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Marie Antoinette [Paperback]

Lady Antonia Fraser (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 30 May 2002

Marie Antoinette¿s dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still ¿la reine méchante¿, whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy; her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: ¿let them eat cake¿. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny.

Antonia Fraser examines her influence over the king, Louis XVI, the accusations and sexual slurs made against her, her patronage of the arts which enhanced French cultural life, her imprisonment, the death threats made against her, rumours of lesbian affairs, her trial (during which her young son was forced to testify to sexual abuse by his mother) and her eventual execution by guillotine in 1793.

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Product details

  • Paperback: 640 pages
  • Publisher: Phoenix (30 May 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 075381305X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0753813058
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 4.9 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 20,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon Review

Marie Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's first book in five years, heralds the welcome return of her wonderfully lucid, engaging style as she disentangles myth from fact regarding the life of the still controversial, and misunderstood, wife of Louis XVI of France. It is also perhaps her most assured work to date. The daughter of Empress Maria Teresa of Austria, the 14-year-old Marie Antoinette, or l'Autrichienne, was sent to France to marry the Dauphin in 1770 in an act of political union between the two countries. Despite her husband's preference for the hunting field over the bedroom, and a somewhat inexpressive personality--his final terse diary entry was to be, appropriately, "Rien"--a decade of French courtly exuberance entailed. Her disappointment in marriage gave way to an enjoyment of her position, especially on turning 30, yet an increasing number of libelles and scandalous rumours about the new Queen and her sexual proclivities grew from Versailles' whispers to the shouts of what was to be the revolution of 1789. This was followed by her own awful demise and beheading four wretched years later, after the appalling torture of her own young son falsely testifying that he had been sexually abused by her.

Those are the skeletal facts of her life, but Fraser fleshes out the story with her customary composed authority. Her stated ambition is twofold. The book's subtitle, "The Journey", refers to Marie Antoinette's political significance in a union over which she had no control, but also her own personal story, from the ill-educated, overwhelmed teenage bride to the despised monarch who bore the brunt of all the ills of the ancien régime. Fraser, arch debunker, necessarily removes the apocryphal--Mozart the child prodigy saying that he would marry her, the infamous "let them eat cake" comment that preceded her by several hundred years, dressing as a milkmaid at her model village in the grounds of Versailles--to reveal a woman whose misfortunes, she concludes, outweighed her failures. Like the Jemima Shore detective novels she also pens, Fraser displays an unerring ability to ask the right questions. Most of all, though, she writes with an understated, unadorned clarity that imparts her learning with an ease to be both envied and savoured. In 1789, Marie Antoinette famously said to a deputation from the Commune of Paris, "I've seen everything, known everything, and forgotten everything". There could be no wiser, compassionate and judicious reclaimer of her besmirched reputation than Antonia Fraser.--David Vincent --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Great news, we're reprinting already. Antonia's events have been going brilliantly with Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Sheffield Festivals still to come. Antonia is being interviewed for the GUARDIAN profile by Nick Wroe which will runon either the 24 or 31 August. She has also done an excellent interview withthe SUNDAY HERALD to publicise her event at the Edinburgh Festival in Augusttogether with one in the September issue of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING. Reviews have been wonderful and the has had numerous selections in the newspapers's summerreading round-ups: 'Fraser's book not only rescues the queen's battered reputation, it also offers a spellbinding portrait of life in the stultifying atmosphere of Versailles and goes a long way towards explaining the inevitability of the French Revolution.'THE MAIL ON SUNDAY 'This excellent biography'Ian Pindar, THE GUARDIAN 'this impeccably well-informed biography does justice tothe maligned Marie Antoinette.'Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, THE FINANCIAL TIMES ''it is in the weird detail of her (Marie Antoinette) life at court that many of its pleasures are to be found.'THE INDEPENDENT 'Antonia Fraser's credentials and experience as a biographer are undeniable.'THE SUNDAY TRIBUNE 'Antonia Fraser has written an absorbing, richly detailed and pleasingly illustrated new study of the French queen.'THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE 'The whole story, rivettingl
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 52 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Marie Antoinette removed from the shadow of the guillotine. 22 Jun 2001
By Fiz
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have read every single book published in England about Marie Antoinette, and I think Antonia Fraser has done the impossible. Every other book is written 'in the shadow of the guillotine'. Ms Fraser removes this. The young Arch-Duchess Antonia had no idea of her fate until the last few years of her life, and as a result of the way this book is written, we see the young Dauphine Marie Antoinette as a warmand loving princess, who longed to serve her adopted country and cared greatly about the poverty and suffering she saw around her. None of this impressed the frivolous French courtiers who were only too happy to criticize the Austrian Princess. Antonia Fraser also consigns to the wastepaper basket of history the comment, 'Let them eat cake'. Antoinette never said it: it has long been known that this remark was made by Marie Therese, the dim-witted wife of Louis XIV, and was resurrected by those who wished to weaken the monarchy still further. Antoinette's marital difficulties are not smoothed over, but again, Antonia Fraser removes the myth of the 'petit operation' which was said to have been performed before Louis XVI could make his queen a mother. Yes, Marie Antoinette was frivolous as a young woman, but aren't most young women of 14-20? As soon as she became a mother, as she had long wanted to be, her concerns changed and she became a mature and much more sensible woman. She supported her husband and family throughout the terrible traumas of the Revolution, and her courage and dignity in the face of the guillotine make her worthy to be the daughter of Empress Maria Theresa. This is, without doubt,the best biography of Marie Antoinette I have read.
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps not quite the definitive biography 3 July 2004
By sfweston
Format:Paperback
I don't think it's particularly fair to label this book (as one Amazon reviewer has done) as "a royalist's view" of French history - although, interestingly, in terms of Marie-Antoinette's life, royalists have traditionally gotten it more right than others. I'd also completely reject the notion that this is "definitive" and/or "overly preferential to its subject."

