The Princess of Nowhere

October 4, 2010
Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon's sister, was once hailed as the most beautiful woman in all of Europe. Married to the Italian Prince Camillo Borghese, a union as much of passion as of state, Pauline drove the jealous Camillo wild, and away for most of their marriage, with her infidelities and indiscretions. Their stormy love affair is seen through the eyes of Sophie, Pauline's surrogate daughter. Pauline and Camillo's tempestuous coupling is all the more interesting for its basis in fact, offering a thrilling romance with a Napoleonic backdrop. Borghese's first novel, writing about his ancestors, is a labor of love, and he resists the genre convention that passion leads to a lasting happy marriage. Pauline is a spitfire of a heroine—flawed, petulant, extremely unlikable, and mesmerizing. Throughout, the most compelling evolution is Sophie's as she, like the reader, moves from being enamored with Pauline to disenchanted, but incapable of leaving her.

October 1, 2010

A Borghese descendant tells the story of his relative Pauline, Napoleon's sister, "a butterfly, a tease, a party girl," whose looks are immortalized in a famous Canova sculpture.

Neither flattering nor psychologically probing, Prince Lorenzo's portrait of his ancestor depicts a selfish beauty with a willful nature, a high libido and little regard for respectability. After her first husband dies in the West Indies, Pauline returns to France with her son Dermide and is introduced in 1803 to Italian Prince Camillo Borghese who, despite doubts about her suitability as a wife, marries her anyway. Their relationship is tempestuous, as Pauline takes lovers partly to feed a cycle of jealousy and passionate reconciliation. But circumstances change when Dermide dies of a fever. With Napoleon crowned emperor and Camillo a general in the army away fighting, Pauline's love life causes scandal, even cartoons in the newspapers, and Camillo distances himself from her. An attempt at reconciliation involving Pauline's faithful young cousin Sophie is a failure and exposes the imperial princess's heedless, manipulative nature. Legally separated, Pauline and Camillo lead parallel lives, and Pauline follows Napoleon to Elba. But after Waterloo, her brother's death and her diagnosis of cancer, Pauline is reunited with her husband and dies knowing that she is loved.

A readable, racy romp devoted to an unappealing heroine.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2010

Borghese, perhaps known for an appearance on The Bachelor, debuts with a novel inspired by his famous lineage. Prince Camillo Borghese has doubts about marrying the widow Pauline Bonaparte Leclerc when the match is proposed in Paris in 1803. Yet her stunning beauty plus the political advantage of marriage to Napoleon's sister allay his concerns. Pauline's uninhibited sexuality surprises and tantalizes but ultimately disgraces him. Her extravagance, hypochondria, and numerous affairs lead to clashes with Camillo; reconciliations lead to the bedroom. The one constant in Pauline's life is her ward, Sophie, who adores her and remains her companion after Camillo's patience is exhausted. During the couple's 15-year separation, Pauline stays with Napoleon in exile. Readers meet Pauline again as she is dying, when Sophie convinces Camillo to allow her to return. Although Napoleon never appears directly, his commands and prohibitions figure prominently in the plot, from appointing Camillo to military posts to forbidding Pauline to return to France. VERDICT Readers may not find the author's Borghese ancestors as fascinating as he does. However, historical fiction fans with an intense interest in Bonaparte lore will be intrigued by this account.--Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Mankato

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