CHAPTER SIXThe exact date when Napoleon met the first significant woman in his life
(Letizia apart) is not known, but by the time Joseph married Julie Clary,
Napoleon was deeply interested in her sixteen-year-old sister Bernardine
Eugenie Clary, also known as Desiree. Both girls were brunettes, and at
this stage Desiree had not shed all her puppy fat so that, petite as she
was, she had a somewhat dumpy appearance. But she was warm,
affectionate and good-natured, with a smile like Mediterranean sunshine,
and she had large, lustrous, slightly popping brown eyes; her portraits
show her as sexy rather than beautiful.
The initial attraction for Napoleon is easy to explain, but before
September 1794, Desiree probably rated no higher in his affections than
Emilie de Laurenti, whose hand he once lukewarmly solicited from her
father, in the certain knowledge that he would be turned down. As is
quite clear from the events of 1795, Napoleon liked to 'test the water' by
making frivolous marriage proposals, just to see how his social status was
perceived by others. But we can certainly discount the wild story that
Joseph really wanted to marry Desiree until Napoleon 'leaned on' him by
pointing out that stable should marry flighty and flighty stable; this meant
the pairings should be Joseph/Julie and Napoleon/Desiree. Joseph made
a hardheaded marriage of convenience to solve his financial problems, and
there was never any suggestion of an automatic second connection
between the Bonaparte and Clary families.
There was certainly nothing special about Napoleon's feelings for
Desiree in September 1794, as his first letter to her (he always called her
Eugenie), from the Italian front, makes clear: 'Your unfailing sweetness
and the gay openness which is yours alone inspire me with affection, dear
Eugenie, but I am so occupied by work I don't think this affection ought
to cut into my soul and leave a deeper scar.' Scarcely coup de foudre. The
epithet best describing Napoleon's letters to Desiree at this juncture is
'patronizing'. He advised her on what books she should read, how she
could improve her piano playing (though his technical advice on scales,
tones and intervals is nonsensical), how to develop an acknowledged