As part of the countdown to The Garden Intrigue (we’re practically there!), this is going to be a special, Bonaparte-themed If You Like.

The Garden Intrigue is set largely at Josephine Bonaparte’s country house, Malmaison. (You can see my pictures of Malmaison by scrolling down a bit here.) Various Bonapartes play an active role in the novel.

So, if you like books about the Bonapartes, you’ll probably like….

— The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. by Sandra Gulland;

— Désirée by Anne-Marie Selinko (you may have heard me mention this one here a time or ten before);

— The Mask of Night by Tracy Grant, in which Hortense de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s stepdaughter (and my favorite Bonaparte) plays a large role.

On the non-fiction front, there are a ridiculous number of books to choose from, including:

— Theo Aronson’s Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story;

— Evangeline Bruce’s Napoleon And Josephine: An Improbable Marriage;

— Christopher Hibbert’s Napoleon: His Wives and Women;

— Alan Schom’s Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life;

— Carolly Erickson’s Josephine: A Life of the Empress;

— Eleanor DeLorme’s Josephine: Napoleon’s Incomparable Empress;

— Andrea Stuart’s The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon’s Josephine;

— and Flora Fraser’s recent biography of Napoleon’s scandalous sister, Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire.

What Bonaparte-based books would you recommend?