Farewell, My Queen

Farewell, My Queen
Author: Chantal Thomas
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2012-07-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 147670645X

Follows a woman whose function it once was to read books aloud to Marie Antoinette, as she recounts her memories of living at Versailles during the final days of the French revolution.

The Exchange of Princesses

The Exchange of Princesses
Author: Chantal Thomas
Publisher: Other Press, LLC
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2015-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1590517032

Two young princesses navigate the court intrigues of 18th-century France and Spain in this stunning historical fiction novel based on a true story. “Vivid, engrossing . . . one of the most fascinating historical narratives I’ve ever read.” —Diana Gabaldon, author of Outlander Philippe d’Orléans, the regent of France, has a gangrenous heart—the result of a life of debauchery, alcohol, power, and flattery. One morning in 1721, he decides to marry eleven-year-old Louis XV to the daughter of Philippe V of Spain, who is only four. Orléans hopes this will tie his kingdom to Spain. But were Louis to die without begetting an heir—the likeliness of which is greatly increased by having a child bride—Orléans himself would finally be king. Orléans tosses his own daughter into the bargain, the twelve-year-old Mlle de Montpensier, who will marry the Prince of Asturias, the heir to the Spanish throne. The Spanish court enthusiastically agrees and arrangements are made. The two nations trade their princesses in a grand ceremony in 1722, making bonds that should end the historical conflict. Nothing turns out as expected.

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette
Author: Dena Goodman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2013-10-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136704965

Marie-Antoinette is one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in all of French history. This volume explores the many struggles by various individuals and groups to put right Marie's identity, and it simultaneously links these struggles to larger destabilizations in social, political and gender systems in France. Looking at how Marie was represented in politics, art, literature and journalism, the contributors to this volume reveal how crucial political and cultural contexts were enacted "on the body of the queen" and on the complex identity of Marie. Taken together, these essays suggest that it is precisely because she came to represent the contradictions in the social, political and gender systems of her era, that Marie remains such an important historical figure.

The Wicked Queen

The Wicked Queen
Author: Chantal Thomas
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 1999
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Chantal Thomas presents the history of the mythification of one of the most infamous queens in all history, whose execution still fascinates us today. In The Wicked Queen, Chantal Thomas presents the history of the mythification of one of the most infamous queens in all history, whose execution still fascinates us today. Almost as soon as Marie-Antoinette, archduchess of Austria, was brought to France as the bride of Louis XVI in 1771, she was smothered in images. In a monarchy increasingly under assault, the charm and horror of her feminine body and her political power as a foreign intruder turned Marie-Antoinette into an alien other. Marie-Antoinette's mythification, argues Thomas, must be interpreted as the misogynist demonization of women's power and authority in revolutionary France.In a series of pamphlets written from the 1770s until her death in 1793, Marie-Antoinette is portrayed as a spendthrift, a libertine, an orgiastic lesbian, and a poisoner and infant murderess. In her analyses of these pamphlets, seven of which appear here in translation for the first time, Thomas reconstructs how the mounting hallucinatory and libelous discourse culminated in the inevitable destruction of what had become the counterrevolutionary symbol par excellence. The Wicked Queen exposes the elaborate process by which the myth of Marie-Antoinette emerged as a crucial element in the successful staging of the French Revolution.

Farewell, My Only One

Farewell, My Only One
Author: Antoine Audouard
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2004-07-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 054734497X

A novel that brings to life one of the great romances of all time. “Evokes in gritty and poetic detail the streets of twelfth-century Paris.” —The New York Times Book Review In the early twelfth century, William reaches Paris full of hope and without a penny. There, on the same day, he meets the two people who will dominate his life: young Heloise, with whom he immediately falls in love, and Abelard, the world-renowned philosopher. Through the eyes of William, we follow every turn in the greatest love story of the Middle Ages. We witness, in harrowing and lush descriptions, the scandal of the famous theologian falling for his educated and charming student; their flight and secret marriage; the barbaric revenge of the girl’s uncle; their years of separation; the writing of the famous letters; and finally the demise of a broken Abelard, whose books have been burned, a man who finds his ultimate solace in the thought of the woman who has never ceased to love him. Antoine Audouard brings literary grace to a story that is palpably infused with sensuality, conflict, and intellectual ferment. Farewell, My Only One is intelligent and bawdy, philosophical and romantic—a universal story of star-crossed lovers. “This is an elegantly written novel, refreshing in its bawdy portrayal of religious figures and intellectually stimulating in its rigorous treatment of the theological discourse of the time.” —Publishers Weekly

