To The Scaffold

Author: Carolly Erickson

One of history's most misunderstood figures, Marie Antoinette continues to symbolize the glamour, the extravagance, and the decadence of French society before the French Revolution. Yet there was a poignant innocence about Antoinette, sent away in her early teens from her home in Vienna to the chillingly formal French court.

Married to the maladroit, ill-mannered dauphin and condemned to childlessness by his inability to beget an heir, Antoinette sought pleasure in costly entertainments and grotesque eccentricities of dress. Along with most members of the court, she spent lavishly while her husband's subjets, overtaxed and increasingly hostile toward their sovereign and his mismanaged government, blamed her from France's plight and accused her of every imaginable vice.

In time Antoinette matured into a capable and courageous queen, though her husband, Louis XVI, remained timid and inept at a time when France needed bold and visionary leadership. When the forces arrayed against the monarchy finally closed in, however, Antoinette followed her husband to the guillotine, an aged, white-haired widow not yet forty.

In To the Scaffold, acclaimed biographer Carolly Erickson provides an unusually nuanced portrait of a lost queen, a portrait that is psychologically acute, richly detailed, and finally, deeply moving.

So, pretty much, I've wanted to read this biography for quite a while since I've read Carolly Erickson's novel about Marie Antoinette several times and I wanted to see how they compared, since, frankly, the novel is extremely historically incorrect. I was actually really surprised because I thought it was a pretty good biography, because the reviews that I read weren't so great.

Erickson presented a lot of information that I've never heard before. She gave some really interesting details, for example, Marie Antoinette's childhood. Normally, biographers give you a quick overview and don't really talk about it in depth much. I was very excited that Erickson decided that that information was important enough to include! I feel like I definitely learned a lot of new things about Marie Antoinette from her book.

However, there were some points where I didn't feel like there was enough details. Her friends weren't mentioned much, and they were a huge part of Marie Antoinette's life. There was a short section about the Polignacs, but not much on Princesse de Lamballe, who was Marie Antoinette's first best friend, and the one that was with her in the end. The time that the royal family spent in the Temple prison doesn't get very much mention at all, and that disappointed me a bit.

I thought that the book was very well written. It definitely read more as a story than a biography, in my opinion. That makes it a really good choice for those people that are interested in Marie Antoinette's story, but are turned off by a biography.

However, Erickson wasn't very kind to Louis XVI. While I know he was not the best leader in the world, I don't think he was as horrible as she thinks he was. She also says that Marie Antoinette made all the decisions for many more years than any of the other books I've read say. So I guess that I wasn't a big fan of her portrayals of some of the people.....

And finally, I, of course, have to mention the Axel Fersen myth. Erickson did present why everyone thinks the affair did happen, but she treated it as a complete truth. I feel like she also made up facts to make it seem like a bigger deal than it actually would have been. It felt like she was saying that Fersen was the most important person to her, even over her children! This I know not to be true from everything else I've read.


I didn't really have a ton to say about it, but I was pleasantly surprised. You should read it. =D So next up I think I'm going to reread Sharon Lathan's In the Arms of Mr. Darcy because I really feel like more Darcyness. =D After that, I have quite a few choices of new books on my shelf to choose from. So I'll review one of those next. =D And sorry for my super short review!

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Kristi