Título: Wondrous Beauty
Autor: Carol Berkin
Sinopse: From the award-winning historian and author of Revolutionary Mothers (Incisive, thoughtful, spiced with vivid anecdotes. Dont miss it.Thomas Fleming) and Civil War Wives (Utterly fresh . . . Sensitive, poignant, thoroughly fascinating.Jay Winik), here is the remarkable life of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, renowned as the most beautiful woman of nineteenth-century Baltimore, whose marriage in 1803 to Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, became inextricably bound to the diplomatic and political histories of the United States, France, and England. In Wondrous Beauty, Carol Berkin tells the story of this audacious, outsized life. We see how the news of the union infuriated Napoleon and resulted in his banning the then pregnant Betsy Bonaparte from disembarking in any European port, offering his brother the threat of remaining married to that American girl and forfeiting all wealth and poweror renouncing her, marrying a woman of Napoleons choice, and reaping the benefits. Jérôme ended the marriage posthaste and was made king of Westphalia; Betsy fled to England, gave birth to her son and only child, Jérômes namesake, and was embraced by the English press, who boasted that their nation had opened its arms to the cruelly abandoned young wife. Berkin writes that this naïve, headstrong American girl returned to Baltimore a wiser, independent woman, refusing to seek social redemption or a return to obscurity through a quiet marriage to a member of Baltimores merchant class. Instead she was courted by many, indifferent to all, and initiated a dangerous game of politicsa battle for a pension from Napoleonwhich she won: her pension from the French government arrived each month until Napoleons exile. Using Betsy Bonapartes extensive letters, the author makes clear that the belle of Baltimore disdained Americas obsession with moneymaking, its growing ethos of democracy, and its rigid gender roles that confined women to the parlor and the nursery; that she sought instead a European society where women created salons devoted to intellectual lifewhere she was embraced by many who took into their confidence, such as Madame de Staël, Madame Récamier, the aging Marquise de Villette (goddaughter of Voltaire), among othersand where aristocracy, based on birth and breeding rather than commerce, dominated society. Wondrous Beauty is a riveting portrait of a woman torn between two worlds, unable to find peace in eitherone a provincial, convention-bound new America; the other a sophisticated, extravagant Old World Europe that embraced freedoms, a Europe ultimately swallowed up by decadence and idleness. A stunning revelation of an extraordinary age.
Contexto da obra
Quando a classificação é mais ampla, o contexto do livro costuma depender ainda mais de autoria, tema e edição. “Wondrous Beauty”, de Carol Berkin, publicado pela editora Vintage, em 2014 e com 256 páginas, integra a categoria Livros Variados. Por isso, autoria, edição e tema acabam tendo ainda mais peso na forma de apresentar o livro.
Editora: Vintage
Páginas: 256
Ano: 2014
Edição:
Linguagem: English
ISBN: 0385351623
ISBN13: 9780385351621
Sobre a editora
Os livros da editora Vintage oferecem uma experiência de leitura que mescla narrativas densas e personagens complexos, muitas vezes ambientados em contextos históricos ou sociais marcantes. As sinopses sugerem um catálogo que transita entre o romance contemporâneo com temas de identidade e trauma, thrillers de investigação ambientados em ambientes de elite, e obras que exploram questões políticas e culturais profundas. O tom varia do intimista e reflexivo ao tenso e cheio de reviravoltas, com uma linguagem que pode ser tanto lírica quanto direta, dependendo do foco narrativo. Vintage parece privilegiar histórias que provocam reflexão sobre o indivíduo em seu meio social, com atenção a conflitos internos e externos, e que frequentemente apresentam uma ambientação rica em detalhes, seja em cidades modernas, sociedades históricas ou realidades políticas complexas.
