls a ``fete''-to be amused by, but not to take seriously. This is a fine place to turn for a readily approachable account of the tinsel-empire in all its color. Notes, bibliography; to be indexed. BH. 944.07'092 (B) Napoleon III-Emperor of the French / France-Kings and rulers-Biography / France-History-Second Empire, 1852-1870 [OCLC] 87-38236"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "In Bierman's delightfully disdainful biography, Louis Napoleon, the bungling, sexually athletic ruler of France's Second Empire, emerges as an implausible monarch. When Parisian workers took to the barricades in 1848, this rakehell was busy gambling and enjoying his English mistress, the courtesan Harriet Howard. A few months later he would be elected president. Proclaiming himself Emperor Napoleon III, he took countless lovers and led his country into one senseless war after another. Dissolute and muddleheaded, he clashed constantly with his frigid wife, Empress Eugenie, who combined a vast ignorance of the world with decided opinions on every facet of foreign policy. Louis Napoleon was quite probably not a Bonaparte at all, biologically speaking, according to the author, but he rode to power on the strength of his name. The biographer of Raoul Wallenberg ( Righteous Gentile ), Bierman attempts to rescue Louis, reminding us of his inventive, bold, humane traits. His populist portrait strips away the tawdry trappings of the Second Empire far more revealingly than many scholarly studies. Illustrations not seen by PW. BOMC and QPBC selections. (August) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved"
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Additional Information
Subjects Napoleon -- III, -- Emperor of the French, -- 1808-1873.
France -- Kings and rulers -- Biography.
France -- History -- Second Empire, 1852-1870.
Publisher New York :St. Martin's Press,1988
Edition 1st ed.
Language English
Notes Includes index.
Description xx, 439 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : portraits, maps ; 24 cm
Bibliography Notes Bibliography: pages 411-415.
ISBN 0312018274 :
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