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Napoleon and Josephine
Antony and Cleopatra
Pericles and Aspasia
Napoleon & Josephine
It's just after the French Revolution, and Josephine de
Beauharnais is moving comfortably in the highest circles of Parisian society. Only a few years ago, her handsome husband was
guillotined, and she was thrown in jail, but she's put all that behind her. In 1795, she meets Napoleon Bonaparte, a short,
blunt, and ambitious Corsican with a certain je ne sais quoi. Josephine is repelled by his manners, but she knows a
meal ticket when she sees one. Napoleon, who generally prefers making war to love, is swept away.
Josephine reluctantly agrees to marry him in a civil ceremony
in 1796. But while he's on campaign in Egypt, she carries on with another man at home (despite smutty letters from Nappy).
When Napoleon finds out what she's been up to, he threatens divorce. She sweet-talks him out of it--and into paying all her
creditors, too. After Napoleon assumes control of France in 1799, Josephine swears everlasting fidelity to him and keeps her
promise.
Napoleon crowns himself emperor--and Josephine empress--in
1804, and she rushes to renew their vows with full religious rites. This time, Napoleon isn't so keen on the idea, but he's
still willing. Now Josephine can relax and spend all the money she wants--but she can't seem to give Napoleon a son.
Six years later, Napoleon nullifies their marriage on a
technicality and marries the teenage daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria for the sake of an alliance and a male heir.
With a broken heart, Josephine retires to her private mansion. Napoleon still loves her. When she dies in 1814, he refuses
to see anyone for days. On his own deathbed in 1821, his final words are "France, the army . . . Josephine."
Claire Vail
KnowledgeNews is brought
to you by Every Learner, Inc., an independent small business dedicated to supporting lifelong learners. Copyright © 2007,
Every Learner, Inc. All rights reserved.
Antony and Cleopatra
After her lover, Julius Caesar, is assassinated in 44 BC,
Egypt's striking young queen, Cleopatra, cools her heels in Alexandria--but has her eye on Rome's rising star, dashing general
Mark Antony. Rumors abound that Antony might soon fill Caesar's shoes, particularly as Caesar's young heir, Octavian, isn't
exactly robust. Dressed to conquer, Cleo sails a royal barge up the Cydnus River to see Antony, who surrenders on the spot.
For the next several years, they drink, dance, and diddle the nights away.
Meanwhile, their many enemies conspire. In 40 BC, Antony
sucks up to Octavian by marrying his sister, but he's soon back with Cleo. This time, he even marries her--and insults all
of Rome in the process. The Roman Senate declares war on Cleo and Antony and defeats their forces at the naval battle of Actium
in 31 BC.
Desperate to unload Antony, Cleo has messengers announce
her sudden death. The lovestruck Antony falls on his sword. Cleo tries to switch gears and seduce Octavian, but she knows
the jig is up. Rather than be dragged behind a chariot through Alexandria's streets, she commits suicide by holding a deadly
asp to her breast. Octavian grants her final wish to be buried with Antony, her lover for more than 11 years.
Claire Vail
KnowledgeNews is brought
to you by Every Learner, Inc., an independent small business dedicated to supporting lifelong learners. Copyright © 2007,
Every Learner, Inc. All rights reserved.
Pericles & Aspasia
Sparks fly in 445 BC when the witty, educated, and lovely
foreigner Aspasia takes up with Athens's democratic leader Pericles. Before you can say "Helen of Troy," the divorced Pericles,
now in his fifties, is living openly with his new lover. That sets malicious tongues a-wagging--not least because Aspasia
is evidently a high-class courtesan, or "hetaira." Pericles never marries Aspasia, but she soon bears him a son who will one
day become a great general.
Compounding the scandal, Pericles shocks everyone by treating
Aspasia with respect. He even asks her opinion on political and philosophical matters, in an age when women are generally
kept out of sight. When Athens goes to war with Sparta, gossip rages that Aspasia started it because Sparta's allies stole
the prettiest girls from her brothel.
After 20 years with Pericles, Aspasia finally earns some
grudging respect when Socrates admits she's one of Athens's brightest minds. Yet war and plague turn the city against Pericles,
who dies in 429 BC after trying to legitimize his son. Ironically, by a law Pericles himself introduced, sons of non-Athenian
women can't be citizens. In a final, touching scene, the Athenian assembly at last acknowledges its debt to the city's greatest
statesman by granting his son full citizenship.
Claire Vail
KnowledgeNews is brought to you by Every Learner, Inc., an independent
small business dedicated to supporting lifelong learners. Copyright © 2007, Every Learner, Inc. All rights reserved.
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