“Sarah Bernhardt was born in Paris in 1844, the illegitimate daughter of a pretty milliner. Her childhood was not a happy one, for her health was dangerously frail and her mother had little time for her. The book tells of her love of the theatre, her selfless work in behalf of the wounded during the siege of Paris in 1870-1871 and her courageous trips to the Front in World War I, and her role as gracious though often capricious hostess to many of the great figures of her time; one of France's most glorious ambassadors abroad.”