Hortense's Memoirs

Hortense's memoirs, when published a few years later, were a sensation. She wrote them with the help of a writer named Cesar Vichard de Saint-Réal. It was the first time that a woman from the French court had written her life story and published it under her name. A few queens had done so, but no one like Hortense had ever done it before. And certainly not in such scandalous detail about their private affairs. Perhaps this is why she begins her book by saying, quote, I know that a woman's glory lies not in giving rise to gossip.