FOREWORD
Reading edition
In the popular estimation the Empress Joséphine is crowned with a halo of goodness which makes the task of her biographer one of peculiar difficulty. The aversion which many feel towards Napoleon is not a little due to what they conceive to be the cruelty with which he treated the woman who for fourteen years was the companion of his glory. The writer of this book holds no brief either for the prosecution or the defence. He wants to draw a portrait—not to pronounce a judgment: his object is to depict Joséphine as she was, and he leaves the reader to decide as to her goodness.
Walter Geer
New York, October, 1924.