Queen of Fashion

Queen of Fashion
Author: Caroline Weber
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 452
Release: 2007-10-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1429936479

In this dazzling new vision of the ever-fascinating queen, a dynamic young historian reveals how Marie Antoinette's bold attempts to reshape royal fashion changed the future of France Marie Antoinette has always stood as an icon of supreme style, but surprisingly none of her biographers have paid sustained attention to her clothes. In Queen of Fashion, Caroline Weber shows how Marie Antoinette developed her reputation for fashionable excess, and explains through lively, illuminating new research the political controversies that her clothing provoked. Weber surveys Marie Antoinette's "Revolution in Dress," covering each phase of the queen's tumultuous life, beginning with the young girl, struggling to survive Versailles's rigid traditions of royal glamour (twelve-foot-wide hoopskirts, whalebone corsets that crushed her organs). As queen, Marie Antoinette used stunning, often extreme costumes to project an image of power and wage war against her enemies. Gradually, however, she began to lose her hold on the French when she started to adopt "unqueenly" outfits (the provocative chemise) that, surprisingly, would be adopted by the revolutionaries who executed her. Weber's queen is sublime, human, and surprising: a sometimes courageous monarch unwilling to allow others to determine her destiny. The paradox of her tragic story, according to Weber, is that fashion—the vehicle she used to secure her triumphs—was also the means of her undoing. Weber's book is not only a stylish and original addition to Marie Antoinette scholarship, but also a moving, revelatory reinterpretation of one of history's most controversial figures.

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow

Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow
Author: Juliet Grey
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2012-05-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 034552389X

A captivating novel of rich spectacle and royal scandal, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow spans fifteen years in the fateful reign of Marie Antoinette, France’s most legendary and notorious queen. Paris, 1774. At the tender age of eighteen, Marie Antoinette ascends to the French throne alongside her husband, Louis XVI. But behind the extravagance of the young queen’s elaborate silk gowns and dizzyingly high coiffures, she harbors deeper fears for her future and that of the Bourbon dynasty. From the early growing pains of marriage to the joy of conceiving a child, from her passion for Swedish military attaché Axel von Fersen to the devastating Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Marie Antoinette tries to rise above the gossip and rivalries that encircle her. But as revolution blossoms in America, a much larger threat looms beyond the gilded gates of Versailles—one that could sweep away the French monarchy forever.

Legend of Good Women

Legend of Good Women
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2006-10
Genre:
ISBN: 1425032362

An outstanding poem and a consummate example of employing the dream vision technique. It is one of the longest works of Chaucer. The poet unfolds ten stories of virtuous women in nine sections. It is one of the first mock-heroic works in English Literature. Inspirational!...

Enchantée

Enchantée
Author: Gita Trelease
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2019-02-26
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1760785105

Paris in 1789 is a labyrinth of twisted streets, filled with beggars, thieves, revolutionaries – and magicians . . . When smallpox kills her parents, seventeen-year-old Camille is left to provide for her frail sister and her volatile brother. In desperation, she survives by using the petty magic she learnt from her mother. But when her brother disappears Camille decides to pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Using dark magic Camille transforms herself into the ‘Baroness de la Fontaine‘ and presents herself at the court of Versaille, where she soon finds herself swept up in a dizzying life of riches, finery and suitors. But Camille’s resentment of the rich is at odds with the allure of their glamour and excess, and she soon discovers that she’s not the only one leading a double life . . . Enchantée is a compelling historical fantasy and is Gita Trelease's debut novel.