THE MARRIAGE OF JOSEPHINE

Another successful handling of an aspect of the Napoleonic period -- though falling short of the originality of Goodbye, My Son, but equalling The Incorruptible. This time she deals with the devastating, scheming Crolo of Martinique at front center. Josephine, in the shadow of the guillotine, is caught back to life by Barras the hard, ambitious murderer of Robespierre. Saved to become the patrician hostess to influential men in the new government, she was mistress to handsome young ones and betrayer of all -- until she marries France in Napoleon, and, finding herself at last older and less alluring, succumbs to the domination of the passionate young conqueror. A competent and sometimes spicy handling of history, convincing biography, and generally good reading.