Marie Antoinette: The Journey
by Antonia Fraser
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Book Reviews of Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Book Review: Unquiet ghosts of Versailles
Summary: 4 Stars
The best biographers know they have to be sympathetic to their subjects somehow or the biography just isn't very interesting; fortunately in Marie Antoinette Antonia Fraser found not only someone sympathetic but even someone who was, for all her faults, ultimately admirable in her composure and grace in the midst of horrors. Fraser does not whitewash the queen's extravagance nor her intellectual limitations nor even her affair with Count Felsen of Sweden, but she also shows that the Austrian-born consort has been unjustly maligned for being excessively Machiavellian (which she was almost incapable of being) and for the Diamond Necklace Affair (where the queen was almost wholly innocent, although she did mismanage her own exoneration). She is also very moving in her descriptions of how Marie Antoinette was a pawn in her mother's dynastic strategies, and perceptive in her explanations of how Louis XVI's sexual awkwardness resulted initially in the queen's constant anxiety regarding her inopportunity to provide an heir and then later in her unlucky assumption of the roles usually accorded to the king's mistress. Fraser writes beautifully, with a strong sense of narrative and character: I found it a hard to stop reading. The color photo inserts are also quite well chosen. My only strong gripe would be the inadequate genealogical charts Fraser provides, which is especially unfortunate given the multiple (and confusing) titles assumed by the king's and queen's immediate Bourbon and Hapsburg family members. Fraser wastes space providing a chart showing how both Louis and Marie Antoinette are descended from mary Stuart--something of great interest to her, perhaps (as the foremost biographer of Mary, Queen of Scots), but not to her readers, who would benefit more from a chart explainging other things.
Book Review: A Human Look at Marie Antoinette
Summary: 5 Stars
It is very easy on the surface to not like Marie Antoinette. The spoiled French Queen who when told of the starving population of France was demanding bread supposedly said "Let them eat cake." Antonia Fraser goes beyond this stereotype and delivers a very captivating look at the real woman beyond the rumors and hearsay of the French Revolution.
Born the last daughter and 15th child of the formidable Austrian Empress Maria Teresa, Marie Antonia was brought up in the opulence of Vienna. When she was 9 years old her father Emperor Francis died. When she was 15 she was married to her second cousin Louis August the grandson of Louis XV of France as well as the Dauphin of France.
They lived together for several years while their relations (especially her mother) and courtiers waited for an heir to the throne of France to secure the Franco-Austrian alliance that led to their marriage.
Several years after the marriage they became King and Queen of France after the death of Louis XV and shortly afterward became the parents of a girl Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte and shortly afterward of Louis Joseph (the Dauphin of France) and Louis Charles (The Duke of Normandy.)
Even before the French Revolution tragedy struck the family. Another daughter had died several months after her birth and then the Dauphin died as well.
Then the French Revolution happened and the family became prisoners of the Revolutionaries. Louis was shortly afterward put on trial and executed. Several months later the "Widow Capet" was also put on trial and executed while her two surviving children were still held prisoners.
A very captivating book about the life of Marie Antoinette!!!
Book Review: Very good biography on Marie Antoninette
Summary: 4 Stars
Marie Antoninette proves to be a highly readable and nicely research biography. Antonia Fraser made it pretty clear that this Queen of France was probably one of the most misunderstood and most falsely maligned personalities of the French Revolution, accused by her enemies from being a lesbian to a drunkard. While Marie Antoniette was a person of many weaknesses, the author made it clear that outside of her undereducated and immature mind, her spendthrift ways which probably wasn't good for France, Marie Antoniette was none of the things that she was accused of being. Actually in reading this book, I was bit surprised how ordinary and somewhat boring her life was until the last six years before her death.But here's lies the weakness of the book. The book really doesn't go that deep into Marie Antoniette's life during that crucial period. I have read more detail accounts of her life in other books that dealt strictly with the French Revolution then I have in this biography. The book was very good in informing the reader of the pre-French Revolution period of Marie Antoninette's life but faltered afterward. Maybe Antonia Fraser should have stop in 1789 since she really didn't have much to add that wasn't written before by other authors. (Of course, if she did that, it won't be a "complete biography".)
Overall though, this book is well worth any reader's time to read if you have such interest in the life and time of Marie Antoninette. For those who don't read much on the French Revolution, its an excellent choice! Author's effort to rehabilitate Marie Antoninette's reputation proves to be pretty successful and with certain justice, long overdue.
Book Review: The 'Austrian Woman' Revealed
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished this book last night. I picked it up on the recommendation of a friend, knowing nothing about Marie Antoinette or this particular era of French history. I finished the book, voraciously reading its final chapters. The "Austrian Woman's" story is completely fascinating as told by Antonia Fraser. Ms. Fraser rebukes a lot of scurrilous stories and assumptions that have been made over the past few hundreds years regarding the French Queen. Although I was not familiar with some of the rumors (lesbianism, orgies, lovers, and more excesses) it is easy, after reading the book, to see how these stories became attached to Marie Antoinette.
Fraser illustrates the life of a Royal as a difficult position. The Machiavellian intrigues of court life are fascinating. Even the day-to-day events like the dressing of the Queen are shown to be hilarious in their courtly pomp. Particularly interesting is how Fraser dramatizes what it must have been like to have an entire country direct its dissatisfaction at the Queen. The final chapters detailing the imprisonment of the Royal Family in the tower are heartbreaking, no matter what their excesses were. As the end approaches and the Queen's close friend's head was paraded around on a pike, one wonders why the Royals were meant to suffer so.
Ms. Fraser treats her subject fairly. She seems to admire Marie Antoinette, but doesn't excuse some of her miscalculations. Fraser's summation in the final chapters is particularly enlightening.
I highly recommend Antonia Fraser's MARIE ANTOINETTE: THE JOURNEY. It is an engrossing read, and the court life of Marie and King Louis XVI is quite fascinating.
Book Review: Did she say "Let them eat cake"?
Summary: 3 Stars
Marie Antoinette...the mere mention of the name conjures up images of privileged decadence and royal excesses, not to mention the famous "let them eat cake" line and an unfortunate end at the guillotine. She lived large in an age when living large was an art form, to be sure. Marie Antoinette was a historical figure at a crucial time in French history, but what else did she do, think or say? Did she contribute much more to history? Should anyone care?
Antonia Fraser's "Marie Antoinette: The Journey" attempts to bring one over-the-top life into focus. It's definitely an interesting read with more information packed into the book than seems humanly possible. In fact, that is exactly the problem with the book. The book is interesting and educational. For example, Fraser argues that Marie Antoinette did NOT say "let them eat cake" at all. That statement alone spurred me to read about 100 more pages than I should have. Overall though, the book is filled with too many facts and unsubstantiated innuendos. In fact, it's safe to say this book is crammed with facts and statements as if Fraser was trying to break the world record for the most words in one book. Dare I say it? This book had TOO MANY WORDS! Mercy! I mean really, did we need to read pages and pages about Marie Antoinette's nose?
This book is like a plate of veggies offered to a child. It's good for you with its historical and cultural information. "Marie Antoinette: The Journey" really is a treasure trove of facts and figures relating to 18th century European royal life. However it is detestable with its wordiness and endless rabbit trails of nonsensical trivia.