|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
From Amazon
In the past, Antonia Fraser's bestselling histories and biographies have focused on people and events in her native England, from Mary Queen of Scots to Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot. Now she crosses the Channel to limn the life of France's unhappiest queen, bringing along her gift for fluent storytelling, vivid characterization, and evocative historical background. Marie Antoinette (1755-93) emerges in Fraser's sympathetic portrait as a goodhearted girl woefully undereducated and poorly prepared for the dynastic political intrigues into which she was thrust at age 14, when her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, married her off to the future Louis XVI to further Austria's interests in France. Far from being the licentious monster later depicted by the radicals who sent her to the guillotine at the height of the French Revolution, young Marie Antoinette was quite prudish, as well as thoroughly humiliated by her husband's widely known failure to have complete intercourse with her for seven long years (the gory details were reported to any number of concerned royal parties, including her mother and brother). She compensated by spending lavishly on clothes and palaces, but Fraser points out that this hardly made her unique among 18th-century royalty, and in any case the causes of the Revolution went far beyond one woman's frivolities. The moving final chapters show Marie Antoinette gaining in dignity and courage as the Revolution stripped her of everything, subjected her to horrific brutalities (a mob paraded the head of her closest female friend on a pike below her window), and eventually took her life. Fraser makes no attempt to hide the queen's shortcomings, in particular her poor political skills, but focuses on her personal warmth and noble bearing during her final ordeal. It's another fine piece of popular historical biography to add to Fraser's already impressive bibliography. --Wendy Smith
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
From Publishers Weekly
A child-princess is married off to a husband of limited carnal appetite. Her indiscretions and na‹vet‚, scorned by elderly dowagers, are coupled with charity, joie de vivre and almost divine glamour but her life is cut brutally short. The queen of France's life is rich in emotional resonance, riddled with sexual subplots and personal tragedies, and provides fertile ground for biographers. Fraser's sizable new portrait avoids the saccharine romance of Evelyne Lever's recent Marie Antoinette, balancing empathy for the pleasure-loving queen with an awareness of the inequalities that fed revolution after all, Marie herself was fully conscious of them. Her subject shows no let-them-eat cake arrogance, but is deeply (even surprisingly) compassionate, with a "public reputation for sweetness and mercy" that is only later sullied by vituperative pamphleteers and bitter unrest. She would sometimes be trapped by ingenuousness, and later by a fatal sense of duty. Yet her graceful bearing, acquired under the tutelage of her demanding mother, the empress Maria Teresa, made her an unusually popular princess before she was scapegoated as "Madame Deficit" and much, much worse. The portrait is drawn delicately, with pleasant touches of humor (a long-awaited baby is conceived around the time of Benjamin Franklin's visit: "Perhaps the King found this first contact with the virile New World inspirational"). Fraser's approach is controlled and thoughtful, avoiding the extravagance of Alison Weir's royal biographies. Her queen is neither heroine nor villain, but a young wife and mother who, in her journey into maturity, finds herself caught in a deadly vise. Color and b&w illus. (on sale: Sept. 18) Forecast: Fraser needs no introduction to American audiences. She will come over from England for a five-city tour, and with widespreand favorable reviews, this should have no trouble making the bestseller lists. It's a BOMC, History Book Club, Literary Guild and QPB selection.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Let them eat cake!,
By Jane Austen fan (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Marie Antoinette (Audio Cassette)
If you enjoy historical memoirs, then Marie Antoinette will absolutely come to life through this book. Antonia Frasier creates a very sympathetic portrait of MA from the traumatic parting from her mother when she left her childhood home to marry a boy she'd never met, to the tauntings she endured for being childless for years, and of course to the bitter end at the hands of the mob. Lots of court intrigue is explored, also the myth that she ever said "let them eat cake." The author clearly came to respect MA, who apparently always had something nice to say to everyone. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in reading about women's lives or exploring why the knives really came out for MA, who had no real political power.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Spectacularly addictive,
By Sherry Ripper "imjacktheripper" (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Paperback)
I watched the movie first and was intrigued to read the book that inspired the movie. I wasn't disappointed. The book was a wealth of information and provided so much insight on the life and times of Marie Antoinette and how she came to be the woman she was. I didn't realize how misunderstood she was and the utter lack of acceptance. To be always known as the "Austrian woman" eventhough she was the mother of France and really tried her best to be accepted by the French people. The book was factual but had a tender touch as well. You couldn't help but love MA and even want to be her friend, which she so desperately needed and craved. The loving and close household in which she grew up and the coldness and callousness of the French court was expertly portrayed. The early years when the people were excited for the new Dauphine and the utter contempt for her during the Revolution was so vividly written. I can't imagine a more definitive book to give the reader a real sense of her early years and her untimely demise. Buy it and i guarantee you won't be able to put it down. Its just that fantastic!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Marie Antoinette...a misunderstood women.,
By Krista Lyne (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Paperback)
I first saw the movie before reading the book. The movie only intrigued me to learn more about Marie Antoinette.This book is written in typical biography form, some area's drag on a bit but it is jammed packed with information, from the begining of her life right to the end. Because it is written in biography form it sometimes gets confussing, expecially with keeping track of people names. Althought, that is to be expected. I find Marie Antoinette be a marvelous women who was terrible misunderstood. I would recommended this book to anyone wanting to know more of this wonderful women.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
