Marie Antoinette: The Journey
by Antonia Fraser
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Book Reviews of Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Book Review: Deeply Moving
Summary: 5 Stars
I normally read history looking for battles and excitement (Napoleon bios for example), or looking for funny stuff. In this case I bought the book because of the charming picture on the cover, and was surprised to find myself so deeply moved. Marie Antoinette was flawed, as Fraser tells us often enough, but she was also good and lovable. To see her slowly, inexoribly moving toward what we know is going to be a horrible fate is quite gut-wrenching, but compelling all the same. Fraser has also done a fine job of setting up the social atmosphere of the period (and I couldn't care less if she got a few details wrong). Whichever reviewer said that it should be a TV movie was right! This modern take on a traditionally maligned woman could easily capture the hearts of millions of North American television--or movie--viewers.Book Review: The real Marie Antoinette
Summary: 5 Stars
Antonia Fraser does a wonderful job of describing what Marie Antoinette was like as a person. She shows how the young girl, who was only fifteen when she married, became the Queen of France and grew into a mature woman while in the strange environment of the Court of Versailles where privacy was unknown for the Royal family, even to the point of reports being made of her sex life with the King and when her menstrual periods occurred. It seems everyone in the court knew everything, in embarrassing detail, about the young Queen. The book explains well, however, how the Queen coped with this life on display, especially during the early years of her marriage when many ridiculed her for not producing an heir, and gives one a sense of knowing her personally. That makes the book a captivating read.
Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I am an Antonia Fraser fan, but I found this book disappointing. It is very hard to follow. There are too many characters to keep straight, too many different names for the same person. Ms. Frazier sometimes refers to people by their family names, sometimes by their first names, and sometimes by their titles. I found myself constantly going back in the book trying to figure out exactly who she was talking about. In addition, I didn't find much in this book that I didn't learn in a college history course The writing style is a bit stilted. Some of the words she chooses to use are technically correct, but they have a slightly archaic feel to them and, in my opinion, interupt the narrative flow. This is definitely not one of Ms. Frazier's better books.Book Review: Deeply Moving
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book! With every page I really felt for Marie Antoinette and realized what a brave woman she was - so very different from the popular view of the silly girl skipping about in a shepherdess dress. Antonia Fraser showed so clearly the development of Antoinette's character - how she grew from being a victim to a woman who chose to stand by her husband when everything was against her. I was truly horrified by the descriptions of the cruelty of the revolutionaries, and the accounts of the accustations made by the son she loved were almost too unbearable to read - what transformed that horror in this book, for me, was Antonia Fraser's beautiful writing and the sense that she cared deeply about her subject.
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Book Review: Marie Antoinette in depth
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read many books on the Dauphine over the years and this is one of the best.
It covers in detail all of the daily life of a queen and the sacrifice she made by becoming a queen.
It seems that the paparazzi today are angels compared to what the people of France and all of Europe did to their monarchs.
The book is well researched, and well done and like all good books on her, this one doesnt speculate but clarifies the life of this often misunderstood young woman.
I recommend it highly.
But be warned - it is very detailed and there are tons of people to keep track of,
Even so, it reads well and you never get bored with it.