A fascinating and ill-starred figure of the 19th century, Marie Caroline Ferdinande Louise, Princess of Naples, Duchess de Berri, mother of the heir to the French throne, granddaughter of two kings. This is biography -- but it reads like historical romance, decked out in a panoply of glamour and the pageantry of court life. Should fill the need for good gossipy memoirs, court pictures, etc. By the author of The Scarlet Pimpernel.