The Academie

February 13, 2012
During Eliza Monroe and her mother’s year away from Virginia in postrevolutionary France, 14-year-old Eliza is sent (unwillingly) to a boarding school outside Paris, where the daughter of future president James Monroe befriends two celebrated yet conniving young ladies: Caroline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s youngest sister, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Joséphine Bonaparte’s first marriage (before she married Napoleon). Caroline and Hortense are enemies, each attempting to use Eliza as their pawn. Caroline is in love with General Murat, while Hortense has feelings for her music teacher as well as Napoleon, her stepfather. Eliza has a crush on Eugène, Hortense’s brother, who has in turn promised himself to Madeleine, the abused daughter of an actress. Eliza becomes trapped in the girls’ schemes, learning the freedom of being ordinary and that love “is a strange and dangerous thing.” Dunlap’s (In the Shadow of the Lamp) intricate plot darts among the first-person narratives of Eliza, Caroline, Hortense, and Madeleine. The elegant work of historical fiction is laced with fluttery romances, psychological games, and surprises. Ages 12–up. Agent: Adam Chromy, Moveable Type Management.

February 15, 2012
This peculiar hybrid of fact-checked historical fiction and breathless bodice-ripper chronicles the romantic flings of four teens in 1799 France. Eliza Monroe, daughter of future U.S. president James Monroe, arrives at a Paris finishing school where she's befriended by fellow pupils Hortense de Beauharnais (daughter of Josephine, stepdaughter of Napoleon Bonaparte) and Caroline Bonaparte (sister of Napoleon): beautiful, scheming frenemies. This promising, frothy-but-fun scenario is overshadowed by a less-successful melodrama. Madeleine de Pourtant, secretly engaged to Hortense's brother, is the daughter of Gloriande, a star of the Comedie Francaise. Formerly enslaved in Martinique, Gloriande--drug-addicted, abusive, mentally unstable, a sexual omnivore discarded by her white aristocratic husband--resurrects the toxic "tragic mulatto" stereotype, as does Madeleine herself. The plot veers unsteadily from accounts of student entertainments, girlish crushes and romantic intrigues to Gloriande's depraved brutality and Madeleine's misery. Throughout, narrators Hortense, Eliza and Madeleine keep the emotional temperature constant, reacting to overheard gossip, the discovery of admirers and General Bonaparte's power plays with the same feverish excitement. Dunlap has clearly done her history homework, but characterization is sketchy and the noisy plot not always credible. Annemarie Selinko's classic historical romance Desiree (1953) offers what's missing: compelling characters who made, and were made by, the world they lived in. Pass. (Historical romance. 12 & up)

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April 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-This light romance is set in the period following the French Revolution when Napoleon was coming into political power. When 14-year-old Eliza Monroe of Virginia becomes a student at a Parisian finishing school in 1799, she discovers that Napoleon's stepdaughter Hortense and his sister Caroline are among her fellow pupils. Caroline is a calculating charmer who has decided that she is in love with one of Napoleon's generals and sets out to capture his heart. Hortense and her brother Eugene, children of Napoleon's mistress, Josephine, are in love with individuals whom their mother deems unsuitable. Eliza is pulled into dangerous adventures by Caroline, but it is Hortense who becomes a truer, older, and wiser friend to her. All three young women are a curious mix of naivete and worldliness. Hortense and Caroline realize that they will probably have arranged marriages of convenience, although Caroline is out to change that. However, knowing what their futures may hold doesn't stop them or Eliza from having crushes, which they call falling in love, on young men who may or may not even notice them. The Parisian students also understand that their parents are not faithful to each other, but don't look upon this as a fault. The writing is a bit stilted in a nod to the time period. Students who enjoy historical fiction and period romances will find this to their liking.-Nancy P. Reeder, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Columbia, SC

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