Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte
Written by Carol Berkin
Narrated by Tara Hugo
4/5
()
About this audiobook
Carol Berkin
Carol Berkin is Presidential Professor of History, Emerita, of CUNY. She received her bachelor's degree from Barnard College and her Ph.D. from Columbia University where her dissertation received the Bancroft Award in 1972. She has written extensively on women’s history and on the American Revolution, the creation of the Constitution, and the politics of the early Republic. She has appeared in over a dozen documentaries on colonial, revolutionary, and civil war history, given lectures on her specialties at major universities in the United States and England.
More audiobooks from Carol Berkin
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Civil War Wives: The Lives & Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis & Julia Dent Grant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women of the American Revolution: The Remarkable Stories You've Never Heard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What the Founding Fathers were Really Like (and What We can Learn from Them Today): (and What We Can Learn From Them Today) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Wondrous Beauty
Related audiobooks
Margot at War: Love and Betrayal in Downing Street, 1912-1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHomecoming: The Scottish Years of Mary, Queen of Scots Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Embers of Childhood: Growing Up a Whitney Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMartha Washington: An American Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sisters and Rebels: A Struggle for the Soul of America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRevolutionary Princeton 1774-1783: The Biography of an American Town in the Heart of a Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Abigail Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Churchill Sisters: The Extraordinary Lives of Winston and Clementine's Daughters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear George, Dear Mary: A Novel of George Washington's First Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pocahontas: The Life and the Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Leper Spy: The Story of an Unlikely Hero of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Debs at War: How Wartime Changed Their Lives, 1939-1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman Who Saved the Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWomen Win the Vote!: 19 for the 19th Amendment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Passionate Mothers, Powerful Sons: The Lives of Jennie Jerome Churchill and Sara Delano Roosevelt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the Secret Garden: The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSweeper In The Sky: The Life of Maria Mitchell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJailed For Freedom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLove in the Blitz: The Long-Lost Letters of a Brilliant Young Woman to Her Beloved on the Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington's Mother Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Marmee and Louisa: The Untold Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Mother Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Marriage Bureau: The True Story of How Two Matchmakers Arranged Love in Wartime London Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Women's Biographies For You
Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uncultured: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5EVERYTHING/NOTHING/SOMEONE: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sound of Gravel: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Down the Drain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Tell Me Everything: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wild Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex Cult Nun: Breaking Away from the Children of God, a Wild, Radical Religious Cult Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wake Up With Purpose!: What I’ve Learned in my First Hundred Years Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Around the Way Girl: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Class: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Babysitter: My Summers with a Serial Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In the Dream House: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stories We Tell: Every Piece of Your Story Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Got Anything Stronger?: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stash: My Life in Hiding Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women We Buried, Women We Burned: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Wondrous Beauty
17 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Very interesting biography of a very interesting woman, who refused to bow to the conventions of her time. Ambitious Baltimore beauty and heiress who married a younger Bonaparte and was cast off by Napolean, she made her way and her fortune according to her own standards. This well written little biography captures her life beautifully and succinctly.
Advanced reader copy provided by edelweiss. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An excellent biography of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, onetime wife of Napoleon's younger brother, and the story of her children and grandchildren as they navigated their relationship with the Bonaparte family. Recommended.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Being born and raised in Maryland, this book gave great insight into our local "celebrity" Betsy Patterson Bonaparte. Very interesting tale of her marriage and annulment from Napoleon's younger brother. Also, her relationship with her father, son and various luminaries of the day. Even though the book is set in days past, Betsy shares a very contemporary outlook on life. Read this in one weekend! Highly recommend for anyone interested in Baltimore and American history.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Before reading this biography of Betsy Patterson Bonaparte I didn’t realize Napoleon Bonaparte had a Baltimore connection, but it’s a fascinating story, well told in this book, that encompasses both European and early American history and culture. Betsy met Napoleon’s younger brother Jérôme in 1803 while he was in Maryland avoiding military service and the two teenagers fell in love and married within that year, against the wishes of their families and governments. Betsy’s strict controlling father did not trust the aristocratically unemployed foreigner, but Betsy was eager to escape the limiting and prosaic social strictures she felt awaited her if she was forced into a more conventional match. Because Betsy and Jérôme were courting during the unsettled period while Americans debated whether to choose sides or remain neutral in the conflict between France and Britain their romance became a political event monitored closely on both sides of the Atlantic. In the early days of their marriage Betsy and Jérôme enjoyed mingling with the major political players of Washington, where Betsy scandalized party goers with her risqué French fashions, but their happy days did not last long. Napoleon wanted to further his empire building ambitions by arranging a royal marriage for Jérôme, so when the young couple arrived in Europe Napoleon declared their marriage annulled. Unable to stand up to his older brother Jérôme abandoned Betsy, then pregnant with their child, and married the highly titled but much less scintillating Princess Catherine Fredericka Sophia Dorothea of Württemberg to become the king of Westphalia. Betsy still managed to live a fascinating and intellectually rich life, spending as much time as possible in the great cities and salons of Europe where she was welcomed by luminaries that included Madame de Staël, Madame Récamier, and the goddaughter of Voltaire Marquise de Villette. She taught herself to be a shrewd manager of what fortune she had to support her chosen lifestyle and had high expectations for her son’s future, goals he unfortunately for her did not share. Author and history professor Carol Berkin treats Betsy with sympathetic but clear eyed respect by not downplaying her shortcomings. For me one of the most interesting aspects of this very readable book is the way it highlights the evolving differences between European and American cultures.