Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France

Palace suspicions had kept her at arms length from the main events in France. Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Maria Theresa of Austria (Empress of the Habsburg dynasty), was the victim of gutter press and the intrigues of ambitious lackeys, consequently was to take part of the blame that followed. For example recent literature revealed she had never said `let the people eat cake if they don't have bread' - during the height of a bread shortage in Paris. The alleged quotation was magnified in the press to her detriment when the time for the Revolution came. Cardinal de Rohan, France's Envoy to Austria, whose ambition to become France's Prime Minister had been blocked several times by Marie Antoinette {because some of the Cardinal's letters were intercepted in which he said he `bedded half the royal court of Austria"}. The Cardinal worked hard to tarnish Antoinette's image. de Rohan propagated that the queen secretly sought to buy a necklace for two million Livres, but such accusation was never true. During the trial the Cardinal was acquitted, and the Queen was condemned. She was accused of amassing fortunes, jewels, wardrobe filled with myriads of latest fashions - extremely expensive dresses and hundreds of `shoes' -. Her husband, King Louis XVI, whose optimism with the future of France only days before the July 14th deluge, was extremely feted as much for her magnificent presence as for his known weakness of characters. As daughter of Maria Theresa, her fondness for France was in direct proportion to her natural love for Austria. The Queen carried soil from Vienna in a jewelled box and planted seeds in her garden. But politics and greed were indeed cruel to this young queen who married the King `boy' when she was only 14.

My curiousity about Marie-Antoinette and her life first came about in high school, when my French teacher would tell us about the French queen's "Petit Trianon" and her "hameau" at Versailles. When I visited these places on a trip to France, I became even more intrigued. But not until I read this book did history truly come alive for me. I pictured this queen as a one-dimensional character. But in this book, I not only learned about the real person -- who had some very bad qualities, such as selfishness and an inability to understand that her choices brought consequences, but also some good qualities, such as her dignity and regal bearing during her last days and her last moments -- but I also learned a great deal about French society and royal life during the queen's day. For instance: Did you know that the public could watch the queen give birth to her first child, so that there would be plenty of impartial witnesses to verify that this indeed was a child of royal birth? This very readable book is a great peek into an important moment of history.

I am an avid reader of history and biography and, in this book, I found the perfect blending of BOTH!I have complete confidence in Madame Levers'sources and in her historian/writer perspective. It was, as Carl Sandburg put it, a "cracklin' good yarn" and I am certain that I will be "reliving" it, come autumn. Thank you for a "time/travel" journey to a fascinating past! BILL MOEN

This extraordinaory book delves into the soul of Marie Antoinette as a fickle, self-destructive woman, a loving mother,a temptress,an ignornant polictical pawn and a marytr in her own right. An excellent, quick read,the book expands on the flamboyance of Versailles, secret love, ill-fated luck and personal tragedy. The best of books!

If you're a fan of Marie Antoinette, this book is definetly worth a read. Although there have been many books written about her, this book offers fresh insight and new anecdotes that give a better perspective on who she was as a person. A very fair biography, one that neither romanticizes her nor condemns her. Rather, it shows her to be an ordinary human dealing with extraordinary circumstances, which I think is what makes her so engaging. Two thumbs up.