The Innocent Empress: An Intimate Study of Eugénie

New York: E.P. Dutton and Company. Near Fine in Near Fine dj. 1943. First Edition. Hardcover. [a very nice copy, with just the barest trace of shelfwear; the jacket is also quite nice, with just a bit of wear to the extremities]. (B&W plates) "A biography which is not fictionized" (well, there's a relief) of the beautiful and elegant Eugénie de Montijo, who, as the wife of Napoleon III, became the last Empress of France, and who "was independent, and loved to hunt, ride, tramp, [and] dress unconventionally." According to this telling of her story (not fictionized, remember), she was "far stronger than her husband [and] made many of his decisions. She had a passion for government [and] was the moving force in sending Maximilian into Mexico." (Hm, wonder how that worked out for Max?) "She was regent when her husband fought in the Italian campaign -- governed well, and developed a taste for it. She was sincere, cherished chivalric and socialistic ideas, but she was also politically astute, and many of her ideas were carried out." A style-setter in her day, she was the inspiration for the "Eugénie hat" -- a dramatically-tilted, ostrich-plumed chapeau, referred to as "that abomination" by the jacket-blurb writer -- which had a kind of revival in the early 1930s when Greta Garbo wore a modernized adaptation of it, designed for her by Adrian, in the film ROMANCE. Eugénie was most famously (and unflatteringly) portrayed in the movies by Gale Sondergaard in the 1939 historical drama JUAREZ. .