Marie Louise: Napoleon's nemesis,

Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1931-01-01. Hardcover. Acceptable/Missing. Thomas Y. Crowell Company [Published Date: 1931. Hardcover, 364 pp. No other printings listed. In acceptable+ condition/ NO dust jacket. Blue cloth covered boards with gold emblem on front and lettering on spine. Fading to edges and spine and a bit of nicking and fraying to cloth at corner tips and top and bottom of spine. Light overall scuffing, aging and soiling to covers as well. Spine has a few very thin cracks but binding is still intact. Pages lightly aged but otherwise unmarked, with occasional light spotting. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Missing dust jacket. A solid reading copy. Black and white illustrations [From Preface] A careful perusal of the literature dealing with Marie Louise and Napoleon Bonaparte, combined with considerable research in the Austrian Archives in Vienna, has convinced the author that no work correctly portraying the life of Marie Louise in relation to her distinguished father and husband has appeared in any language. This is probably due to the fact that Emperor Francis I. has been held in too much respect by the German writers, and the military genius of Napoleon too greatly admired by those who have written in French and English. To intimate that Francis I. sold his daughter, soul and body, to save his dynasty; that Napoleon did not really love his son; and that Marie Louise was not to blame for separating from her imperial husband, may seem very bold in the face of all that has been written and accepted for a hundred years. We must leave the reader to decide whether such suggestions are justifiable or not. Marie Louise's immense significance in history has been entirely overlooked, in spite of the fact that Napoleon clearly stated it several times. At St. Helena he said, "My second marriage was my destruction," and, in his stormy interview with Metternich at Dresden, he said substantially the same thing. If Marie Louise, in the short space of four years, accomplished what all Europe tried and failed to accomplish for more than a decade, who can exaggerate her historical importance? The idea that Marie Louise was the unconscious avenger of the cruel death of Marie Antoinette, may be but a poetic fancy on the part of the author, but it is an alluring one, and enables us to call attention to many facts in history which seem strangely ironical when embellished with a few strokes of the imagination not inconsistent with authentic documents and trustworthy authorities. But the emphasis placed upon Marie Louise's subconscious mind is good psychology, and supplies a plausible explanation of her most peculiar conduct. Marie Louise furnishes one of the best illustrations of the power of the subconscious mind to be found in all history.