#Christine Reimarus Reinhard

[empirearchives]

Description of Napoleon and Josephine from Mme Reinhard

Context: This is a letter from Mme Reinhard to her mother after a reception held in 1799, 3 days before 18 Brumaire.

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“The meeting was lively and brilliant, and Bonaparte’s unexpected arrival made it interesting; I knew he was indisposed and I wasn’t counting on him. This meeting with the general was good fortune for everyone; many of the distinguished foreigners and diplomats’ wives gathered at my home had never seen him, and I’m convinced that everyone went home with the feeling of a wish fulfilled. I found Bonaparte as I had imagined him, modest like a dominator, simple like someone who can claim anything; he seems disdainful of drawing attention to himself and wants to lose himself in the crowd, with the certainty that he will always impose himself and that he cannot go unnoticed. The expression on his face is noble, his gaze piercing: he doesn’t try to be friendly, and rightly so, for friendliness in him would be seen as condescension… Mme Bonaparte is not a worthy counterpart to her husband, and it’s painful to see two such dissimilar beings riveted to each other. Although her attire and the refinement of her manners allow her to rise above the multitudes, one senses the effort, and all that we know of her morals speaks in favor of neither her mind nor her heart.”

Source: Une femme de diplomate: Lettres de Madame Reinhard à sa mère, 1798-1815. Published by A. Picard et fils (1901), p. 92-93.