This book's plus points are the wealth of detail Antonia Fraser presents about court etiquette at Versailles; the way in which minor characters, like the Queen's maid Rosalie Lamorliere, are brought to life, and its excellent epilogue which explores Marie-Antoinette's place in history and the tragedy behind this most public of royal lives.

However, at times Antonia Fraser seems to be almost tripping over herself to be PC and unbiased. We're so used to hearing detrimental things about Marie-Antoinette that any biographer who goes complete the grain will inevitably be accused of "whitewashing." But the truth is that the real Marie-Antoinette bears almost no resemblance to the Marie-Antoinette of popular imagination, so why did Antonia Fraser's "defence" of this queen seem convoluted and riddled with qualifiers? More accurate portraits of Marie-Antoinette's character and her role as queen have been presented in two modern studies - "The Lost King of France" by Deborah Cadbury and "The Fall of the French Monarchy" by Dr. Munro Price.

Antonia Fraser also fails to fully explain Marie-Antoinette's enormous political influence after 1789, something properly highlighted in Price's book. It's also true that the book at times fails to convey the full gritty reality of 18th-century life, which perhaps would have been useful in explaining why Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were determined to uphold such high moral standards (thus partially alienating them from certain circles of the aristocracy) after the debauched decadence of Louis XV's reign.

And as for Marie-Antoinette's "affair" with Count Fersen, Antonia Fraser's assertion that the two enjoyed a couvert affair is based more upon wishful thinking than a balanced assessment of the facts. Marie-Antoinette's position made adultery impossible, it could never have been kept a secret, and her up-bringing and personality both conspired to make it fundamentally unlikely that she would commit adultery with anyone. Their relationship was one of the many Marie-Antoinette found safety in - romantic, artificial, non-sexual gallantry.

This biography is an enjoyable one, and Antonia Fraser has done a good job in partially resurrecting Marie-Antoinette from the "rubbish bin of history" but there's still a long way to go before this unlucky queen's "definitive biography" is written.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Better than a time machine! 19 Mar 2003
By Myrtle
Format:Paperback
A biography of Marie Antoinette is a bit of an old chestnut, like Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Jackie O, there can't be much more to say - or can there? In the case of this book, I would answer a resounding yes!
If you are looking for a sensational soap storyline, if you want to climb the hill of false indignation of reviling someone who apparently told the starving to eat cake, you'll be disappointed. Fraser debunks the myths that the gullible and small minded seem to find so satisfying. Very few people, if any, are all bad or all good and that holds true throughout the years and centuries.
We can never know fully what it is like to be in someone else's shoes, but I suspect that this gentle, engaging and ultimately enthralling book is about as good as it gets.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling tale of a tragic Queen
Before reading this book I knew very little about the doomed queen, Marie Antoinette. I have to confess that, while seriously doubting that she ever made the notorious comment 'let... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Conor Byrne
3.0 out of 5 stars What star should I give?
I have ended up giving it a 3. With this type of book, how you rate it depends on what your perspective is. Are you an established historian? Are you a current student of history? Read more
Published 1 month ago by Discerning Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVE all things Marie Antoinette!
I love the 2006 movie starring Kirsten Dunst - so wanted to read the book the movie is loosely based on.

LOVED IT! Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ann Shuttleworth
3.0 out of 5 stars Good .
This is a good account of the life of a daft princess who comes to be queen of a large country far too young and immature. Read more
Published 3 months ago by reader1
5.0 out of 5 stars Impossible to put down! Excellent read!
I loved this book. I am not an expert in the subject of French monarchy but this gives you a wonderful insight to a life that was most fascinating. Read more
Published 6 months ago by T. J. Thomas
3.0 out of 5 stars Sentimental look at Marie Antoinettes life
I had many issues with this book. I bought Antonia Fraser's book based on many of the positive reviews I read here and because I found the subject of Marie Antoinette fascinating,... Read more
Published 10 months ago by R Helen
5.0 out of 5 stars Completely gripping!
All the cliches about not being able to put a book down apply here. It was so satisfying to learn so much about the period and the subject whilst being pulled into a gripping story... Read more
Published 11 months ago by N. Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous Fraser
A fabulous read about Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI and the French Revolution.
I love a book to get stuck into and this one of 600+pages is perfect. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Robbie
5.0 out of 5 stars superb
This book is a real mine of details about Marie Antoinette and her life. It is beautifully written, unbiaised and a pleasure to read.
Published 14 months ago by yummy lavender
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, informative and ultimately unputdownable.....
Knowing little about Marie Antoinette apart from the well known facts I plunged into this biography wanting to find out about the woman who became the most notorious Queen of... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Charlie&Molly
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