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Summary: The Austrian Queen of France
Review: Five years were spent on the research and writing of this book. The result is a meticulous account, on an almost daily basis, of Marie Antoinette's life. We learn that she was a pleasure loving, friendly woman. But we also learn that she was not the brightest and could hardly read or write. And that is how the little girl from Austria entered womanhood as the dauphine and queen of France. Being that l'Autrichienne was the first strike against her. The second was her unquestioning obedience to her mother Maria Theresa, the empress of Austria, and later to her brother emperor Joseph II. And the third strike was that she would not comprehend what agitated the people of France. As we all know: three strikes, and you are out.A writer chooses a subject for a biography because it interests him and because he likes it. That induces prejudice that has to be avoided. How did Mrs. Fraser fare? She obviously likes Marie Antoinette very much, and her prejudice shows. When bad news cannot be avoided, she tries to qualify them. Did Marie Antoinette have a love affair with Count Fersen? Most probably - but then we have no eye witnesses. Did she spend profligately on the Petit Trianon and on St. Cloud? Yes - but then that was customary. Did she mess up in politics? Yes - but then she was politically uneducated. Did she come on too strong in behalf of her Austrian relatives? Yes - but then it did not get her anywheres. All this tilts the tenor of the book. Hand in hand with this go sins of omission that could make Marie Antoinette look really bad. The queen of France started out on good terms with the French people and only her Austrian provenance was held against her. And then everything began to deteriorate. It started in earnest with the pamphlets describing her as a drunken wanton. Were they so wrong and freely invented? Where there is smoke, there is fire. Maybe the affair with Count Fersen was not quite that secret. Nor her closeness to the Princesse de Lamballe and the Duchesse de Polignac. L'Autrichienne did interfere in the politics of ther husband, the king. And she did promote Austrian interests whenever she was asked to. The sums of money she spent were enormous in a time when France was practically bankrupt. Thus Marie Antoinette finished her life as the most hated person in the country. She was a flighty person, with little education and not much brains. Maybe that explains some of it. Antonia Fraser gives a somewhat lopsided account of her subject up to the time the revolution took form. After that, Marie Antoinette's fate is out of her hands and the narrative can continue with straight forward history. And that she does well.
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Summary: Worthy of Her Most Christian Majesty!!
Review: Antonia Fraser has written the definitive biography of one of history's most maligned figures. Finally, an insight into Marie Antoinette the woman and the queen. One of the first victims of the violent and bloody French Revolution, Marie Antoinette showed her breeding and class, something many of the French never understood. Long live Queen Marie Antoinette and thank you Ms. Fraser for a work well done!
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Summary: Unfortunate
Review: Antonia Fraser's work on Marie Antoinette will not be listed as one of her better works. Ms. Fraser is so obviously an Antoinette devotee. There is little to no historical objectivity in this book and there are factual errors. I am deeply disappointed in this book and in Ms. Fraser. I have come to expect better from her.
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Summary: One of the best bios I've read in awhile...
Review: I literally could not put this book down. This is honestly the first time that I've ever read anything about Marie Antoinette that managed to humanize her. From the mundane--but nonetheless interesting--details (did you know that at age 14 Marie A. had braces put on her teeth, a cutting-edge technology at the time?) to the broad strokes that put the whole story in perspective, the author manages to paint a picture of an innocent girl used as a pawn on the global stage of European politics, and then as a spark point used to explode the French Revolution. The evolution from girl to somewhat frivolous young woman to mature mother resigned to a terrible fate is deftly portrayed. The only flaw that I can cite is that the events leading up to the Revolution are somewhat sketchily explained, so that the whole mess seems to burst rather suddenly onto the scene. But perhaps that's what the author was trying to do, so that the reader is as surprised by the suddenness of the fury as Marie Antoinette seems to have been.... A must read....
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Summary: An excellent read, but what happened to the facts?
Review: Like all her previous historical biographies, Antonia Fraser's MARIE ANTOINETTE is extremely well written and insightful. Unfortunately, there are pages and pages of factual errors which jump out to those of us who have read almost every book written on the queen and which lead me to question one of my fellow reviewers' comments about her "impeccable scholarship". Ms. Fraser even gets the location of the queen's execution wrong! Her editor must be receiving indignant letters from the queen's other biographers in droves. As always, however, a very enjoyable read.
