Her children have to persuade him to talk to her. When he returns to Paris, without his army, which is stranded in Egypt because of the destruction of the French fleet by the British, he locks himself in his study and refuses to see Josephine. While Napoleon is in Egypt, rumors of Josephine’s affairs reach him, and he believes them. Several of Napoleon’s siblings intrigue against her, trying to find evidence of infidelity so Napoleon can divorce her. They do not approve of his marriage to a widow six years his senior, with two children of her own. She faces many tribulations of her own, beginning with Napoleon’s family’s hostility to her. They did not marry for love, as we see in the first book, but Josephine eventually comes to love Napoleon. Many of these events are necessarily seen “off-stage,” since Josephine was not present at the scene, but Gulland brings Josephine’s pride in Napoleon’s achievements, and her worries while he is away in battle, vividly to life. This is a time full of momentous events in Napoleon’s life, including his victories in Italy, his Egyptian campaign, and his seizure of power in a coup d’état in 1799, when he overthrew the government and became First Consul.
While the first book told Josephine’s story from her childhood in Martinique to her marriage to Napoleon, this book covers a considerably shorter period of time: the first four years of their marriage, from 1796 to 1800. The novels are written in the form of a diary by Josephine, interspersed with letters to her from Napoleon and others. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the second book, following The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., in Sandra Gulland’s trilogy about the Empress Josephine, wife of Napoleon.
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