NEW ORLEANS – Arcadia Publishing announced the publication of “The Blood of the Baroness: Micaëla de Pontalba – Shot, Betrayed, and Unbreakable,” a new history of the area by author Rory O’Neill Schmitt, PhD.
About the Book
The Blood of the Baroness mines the world of the bizarre, tapestried Baroness of Pontalba. A woman grown fierce from fighting terror outside and inside the family—and the proud, tortured, exotic men who betrayed her. The authors, sixth generation New Orleanians bring you up close the formidable heiress of nineteenth-century New Orleans and France. Inspired by documented events—and a shocking attempted murder—this historical novel blends meticulous research with the propulsive pacing of a psychological thriller.
The authors, sixth and seventh generation mother-daughter New Orleanians, Dr. O’Neill and Dr. Schmitt, reexamine the Baroness through a bold, contemporary lens. The scholar/authors dare to ask: What if? From the marble altars of St. Louis Cathedral—built by the Baroness’s father twice—to the gilded salons of France, readers follow the evolution of the infant heiress from a fifteen-year-old bride to wife, mother, brutality survivor, and ultimately a visionary businesswoman. Her iconic Pontalba Apartments still anchor Jackson Square.