THE EMPRESS OF FAREWELLS: The Story of Charlotte, Empress of Mexico
Michel, Prince Michael of Greece, , trans. from the French by Vincent Aurora. . Atlantic Monthly, $25 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-87113-836-1
If there were a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction award for royal biographies, this would surely be a contender. The daughter of Leopold I of Belgium and his French wife, Queen Louise, the bright and beautiful Charlotte (1840–1927) could have had her pick of Europe's eligible royal bachelors. Unfortunately, she settled on Archduke Maximilian, who, as the younger brother of Austrian emperor Francis-Joseph, had no hope of inheriting a throne. So he took up Napoleon III's offer to rule Mexico, a decision that proved to be both his and his wife's undoing. Armed with reams of personal documents and previously unpublished papers, as well as a storyteller's gift for detail, Prince Michael (author of 14 books, including
Reviewed on: 03/25/2002
Genre: Nonfiction