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Her reign, the longest in Russian imperial history, lasted from 1762 until her death in 1796; during these years she realized Peter the Great's ambition to establish Russia as a major European power and to transform its new capital, St. Petersburg, into a city to rival Paris and London.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Yet Catherine was not Russian by birth and had no legitimate claim to the Russian throne; she seized it and held on to it, through wars, rebellions, and plagues, by the force of her personality and an unshakable belief in her own destiny. 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In the reign of Emperor Napoleon I the opulent and pampered demimonde became almost indistinguishable from the haut-monde, with mythical reputations growing up around its most glittering and favored celebrities. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMarie Duplessis became the prototype of the virtuous courtesan when Alexandre Dumas Fils portrayed her as Marguerite Gautier in\u0026gt;\u003ci\u003eLa dame aux Cam lias\u003c\/i\u003e. Apollonie Sabatier, known as La Pr sidente, put men of letters and other arts at ease amidst the gracious manners and bawdy talk of her salon and was immortalized by sculptor August Cl singer and poet Charles Baudelaire. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTo prejudiced eyes, the Russian Jew La Pa va appeared intent on exploiting the rich young men of Paris. Covetous onlookers resented her ability to amass and display great wealth, most notably in the design and building of her opulent hotel in the Avenue of the Champs Elys es. The English beauty who called herself Cora Pearl was another foreign threat, with her athletic physique, sixty horses and ability to make bored men laugh, including Prince Napoleon. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eVirginia Rounding disentangles myth from reality in her lively, thought-provoking study. Nineteenth-century Paris comes to life and so do its most distinguished and d class  inhabitants.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50393257771281,"sku":"CIN1582342601G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51110282658065,"sku":"CIN1582342601VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51885785284881,"sku":"CIN1582342601A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52470028599569,"sku":"GOR006217070","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1582342601.jpg?v=1750959017"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-virginia-rounding.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}