Authors: Susanne Dunlap
The Academie (31 page)
But at that time, Eliza was too young and Caroline Bonaparte was not yet even in Paris, let alone at Madame Campan’s school. To make the connection of all three girls plausible, I chose 1799 as the year in which they could be together. Both Hortense and Caroline were, in fact, at the Académie at that time, sent to be out of the way during the events surrounding 18 Brumaire. I had only to manufacture Eliza’s presence and add two years to her age. This timeline also allowed me to have all three of them interact with a dramatic turning point in French history.
Concerning the relationships among the Bonaparte and Beauharnais clans: the enmity between Napoléon’s family and Joséphine was a fact, and it extended to the children, who were seen as usurpers of Napoléon’s affection and support. Caroline was the youngest of three daughters, and had four older brothers as well. By the time she came along, Madame Bonaparte paid little attention to her education. She was virtually illiterate when she came to Madam Campan’s school as a teenager.
Hortense tried to be friendly with Caroline, but their relationship was never a warm one. However, Hortense was devoted to her brother, Eugène.
The relationship of Napoléon and Hortense has been the subject of much speculation and rumor in the past. One
nineteenth-century account suggests rather salaciously that they were lovers. That Napoléon was very fond of both of Joséphine’s children is indisputable, however. When he threatened to divorce Joséphine over Captain Charles, it was Hortense who pleaded with him on her mother’s behalf. I have chosen to treat the complex relationship between stepfather and stepdaughter by giving Hortense a kind of hero-worship crush on Napoléon. This was a way for me to explain why she would eventually agree to an arranged marriage with Louis Bonaparte in 1802, who was unattractive, unambitious, and not a particularly nice person.
Caroline’s passion for Murat is well documented, as is the fact that Joséphine intervened to overcome Napoléon’s objections to the match. She saw it as a possible means of softening the family’s dislike. Her tactics did not entirely succeed, as Napoléon eventually divorced her so he could marry someone else and produce an heir.
Although Joséphine lived out her life quietly, the rest of Napoléon’s relatives populated the royal courts of Europe. Caroline and Murat were given many honors. Her titles stacked up to include
Princesse française
, Grand Duchess Consort of Berg and Cleves, Queen Consort of Naples and Sicily, Princess Consort Murat,
Comtesse de Lipona
. This power and influence was not well used by Caroline, who remained headstrong and unpopular for her entire life.
Napoléon favored Hortense and Louis by making them
king and queen of Holland. They had three sons, the youngest of whom later became Napoléon III of France.
Eliza eventually played an important role as hostess in her father’s White House, often taking the place of her ailing mother at state occasions. She married a prominent attorney and named her daughter Hortense, after her dear friend. A portrait of Hortense Bonaparte remained in her possession throughout her life. Although Eliza was generally seen as a haughty, rather snobbish person, she selflessly cared for victims of a fever that broke out in Washington during her father’s term. After the death of her mother and her husband, Eliza returned to Paris, converted to Catholicism, and lived out her life in a convent.
Aside from a glimpse of post-revolutionary life in France, this novel gave me an opportunity to explore eighteenthcentury issues of race and slavery. The French First Republic officially abolished slavery in 1794. Yet Monroe had slaves, and while serving as governor of Virginia in 1800 called in the militia to suppress the slave uprising known as Gabriel’s Rebellion. His actions were swift and unmerciful, with twenty-five slaves hanged in the most brutal way to serve as a deterrent to future rebellions. In his biography of Monroe, Harlow Giles Unger notes that “Monroe nonetheless confessed his doubts about the long-term consequences of his handling of Gabriel’s Rebellion...” (
The Last Founding Father
, p. 142).
The difference of attitude between the French and the Americans with regard to slavery, as well as the growing abolitionist sentiments in different parts of the world, must have had some impact on an impressionable young American at the time. By making one of my main characters part black, I found a way to force Eliza to confront the injustice of a system that America depended upon for economic prosperity. Whether she actually had these shaded feelings remains unknown.
As for Madeleine and her mother—they are fabrications of my own imagination. There is no evidence that Eugène de Beauharnais ever had a liaison with an actress, or that there was a Creole actress at the Comédie Française. This is a work of fiction, after all, and Madeleine inserted herself onto the page and simply would not let go of events.
The Musician’s Daughter
Anastasia’s Secret
In the Shadow of the Lamp
Copyright © 2012 by Susanne Dunlap
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
First published in the United States of America in April 2012 by Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Electronic edition published in April 2012
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury BFYR, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dunlap, Susanne Emily.
The Académie / by Susanne Dunlap. — 1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Told in separate voices, teenaged Eliza Monroe, the daughter of a future United States President, Hortense de Beauharnais and Caroline Bonaparte, relatives of Napoléon I, and Madeleine, daughter of an actress, come together at L’ Académie
Nationale à Saint-Germain in the turmoil of 1799 France.
ISBN: 978-1-5999-0819-9 (e-book)
[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Boarding schools—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Aristocracy (Social class)—Fiction. 5. Monroe, James, 1758–1831—Family—Fiction. 6. Napoléon I, Emperor of the French, 1769–1821—Family—Fiction. 7. Paris (France)—History—1799–1815—Fiction. 8. France—History—1789–1815—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.D92123Ac 2012 [Fic]—dc23 2011025662
