Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France

Author: Evelyne Lever

Married for political reasons at the age of fourteen, Marie Antoinette was naive, impetuous, and ill equipped for the role in which history cast her. From her birth in Vienna in 1755 through her turbulent, unhappy marriage, the bloody turmoil of the French Revolution, her trial for high treason (during which she was accused of incest), and her final beheading, Marie Antoinette's life was the tragic tale of disastrous circumstances colliding.

Drawing upon diaries, letters, court records, and memoirs, Evelyne Lever paints vivid portraits of Marie Antoinette, her inner circle, and the lavish court life at Versailles. Marie Antoinette dispels the myth of the callous queen whose supposed response to her starving subjects was the comment, "Let them eat cake." What emerges instead is a surprisingly average woman thrust into a position for which she was wholly unprepared, a combination that proved disastrous both for her and for France. This is the revealing story of how Marie Antoinette kept her dignity and courage when Fate turned its back and she lost everything: throne, children, husband, and - in a very public and cruel execution- her life.

Well, originally, I wasn't planning on actually reviewing this biography, but as I was reading I definitely had a few opinions that I wanted to share. And I'm going to be completely honest right now, I'm not a fan of it at all. 

So, as you might be able to tell, Marie Antoinette is my favorite historical figure, and I've read quite a few biographies related to her. And I must say, I've never heard anyone else be so harsh about her personality. I mean, most people that haven't learned much about Marie Antoinette believe she was just an extravagant, selfish person, but if you've done extra research, you find that she was actually a pretty good person. Yes, she was extravagant and naive, but it's okay to have faults. Having a balance of good and bad qualities is what it means to be human. However, Evelyne Lever completely forgot to acknowledge ANY good qualities about her. I thought that made the book one-sided and that it just went along with what people think now. 

Also, I had a REALLY big problem with the whole Axel Fersen plot. Yes, I understand that the relationship between Marie Antoinette and Fersen is commonly accepted as fact, and I'm really used to reading about it. However, I have been convinced that they were not lovers (due mostly to the fact that the 3-part blog about Marie Antoinette and Count Fersen at  Tea at Trianon makes much more sense than any argument I've ever read) and this biography did nothing to convince me that they were. My biggest reason for this was that a lot of her reasoning didn't make sense to me and also seemed contradictory with other things she was saying. I actually put Post-Its in my book (which I HATE doing) so that I could quote an example for everyone. Lever said, on page 165, "Unfortunately, the passages of interest were so effectively crossed out that they are illegible. An ultraviolet lamp is of no use in deciphering them, nor are nay of the other procedures used by the curators at the Archives de France. There can be no doubt, given where they were placed and their context, that these were crossed-out love messages." That made absolutely NO sense whatsoever to me. If you can't decipher what the BLANK SPACES in the letters are, how can you effectively say that there's no doubt as to their content? 

Also, I thought that there was WAY too much emphasis on Axel Fersen. I mean, he was mentioned at least once in almost every chapter after he had met Marie Antoinette. But, according to everything else that I've read, her children were the most important things to her in the entire world. Surprisingly, they were very rarely mentioned. When her daughter, Sophie, and her oldest son, Louis-Joseph, died, I believe Sophie got a one sentence mention, and Louis-Joseph got at most a page. That is completely ridiculous in my opinion. Also, she failed to mention that Louis-Charles, who was the son who accused her of incest in her trial, only made the accusation in order to please his jailers (and Marie Antoinette herself said that her son would say anything that would please those around him). Madame Royale (aka Marie-Therese) was probably the least mentioned of all of them except Sophie, who only lived nine months. Considering that she was the only one to survive the French Revolution, I think that she should have been given much more attention. However, I do admit, that she is generally mostly ignored in most biographies. I just wish that Lever would have set different priorities for her book. It seemed almost as if the point was to try to prove that Marie Antoinette did have an affair with Axel Fersen, instead of trying to tell the most important parts of her life.

However, I must say that I did like the way the Lever wrote the book. I personally think that the biography read more like a story than a biography. But on the other hand, that was also one of the reasons I didn't like it as well. I thought that it seemed romanticized  a lot of the time. So, based on what I observed above, I wasn't sure if I should believe those sections. However, I did still appreciate those minor facts that she included in the book. I hadn't ever read about a few of them, so I thought it was interesting. 

So, overall, I didn't like it very much. I must say that I prefer Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey. It talks about all of her life, with the emphasis on Marie Antoinette's life, and not just her affair with Count Fersen. It shows you both the good and bad aspects of her personality and I think that you just get a better idea of who she actually was and how she lived her life. It's also more current, so it has information that wasn't available when Evelyne Lever wrote this, such as being able to say, definitely that Marie Antoinette's son, Louis-Charles, did actually die in the Temple Prison. So, if you're interested in learning more about Marie Antoinette, I highly recommend Fraser's biography. 

