Memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne - Louise-Elonore-Charlotte-Adlaide d'Osmond Boigne

Volume Two of Madame de Boigne's memoirs reveals a woman of startling contradiction. She claimed to be heartbroken when her wealthy older husband died, but she had only married him to save her family from financial ruin, and after his death embarked on a thirty-year love affair. She also admired England, but hated its customs. A staunch Royalist, she respected Napoleon and was appalled by the rigidity of the last two Bourbon kings. She called her own memoirs the tales of an old woman, a bit of tapestry that shall be bequeathed to my heirs as if it were one more armchair'.'