Description
Book Synopsis''Drama, betrayal, religion and sex, it''s all here ... Fascinating'' GUARDIAN
''Beautifully paced, impeccably written ... Don''t miss it'' INDEPENDENT
''Fraser is at her best here, lucid, authoritative and compassionate'' SUNDAY TIMES
''Superbly researched ... the definitive work on the ill-fated queen'' CATHOLIC HERALD
Marie Antoinette''s dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions. To many people, she is still ''la reine méchante'', whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy; her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: ''let them eat cake''. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny.
Antonia Fraser examines her influence over the king, Louis XVI, the accusations and sexual slurs made against her, her patronage of the arts which enhanced French cultural life, her imprisonment, the death th
Trade Review
Drama, betrayal, religion and sex, it's all here, adorned by often fascinating, at times esoteric detail -- Hazel Mills * GUARDIAN *
A hugely well-researched work . . . MARIE ANTOINETTE is a heroic and tragic exercise in identification * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
This beautifully paced, impeccably written biography is destined to generate the same success as Antonia Fraser's previous work. Don't miss it -- Andrea Stuart * INDEPENDENT *
A sparkling new biography . . . Antonia Fraser writes beautifully, with impressively shrewd judgement . . . This is a fine book and a very good read -- Desmond Seward * DAILY MAIL *
In MARIE ANTOINETTE, Fraser's superb gifts of narrative, characterisation and eye for salient detail are deployed to greater effect than ever before -- Mark Bostridge * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
Fraser sets out to rescue Marie Antoinette from the shadow of the guillotine, and she does this with resounding success -- Ruth Scurr * THE TIMES *
Fraser is at her best here, lucid, authoritative and compassionate -- Miranda Seymour * SUNDAY TIMES *
[Fraser] has written a fine biography . . . A fine and rewarding book -- Douglas Johnson * SPECTATOR *
An authoritative, sympathetic and beautifully written life of the much maligned queen -- Charles Osborne * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
A superbly researched book which will clearly become the definitive work on the ill-fated queen -- Margot Lawrence * CATHOLIC HERALD *
That fatal combination of a magnificent story, magnificently well told. It's the perfect book in which to lose yourself when you can afford to do nothing else for a day or so. -- Lucy Worsley * WAITROSE WEEKEND *
