On her side, the dislike may have something to do with how he used to come into her bedroom in the early morning and watch her when she was sixteen and visiting Malmaison after her marriage to Junot. When she 'seduced' her husband into staying the night, and the door was locked, Napoleon found this very unreasonable.
...OMG. Wow, chalk another one up to the phenomenon of "woman objects rightly to terrible behavior and is therefore thought extremely unreasonable!" I mean, and then the stuff that happened after that!!
What ensured was a tirade lasting hours, attempting to get Eleonore to admit that the letter was from Metternich (Eleonore's response was "Not his handwriting!"), and generally ranting.
This is absolutely horrible, and also I must confess I snorted at the "Not his handwriting!" bit.
The tension between her Intimate Journal and memoirs is also fascinating.
Thank you for telling me about Laure, whom I didn't know anything about before!
Eleonore von Metternich did not sign up for any of this. According to Laure, Eleonore had made her a silent offer of help. (I say 'according to Laure' because Eleonore doesn't mention it, and there are definitely some parts of her memoirs where Laure is lying by omission or commission. I've seen people suggest this makes them bad memoirs, but I don't really agree: surely every author of memoirs lies to one degree or another. The question is what you can glean from them despite that, and I would say that even lies or misunderstandings are valuable.)
For additional awfulness a) Napoleon had at one point courted her widowed mother b) according to a biography informed by her grandson, until Junot proposed, Laure thought he was also courting her mother. (I saw someone say "her mother couldn't complain about Junot, her proposed husband for Laure was older" but I think that you actually can, just not on grounds of age.)
Really, I want a really good biography of her, but apparently the only biography in English does a lot of 'Laure felt' which isn't based on evidence.
Extract from volume three of her memoirs, regarding her box at the theatre: "I had the opportunity of being generous seven or eight times a day. I gave, in the belief that so doing I should secure, if not real friends, at least a sort of amicable relation with my numerous acquaintances which might survive the obligation."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-10-16 04:11 pm (UTC)On her side, the dislike may have something to do with how he used to come into her bedroom in the early morning and watch her when she was sixteen and visiting Malmaison after her marriage to Junot. When she 'seduced' her husband into staying the night, and the door was locked, Napoleon found this very unreasonable.
...OMG. Wow, chalk another one up to the phenomenon of "woman objects rightly to terrible behavior and is therefore thought extremely unreasonable!" I mean, and then the stuff that happened after that!!
What ensured was a tirade lasting hours, attempting to get Eleonore to admit that the letter was from Metternich (Eleonore's response was "Not his handwriting!"), and generally ranting.
This is absolutely horrible, and also I must confess I snorted at the "Not his handwriting!" bit.
The tension between her Intimate Journal and memoirs is also fascinating.
Thank you for telling me about Laure, whom I didn't know anything about before!
no subject
Date: 2024-10-16 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-17 04:53 pm (UTC)For additional awfulness a) Napoleon had at one point courted her widowed mother b) according to a biography informed by her grandson, until Junot proposed, Laure thought he was also courting her mother. (I saw someone say "her mother couldn't complain about Junot, her proposed husband for Laure was older" but I think that you actually can, just not on grounds of age.)
Really, I want a really good biography of her, but apparently the only biography in English does a lot of 'Laure felt' which isn't based on evidence.
Extract from volume three of her memoirs, regarding her box at the theatre: "I had the opportunity of being generous seven or eight times a day. I gave, in the belief that so doing I should secure, if not real friends, at least a sort of amicable relation with my numerous acquaintances which might survive the obligation."