Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie, born a Creole on the island of Martinique in the French West Indies, became one of the best known and most envied women who ever lived. Sent to France to make an advantageous marriage to a young aristocrat, her naiveté and lack of education left her ill prepared to deal with the sophisticated, if decadent, world of pre-Revolutionary Paris. Treated cruelly by her shallow young husband, her life had become a nightmare...