Kate’s 2¢: “Wondrous beauty: the life and adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte” by Carol Berkin

“Wondrous beauty: the life and adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte” by Carol Berkin

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I can’t say that I like Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte. She epitomizes the such adjectives as willful, vain, manipulative, and quite the self-centered bitch. Oh, did I mention social climber and lacking substance, even though she was  reputed to be  quick witted and intellectual?

   Berkin acknowledged  the many people who assisted her in researching Elizabeth and I can appreciate the effort it must have been to put it all together in a chronological narrative. Well done.

   Kate Kiley did a good job of reading the narrative for NLS.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   Carol Berkin graduated from Barnard College in 1964 and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

She taught at Baruch College from 1972 to 2008 and has taught at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York since 1983. She is currently Baruch Presidential Professor of History at the City University of New York.[3]

She has worked as a historical commentator for several television documentaries, most notably PBS’s Dolley Madison: America’s First Lady.[4]

   Selected works[edit]

• Jonathan Sewall; odyssey of an American loyalist. Columbia University Press. 1974. ISBN 0231038518. OCLC 947967.

• Making America: A History of the United States. Houghton Mifflin. 1995. ISBN 0395714370. OCLC 32065166.

• First Generations: Women in Colonial America. Hill and Wang. 1996. ISBN 0809045613. OCLC 34354867.

• A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution. Harcourt. 2002. ISBN 0151009481. OCLC 49663906.

• Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence.

• Civil War Wives: The Lives & Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis & Julia Dent Grant. Alfred A. Knopf. 2009. ISBN 9781400044467. OCLC 335678795.

• Wondrous Beauty: Betsy Bonaparte, the Belle of Baltimore Who Married Napoleon’s Brother. Alfred A. Knopf. 2014. ISBN 9780307592781. OCLC 842323047. Wondrous Beauty was reviewed in the New York Times.[6

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Wondrous beauty: the life and adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte

Berkin, Carol.  

Read by Kate Kiley. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Biography

World History and Affairs

Biography of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, renowned as the most beautiful woman of nineteenth-century Baltimore, whose brief marriage in 1803 to Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of the disapproving Napoleon Bonaparte, became enmeshed in the diplomatic and political histories of the United States, France, and England. 2014.           

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