Wonderfully written, this shows Pauline not as she is usually portrayed as a spiteful, greedy creature, but as a loyal, devoted sister (she was the only one to follow Napoleon into exile to Elba – unlike Caroline, who was forever labeled as “the Betrayer” by Hubert Cole) even if she was headstrong; a young widow remarried (unhappily, until the last few years of her life, to Prince Camillo Borhese, thus obtaining a title before Napoleon crowned himself Emperor in 1804), a free spirit caught in a tug-of-war between the restrictions of her position & the excitement of coming of age in the post-Revolutionary period.
True, she was spiteful toward Josephine, who she probably saw as a rival for the affections of the numerous dashing young officers surrounding the court, & even sinking into such immature acts as sticking her tongue out behind Josephine’s back, not to mention yanking on the imperial train during the coronation ceremony, almost causing Josephine to lose her balance beneath it’s immense weight; but most remembered her as a charming (though thoughtless) creature full of the lust for life making the most of it between her numerous bouts of illness & melancholy that she suffered throughout her short life. ( )