Lush and very poetical, I could not take it in one reading. I stopped halfway through for a few months! But the beginning meets the ending, and may even surpass it, even though it is a historical fiction novel, it is very believable, and I wish I had known her, especially toward the end of her life. I could not connect with her too well, until she reached her summit and began her decline. She was human and was beautiful. This drama may seem tedious at times, (I skipped the multi-page parade description) and was ravished with the details in a moment between months within a paragraph.