Napoleon was highly interested in his stepdaughter Hortense. I believe it was a great frustration to him that he could not create a family with her and this was why he came up with the plan to marry her to his brother and to adopt their children as his own as much as he could get away with. Napoleon’s brother was understandably not a happy man given these circumstances.
Napoleon also had a great interest in planning marriages. His valet Constant even accused him of having “marriage fever”. He shared this with his stepdaughter who would plan marriages along with him.
Napoleon was fascinated by culture. It turned out that his stepdaughter was a brilliant painter, actress, designer, musician etc. We also learn from her memoirs, in addition to that she was a gifted writer and truthteller.
I think the role of Napoleon’s interest in his stepdaughter has been greatly underestimated.
Learn about all these surprisingly realities here:
https://www.thetanster.com/blog/2019/2/11/napoleon-memoirs-links
