Josephine: A Life of the Empress by Carolly Erickson is a 391-page hardcover published by St. Martin's Press, New York, April 1999, stated U.S. first edition.  The cover has some rubbing but no tears or chips.  Inside, the book is in very good condition.

Book Summary

When in 1804 Josephine Bonaparte knelt before her husband Napoleon to receive the imperial diadem, few in the vast crowd of onlookers were aware of the dark secrets hidden behind the imperial facade.  To her subjects she appeared to be the most favored woman in France:  alluring, wealthy, and with the devoted love of a remarkable husband who was the conqueror of Europe.  In actuality, Josephine's life was far darker, for her celebrated allure was fading, her wealth was compromised by massive debt and her marriage was corroded by infidelity and abuse.  Josephine's life story was as turbulent as the age--an era of revolution and social upheaval, of the guillotine and frenzied hedonism.  With telling psychological depth and compelling literary grace, Carolly Erickson brings the complex, charming, ever-resilient Josephine to life in this memorable portrait, one that carries the reader along every twist and turn of the empress's often thorny path, from the sensuous richness of her childhood in the tropics to the final lonely days at Malmaison.