Referred to in his time as "the Pretender" and "the sphinx of the Tuileries," Louis NapolTon Bonaparte, the nephew of Emperor Napoleon I and himself ruler of the Second Empire, managed the manufacture of his public image and the masking of his private life so thoroughly that he reigned in an extraordinary aura of myth and fantasy, shadowed by his more famous uncle. Baguley (French, U. of Durham) considers sources such as pictures, plays, music, fiction, architecture, and fashion as well as Louis NapolTon's writings to explore how the ruler was represented, invented, and interpreted by his detractors and defenders. He shows both the power of the Napoleonic name and image, and also the precariousness of the emperor's reliance upon them. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)