Advantages: Very readable, interesting, informative Disadvantages: Sometimes lacking in detail, descriptions of executions
Marie Antoinette is a widely known historical personnage - infamous for her callousness towards the starving peasants ("Let them eat cake!") and for having her head chopped off during the French Revolution, a victim of the guillotine, yet few attempts have ever been made to go beyond the stereotypes and actually investigate the character of this celebrity queen. Noted historian Antonia Fraser aims to correct this, and has largely succeeded in a very ... ...reputed sexual insatiability (in truth Marie was quite sexually inexperienced even after marriage and quite pious as well, the allegations deeply upset and shocked her), and of her legendary arrogance, spending inordinate sums of money even as the people of France starved (while she did spend lavishly, even the Royal Family trimmed their expenses in the time of need!) My main criticism is that in its focus of Marie Antoinette alone, the book fails ...
mystikchick17 17.07.2006 (01.08.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Marie Antoinette - Antonia Fraser
Advantages: A compelling story about an amazing woman. Disadvantages: A tad depressing!
...through the extraordinary life of Marie Antoinette from her childhood as an Archduchess of Austria through to her execution in 1793. Her story is told in chronological order but each chapter is still based around a theme so it doesn’t read like a boring textbook. The beginning of the book covers the happier times in Marie Antoinette’s life – her contented childhood in Austria as the daughter of the formidable Empress Maria Theresa, ... ...had nothing to do with. Marie Antoinette tried in vain to improve her public image but she was further tarnished by the ‘Diamond Necklace Affair’ in which she was totally innocent. Although she made did make mistakes external circumstances such as severe economic problems and the revolutionary world climate coupled with the misfortune of having a weak and indecisive husband were to blame for the revolution not her. A warning for those ...
Tricia24 29.10.2003
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Marie Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's first book in five years, heralds the welcome return of ... more
her wonderfully lucid, engaging style as she disentangles myth from fact regarding the life of the still controversial, and misunderstood, wife of Louis XVI of F...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Marie Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's first book in five years, heralds the welcome return of ... more
her wonderfully lucid, engaging style as she disentangles myth from fact regarding the life of the still controversial, and misunderstood, wife of Louis XVI of F...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Marie Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's first book in five years, heralds the welcome return of ... more
her wonderfully lucid, engaging style as she disentangles myth from fact regarding the life of the still controversial, and misunderstood, wife of Louis XVI of F...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Marie Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's first book in five years, heralds the welcome return of ... more
her wonderfully lucid, engaging style as she disentangles myth from fact regarding the life of the still controversial, and misunderstood, wife of Louis XVI of F...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Marie Antoinette, Antonia Fraser's first book in five years, heralds the welcome return of ... more
her wonderfully lucid, engaging style as she disentangles myth from fact regarding the life of the still controversial, and misunderstood, wife of Louis XVI of F...
Postage & Packaging: £2.75 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
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