1. Discuss the personalities of Rose/Josephine and Aimee/ Nakshidil. How are they alike? How are they different? What are their greatest assets and greatest flaws? Which do you like better and why? Which woman do you think had the happier life and why?
2. How do you explain Euphemia David’s uncanny prediction that both girls would grow up to be empresses? Did she possess genuine psychic powers or was she merely a clever charlatan who made a lucky guess? Napoleon and Josephine are both big believers in destiny; Aimee is more skeptical. What do you believe? Is one’s fate preordained or can our actions alter it?
3. Rose marries twice and has many lovers. Discuss the various men in her life. Which ones made her happiest and why? Were any of the relationships founded on true love or were they all just casual dalliances and symbiotic or parasitic relationships with each person using the other for their own reasons? Aimee was the beloved of three sultans—Abdul Hamid, Selim, and her adopted son, Mahmoud. Discuss each of these relationships. Who do you think was her greatest love? Do you think she was a woman of passion or practicality or did she manage to successfully combine both qualities?
4. Everything seems to slip through Rose’s fingers; she can’t hold on to anything or anyone for long. She is impulsive, addicted to shopping, and never puts anything by for the future despite her worries about losing her looks and the onset of old age. She readily admits this is a serious problem but never does anything to change it. What advice would you have given her?
5. Rose never goes to visit Aimee in the convent; she always makes excuses. Do you believe her reasons for not going were justified? Would the life of either woman have been any different if they had rekindled their childhood friendship?
6. Aimee’s fate is regarded as worse than death. Do you agree? Do you think she was right to maintain her silence and never try to contact her family? Do you think it would have only caused her parents greater pain to know she was alive in the Sultan’s harem?
7. Discuss the role fame plays in the story. Does it ever bring any of the characters true and lasting happiness? How is the reality of fame different from the dream of fame? Is fame a good or a bad thing or does it depend on how a person uses their fame?
8. Both women have their names changed by the men in their lives. Rose becomes Josephine and Aimee becomes Nakshidil. How does each woman’s life and character change when she is given a new name? Did Rose truly lose herself in Josephine? Does Aimee’s life truly begin when she is presumed dead by the world? Is her new life as Nakshidil a better or worse one than Aimee’s would have been if it had followed the traditional path?
9. Did Napoleon really love Rose or only his ideal of Josephine? Theirs is regarded by many as one of history’s great love stories. What do you think of the truth about the two personalities behind the romantic façade? How were they good for each other? How were they bad? Were they right to marry? Why or why not? Josephine never reveals to Napoleon her doubts about her fertility; was she right to have kept this a secret from him? What would you have done in her position?
10. Discuss the lives of the women in the Sultan’s harem, the rituals, rivalries, affairs, ambitions, and acts of treachery. Do you think it was a good or happy life for these women or a velvet-cushioned prison with gilded bars where the inmates wore silk and jewels?
11. Discuss the roles modesty and exhibitionism play in this novel. In the convent girls are taught to keep their bodies covered and to never touch them sensually or out of curiosity; the girls are told to mortify rather than glorify the flesh. On her wedding night Rose is embarrassed when her aunt dresses her in a lace negligee, yet a few years later Rose is wearing transparent gowns and even parading about nude for Barras’s pleasure. In the harem women embrace their sensuality and glorify their bodies; they spend long hours lounging about nude in the baths and even attend a special school to study the erotic arts. Discuss how Rose’s and Aimee’s attitudes about modesty and sensuality change over time and why.
12. Discuss Aimee’s rise to prominence in the harem. Do you think it was due solely to her unique appearance—blond hair, blue eyes, and white skin? Do you think her story would have been different if she had been a brunette? Discuss the manner in which she is presented to Abdul Hamid, in her pink Parisian ball gown as part of a zoo on wheels. She is given a choice, to submit to the Sultan or die; what would you have done in her position?
13. As she rises to favor and suffers several “accidents” and betrayals, Aimee grows increasingly mistrustful. She longs for a confidante, a real friend, but cannot let her guard down enough to let anyone in. Do you think she was right to be so wary? Should she have been more receptive to overtures of friendship?
14. Why can’t Aimee return Selim’s love? Why does she repeatedly turn away from his declarations of love? When he asks her to put on her French ball gown and come to him and presents her with a French style sitting room, why does she reject him and her past? Why does she burn the dress?
15. Selim and later Aimee both say “Love requires sacrifice.” Do you think this is true? What sacrifices do they make for love and why? Were they right to? Aimee kills Mustafa to save Mahmoud and make him sultan. Do you think she was right to do this? Would you have done this for your own child?