Well, here's the deal, I ordered two books from Barnes & Noble that won't be here until Wednesday! They're both about Marie Antoinette (I'm sorry, but once I read one book about her, I just want to go on to another one!). They are Marie-France Boyer's The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette and Sena Jeter Naslund's Abundance, A Novel of Marie Antoinette. And because I have to go TWO days without my new books, I think I'll probably read a few small books until then. So, I have no idea what book I'll review next on here or when it will be, since I haven't decided if I'm going to review Abundance, but I definitely won't be reviewing Private Realm. So, I'll post something else if it takes too long. As always, feel free to comment with opinions, question, or anything really. =D I'm not too picky. 

So, thanks for reading!

Love,

Kristi

Marie-Therese: Child of Terror

Author: Susan Nagel

I have to say, I was extremely excited to read this book. I am almost literally obsessed with Marie Antoinette and I've read quite a few biographies about her and I always wondered, what happened to her daughter, Marie-Therese, the only survivor of the Temple Prison? This is the first book that I've heard of (that's in English) about the "Orphan of the Temple", besides her actual memoirs. So, major kudos for Professor Nagel.

I thought she did a wonderful job telling Marie-Therese's story, and I found it extremely interesting. I can't believe there aren't more biographies about her. She lived through so much history and impacted it incredibly. Nagel showed perfectly how the emotional state of Marie-Therese was constantly changing. She was born to loving parents and had an almost idyllic childhood. Then the revolution set in and Marie-Therese, as the oldest child, was at the age where she mostly understood the horrible things happening and her parents' unhappiness, and the loss of her little sister, Sophie, and her little brother, the first Dauphin, Louis-Joseph. Then they witnessed the deaths and escapes of many loyal servants as they were moved to the Tuilleries Palace in Paris, and then they were transferred to the Temple Prison, where her family was eventually taken away from her one-by-one. First her father was taken to solitary confinement, and then sent to the guillotine. Next, her brother, Louis-Charles, the second Dauphin, was removed from his family, into his father's old apartments, where his remaining family could hear his cries as he was tortured. Then, Marie Antoinette was taken to the Conciergerie, put on trial, and sentenced to death, although Marie-Therese was not told of this. And lastly, her aunt, Madame Elisabeth, the former king's sister, was taken away, and also sentenced to death, but again, Marie-Therese was not aware. She was kept all alone, in ignorance, since her jailers were forbidden to tell her the fate of her family, for years, until on her seventeenth birthday, she left the Prison. The new French government transferred her into the care of her Austrian relatives, where she lived until she married the Duc d'Angouleme, her first cousin. She continued her life in exiled court of Louis XVIII, where she had to constantly be accustomed to change. She lived through the Bourbon Restoration, then through their continued exile until she passed away in 1851.

Susan Nagel also showed the major political influence that Marie-Therese had. After her escape from the Temple Prison, the French people were fascinated in her and many began to sympathize with her and all the ordeals she lived through. Therefore, her opinion was very important to the French people. When the Bourbons were restored the throne of France, her uncle, Louis XVIII, relied heavily on her and also encouraged her to go visit all parts of France. Due to this public relations scheme and also to her forgiving, virtuous nature, the French people were enchanted by Marie-Therese. 

Professor Nagel also talked about the "Dark Countess" legend, which says that the real Marie-Therese was switched with her half-sister, Ernestine, who lived for the rest of her life as the very public figure that was the Orphan of the Temple, while the real Marie-Therese lived in extreme secrecy with a single companion, and the protection of some members of royalty. Nagel tried to put the theory to rest by doing DNA testing like the ones done on Louis-Charles's heart, in order to prove that he had actually died in the Temple at age seven, but due to disintegrated DNA and not having permission to exhume the corpse of the Dark Countess, she was unable to do the tests. Instead, she compared several handwriting samples, and convincingly proved (to me, at least), that there had never been a switch, and that the daughter of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, was indeed the Marie-Therese that was known all over Europe. 

However, in order to talk about this, Nagel had to make the assumption that Louis XVI had had, not one, but two affairs, which, if you read ANY other biography regarding Marie Antoinette, is completely ridiculous! Louis XVI was way to pious to ever commit adultery, and is famous for refusing mistresses that his ministers wanted him to take. While everyone has heard of Marie Antoinette's supposed affairs (of which, there is absolutely NO proof), no one has ever, as far as I and many other people who love Marie Antoinette, heard of Louis XVI being unfaithful, especially with a servant (who Nagel says is the mother of Ernestine), and his wife's best friend, the Duchesse de Polignac. These accusations made me have doubts about the truth of the rest of the facts in the book. 

I also think that the biography needed a better proofreader. I saw some simple mistakes, and a few footnote markings that lead nowhere. I'd also like to add that I wish the notes had been on bottom of the pages, instead of in the back of the book, because I had to constantly go back and shuffle through the pages to find the note that went with page. 

However, besides these few things, I really liked the book, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning a little more about the life of a very interesting woman, who doesn't get much mention in other history books. 

Anyways, I hope that you'll give it a try and, as always, feel free to talk to me at Kristi_Reads@yahoo.com or leave a comment if you want to discuss this book, or any others, or give opinions, etc. The next thing I'm reading is A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks, because my best friend lent it to me (and it's also my favorite movie!), so I'll make sure to get a review up as soon as possible.

So, thanks for reading!!

Love,

Kristi