Baroness Alexandrine von Hedemann leads a more turbulent life than one would expect of a woman born into nobility. Set apart from others of her class by her intellect and reckless nature, she endures an unhappy marriage until she reunites with her first love and embarks on a passionate love affair. The scandal leaves her impoverished, lonely, and shunned by society. It is then that she meets Prince Chlodwig von Hohenlohe Schillingsfürst under mysterious circumstances. Their lives are intertwined throughout the prince's rise within the Prussian and German governments as minister-president and later third chancellor of all Germany. This is a story of how their friendship turned to love in an affair that lasted decades until Alexandrine makes a fateful decision that shatters both their lives. Told against the background of political upheaval of nineteenth-century Europe, Alexandrine: An Intimate Biography of Love, Heartbreak, and Devotion is the true story of these two extraordinary people. About the Author Alexandrine: An Intimate Biography of Love, Heartbreak, and Devotion is Marita Newton's debut novel. It was inspired by years of research into the German ancestry of her family. Marita was born in Munich, Germany but came to the United States as a child. Most of her relatives still live in Germany. Marita lives with her husband, Geoff, in Adrian, Michigan.