Helpful Score: 1
This wonderful book does something I wasn't sure would happen with any Marie Antoinette biography; it humanizes her and makes you empathize with her.
We learn what it was like in the Viennese court of MA's mother, Empress Maria Teresa of Austria. MA's was a happy childhood, but as she got older, her childhood became marred with the pain of separation. The death of her father and a sister, and then the feelings associated with the Habsburg daughters being married off to their respective royal grooms, including Marie Antoinette herself.
When Marie Antoinette arrives in Versailles, she has a lot of youthful problems. Cattiness from the other women of the royal court, Louis Auguste (later to become Louis XVI).
This is explored, as well as Marie's years as she grows into a mature young woman and mother of four.
However, something was rotten in the state of France. Poverty, hunger and general unrest cause the French public to take a closer look into MA's personal indulgences, a fault of hers that Fraser is willing to admit as much, but Fraser also presents evidence that MA was trying to tone down her conspicuous consumption, and also had a heart for the poor.
The later chapters deal with the royal family's arrests, escape attempts, and the eventual executions of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and many people they cared about during the Reign of Terror. We learn what became of the two children that survived MA.
Finally, one recurring theme is the exploration of why MA was so reviled by the non-aristocratic French. Fraser makes the compelling arguement that MA was simply an easy scapegoat, as she was a foreign-born princess from a country that often had designs on removing French sovereignity.
All in all a great book!
We learn what it was like in the Viennese court of MA's mother, Empress Maria Teresa of Austria. MA's was a happy childhood, but as she got older, her childhood became marred with the pain of separation. The death of her father and a sister, and then the feelings associated with the Habsburg daughters being married off to their respective royal grooms, including Marie Antoinette herself.
When Marie Antoinette arrives in Versailles, she has a lot of youthful problems. Cattiness from the other women of the royal court, Louis Auguste (later to become Louis XVI).
This is explored, as well as Marie's years as she grows into a mature young woman and mother of four.
However, something was rotten in the state of France. Poverty, hunger and general unrest cause the French public to take a closer look into MA's personal indulgences, a fault of hers that Fraser is willing to admit as much, but Fraser also presents evidence that MA was trying to tone down her conspicuous consumption, and also had a heart for the poor.
The later chapters deal with the royal family's arrests, escape attempts, and the eventual executions of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and many people they cared about during the Reign of Terror. We learn what became of the two children that survived MA.
Finally, one recurring theme is the exploration of why MA was so reviled by the non-aristocratic French. Fraser makes the compelling arguement that MA was simply an easy scapegoat, as she was a foreign-born princess from a country that often had designs on removing French sovereignity.
All in all a great book!
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