Authorpreneur Dashboard – Ruth Hull Chatlien
The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte
Literature & Fiction
"Tell the emperor that Madame Bonaparte is ambitious and demands her rights as a member of the imperial family." As a clever girl in stodgy, mercantile Baltimore, Betsy Patterson dreams of a marriage that will transport her to cultured Europe. When she falls in love with and marries Jerome Bonaparte, she believes her dream has come true—until Jerome’s older brother Napoleon becomes an implacable enemy. Based on a true story, The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte is a historical novel that portrays this woman’s tumultuous life. Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, known to history as Betsy Bonaparte, scandalized Washington with her daring French fashions; visited Niagara Falls when it was an unsettled wilderness; survived a shipwreck and run-ins with British and French warships; dined with presidents and danced with dukes; and lived through the 1814 Battle of Baltimore. Yet through it all, Betsy never lost sight of her primary goal—to win recognition of her marriage.
Book Bubbles from The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte
Inspiration
Why did I write about Betsy Bonaparte? My husband and I were big fans of the Horatio Hornblower series that ran on A&E in the 1990s and early 2000s. The final episode featured an encounter between Horatio Hornblower and a mysterious young couple he rescued at sea—a couple who turned out to be Jerome and Betsy Bonaparte trying desperately to reach France. I had never heard of Jerome or Betsy Bonaparte and wondered if there was any historical basis for the storyline. Had Napoleon’s youngest brother really married an American girl, and did Napoleon oppose their impetuous marriage? By searching on the Internet, I learned that those basic facts were true—but the real Betsy Bonaparte’s story was far more complex, dramatic, and moving than the one the scriptwriters portrayed. Immediately, I decided to turn her life into a historical novel. My goal in writing this book was to show why she made the choices she did and how she interpreted her life while she was living it—not through the lens of the eventual consequences, but as any person experiences her life, making the best choices that she can, never knowing what the outcome will be yet hoping to achieve certain goals. Above all, I wanted to be fair to a woman who faced much opposition.