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This book, I believe, touched to the heart of Marie Antoinette.
Ms. Fraser has done more than wonderful a job on this book. I have been so tired of seeing poorly researched books written (The Wicked Queen by Chantal Thomas, Julie Rose.. horrible!) of Marie Antoinette, that are based on heresy of a population that I believe used her as a scapegoat for all their misery and much misunderstanding on both parts. Perhaps Marie Antoinette was a victim not only of the French Revolution and the facts leading thereof, but of her own naivete as well as Louis XVI.
I found the book touching, and even though I knew what was to come in the end, Ms. Fraser kept me hoping the Royal Family would escape harm.
I am not a historian, but an avid reader of women in history. Marie Antoinette has always been one of my favorites. As an average reader, I believe readers alike will find this book to be highly enthralling, a page turner. As a mother, I believe readers will find a tear or two escaping. (I know I did!)
I loved this book! It is now on my 'favorites' shelf.
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Summary: Not Up to Antonia Fraser's Other Efforts
Review: This book is a total white wash of Marie Antoinette. If you are looking for an unbiased biograph, do not look here. Compared to "Mary Queen of Scots" and "Cromwell", this book was just not up to Ms. Fraser's usual high standards. I could not wait for this book to come out, ran out and bought it and read it immediately. While reading it, I kept wondering, "This is Antonia Fraser?" Ms. Fraser would have written a much better book if she could have seen the good and bad in Marie Antoinette. Yes, she was a pawn of history. Yes, she was a devoted mother. BUT, she was part of that aristocratic world which presumed that certain people were--by reason of birth--better than everyone else. Ultimately she paid a price she really didn't deserve to pay. Next time I'll wait a bit longer to run out and buy a book by Ms. Fraser.
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Summary: Thoroughly engrossing biography
Review: True or false? 1) Marie Antoinette was a frivolous princess who became a clever, manipulative queen 2) She ruled France through her weak husband 3) She said of the bread-less French, "Let them eat cake." 4) In her spare time, she enjoyed dressing as a milk maid and wandering around a fake farm she had built at Versailles. If you answered "true" to any of these questions, you will want to read Antonia Fraser's detailed, engrossing biography of Marie Antoinette. Fraser's work is well-documented and scholarly, but it is neither dry nor slow reading. She provides sufficient background information to put the historical events in context, but does not allow the facts to hinder the flow of the story. Her writing has an immediacy that pulls the reader so deeply into the story, it is easy to forget that we already know the ending of this historical life. (When the royal family attempts to escape their French captors, Fraser allows us to think-to hope-they might get away.) Through Fraser's eyes, we first sympathize, and then empathize with the princess who only became queen by accident. In addition, Frazer gives us a thorough education in the social order at Versailles, the complex bureaucracy (and attendant jobs) of the French court, and the political infighting that ultimately was the downfall of the entire system. This is a thoroughly engrossing biography-a keeper.
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Summary: Like Reading a Train Wreck
Review: Marie Antoinette's story is such a sad one..reading Antonia Fraser's book is like watching a video of an accident. You know how it's going to end, but the people in the story don't. Ms. Fraser inexorably sets up the events leading to the demise of the royal family in the French Revolution. She paints a sympathetic picture of Marie Antoinette, but leaves the reader to decide if she deserved to be as reviled as she was. It is beautifully researched and well written (as are other Fraser biographies, in my opinion). Thomas Jefferson, in Paris during the events that led up to the beheading of the Queen, said (and this is paraphrased:) "There is no doubt that there would not have been a Revolution if Marie Antoinette had not been the Queen of France." Do you agree? I'm not so sure.
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Summary: great, but has one historical faux-pas
Review: This is a wonderful, wonderful book, but Ms. Fraser makes a mistake when she states that Isabella of Castille was a queen from the Habsburg dynasty. Isabella was a Trastamara, daughter of Enrique de Trastamara, king of Castille; it was her daughter, Juana, who married a Habsburg, Philip the Fair. From Juana on, the Spanish regnant family was Habsburg, until the XVII century. Aside from this, Ms. Fraser, you are the best!!
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