Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire PDF
Preview Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire
ISBN >$SM.'l5 AND HIS CARNIVAL EMPIRE Louis Napoleon, nephew to the famous Bonaparte, is one of the most colorful historical actors of the nineteenth century. Bohemian, adventurer, and 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. Reigned over by this genial roue and his beautiful Empress Eugenie, the splendid circus known as the Second Empire was one of the most glittering and licentious epochs in French — history a time when the music of Offenbach, the gowns of Worth, and the splendid new boulevards of Haussmann brought Paris world renown as the City of Light. There was, of course, a weightier side to the Second Empire. As Napoleon Louis was the 111, arbiter of Europe and led his country into four major wars. And in many ways his epoch marks the beginning of modern politics. In the techniques he used to gain and maintain power, he anticipated the fascist dictators of the 1920s and 30s. At the same time, in virtually inventing — politics-as-theater the campaign tour, the — media event, the calculated leak he also foreshadowed modern-day democratic politicians. Behind the imperial glitter, Napoleon's private life was the scandal of Europe. Apart from his innumerable one-night encounters, his mistresses included Harriet Howard, a wealthy English courtesan who pawned her jewelry to BOSTON PUBLIC library Digitized by the Internet Archive 2017 with funding from in China-America Digital Academic Library (CADAL) % https://archive.org/details/napoleoniiihiscaOObier Napoleon III AND HIS Carnival Empire Also by John Bierman: FICTION The Grown Heart's Brutal NON-FICTION Righteous Gentile Odyssey Napoleon III AND HIS Carnival Empire Y B BIERMAN JOHN Martin's Press St. New York — NAPOLEON m AND HIS CARNIVAL EMPIRE. Copyright © 1988 by John Bierman. No All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, New 175 Fifth Avenue, York, N.Y. 10010. Design by Robert Bull Design Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bierman, John. Napoleon III and his carnival empire / by John Bierman. cm. p. ISBN 0-312-01827-4 1. Napoleon III—, Emperor of the French,—1808-187—3. 2. France Kings and rulers Biography. 3. France History Second Empire, 1852-1870. Title. I. PC280.B53 1988 944.07'09l'4—19 87-38236 CIP [B] First Edition 987654321 10 For Hilary, as ever, and for Gloria, who me convinced that a cat may, indeed, look at a king. ' ,, ,j
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