MONICA STIRLING - A Pride of Lions. A Portrait of Napoleon's Mother

London England, Collins, 1961. First Edition, Binding: Cloth, Very Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" Tall Octavo Hardback Hardback. First Edition. A Pride of Lions. Slight foxing to end inside covers. Shelf wear to edge of D/J. Reading marks to D/J. Browning to spine of D/J. Napoleon's mother was a woman of outstanding beauty, courage and dignity. Throughout her long life she never ceased to be the centre of the extraordinary Bonaparte family. Her sense of destiny, her aristocratic pride and her passionate character, account in large measure for that of Napoleon himself and his consequent place in history. It is strange, therefore, considering the vast number of books written about Napoleon and his brothers and sisters, how very few have been devoted to this remarkable woman, whose personal life was so closely connected with that of history's dominating characters during three-quarters of a century of cataclysmic changes. Throughout her long life she displayed stocicism in tragedy, equanimity in success - and a pleasing, literal-minded irony reflected in her letters, many of which are published here for the first time. The author has written a vivid book, in which not Napoleon but the Bonaparte family and the extraordinary character of his mother dominate the scene. Illustrated. 319 pp.