picture from: randomhouse.com
I came across this book on amazon some time ago and decided to give it a try, since I'm really interrested in the person of Marie Antoinette.
Now that I'm done with reading I can just say one thing: This is an absolutely amazing and gripping book!
I've always been interested a lot in the history of the French monarchy and also learned a lot about Louis XVI at school (as the French are really fond of teaching their own history :)... ) BUT this book gave me an absoluetly new insight in the early lives of Marie Antoinette and Louis Auguste who was to become Louis XVI.
Most films, book and even what is thought at school portray Marie Antoinette as an emptyheaded and thriftless person but after having read this (obviously very well researched novel) I think our picture of her is filled with prejudices. Though I knew that Marie Antoinette was Austrian I actually never thought about what is must have meant for her to have to leave her family and home country to be married to the dauphin of France while being only 14 years old, and that being a stranger to the French court she simply couldn't knew how to perfectly behave acording to the crazy etiquette at the court of Versailles!
I absolutely loved to learn more about her early childhood and live in Austria before she became the dauphine of France, since this is a part of her life that is rarely described. And the first-person narrator also contributed to a deeper understanding of the individual point of view of the young Marie Antoinette.
And of course it also gave me a new perspective on Louis Auguste and the whole court of Versailles!
However, I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of French monarchy!
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