Stealing Sisi's Star

Jennifer Bowers Bahney is an award-winning journalist with an MSJ from Northwestern University and a BA from Smith College. Her first book for McFarland, Stealing Sisi’s Star, was a finalist for the 2016 Ohioana Book Award in Nonfiction.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments viPreface 1A Note on Currency 5Prologue 7I. “I am on show like a freak in a circus.” 11II. “It’s just a natural thing.” 33III. “I didn’t know anything about Sisi.” 41IV. “I am a slave to my hair.” 51V. “No one else had one but me.” 60VI. “She worshipped her beauty like a heathen his idols.” 64VII. “Who has stolen Sisi’s Star?” 88VIII. “I cannot conceive how anyone can love a number of people.” 94IX. “The diamonds and rubies … sparkle like fire.” 107X. “It’s only priceless if you have to have it.” 114XI. “The file started to get even more interesting.” 127XII. “Thoughts of death encircle her incessantly now.” 140XIII. “I gave the diamond back voluntarily.” 149XIV. “I wished for my soul to escape to heaven through a tiny hole in my heart.” 162XV. “You continue to take pride in your criminal past.” 168Epilogue 179Chapter Notes 187Bibliography 193Index 199

“It would be criminal for lovers of historical nonfiction to miss this story of theft, sadness, and obsession...provides a fascinating peek at 19th-century thinking”—Kirkus Reviews; “the true story of a ten-pointed diamond and pearl star that entwines theft, obsession, suicide, and assassination”—Ohioana Library Association.