'A sad story told with exceptional scholarship, wit and humanity; the book itself is a ravishingly beautiful object'.
World of Interiors

Anthony Geraghty

This absorbing book tells the story of Empress Eugénie (1826–1920), the wife of Napoleon III and the last Empress-Consort of France. Today she is remembered for her physical beauty, for her influence as a taste maker, and for her glittering contribution to the second imperial court – but she outlived the Second Empire by half a century and lived in exile in England. The Empress bought the Farnborough Hill estate in 1880, following a decade of personal tragedy: the collapse of the Second Empire (1852–70), the death of Napoleon III, and the loss of her only child. The death of the Prince Imperial in 1879, aged 23, ended all hope of a Bonapartist restoration. With the imperial succession removed to another branch of the family, Eugénie resolved to create a permanent monument to her husband and son. This was her primary reason for moving to Farnborough. This book describes the little-known assemblage of art and architecture that she created there in the 1880s.

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'Geraghty excels in uncovering the allusions that added up to a patriotic statement about French culture's ability to absorb and refine diverse European precedents'.
Apollo

'Beautifully illustrated book reconstructs what the house, collections and mausoleum were like before 1920'. 
Spectator

'Thoroughly explored and well supported by archival material, quotes from sources and comparisons with other properties, with images used generously throughout'.
Decorative Arts Society