Product Description

Francoise d'Aubigne, born in a bleak provincial prison, her father a condemned murderer and traitor to the state, rose from the depths of poverty to life at the vortex of power at Versailles. Married at fifteen to a tragically disfigured and scandalously popular poet, in his salon Francoise encountered all the brilliant characters of the seventeenth century's glitterati. After her husband's death, she led the life of a merry widow in the colourful Marais quarter of Paris, before becoming governess to the King's growing brood of royal batards. This is the extraordinary story of one woman's daring journey from beggar-girl, West Indian colonist and salonniere to royal mistress and thence, in secret, to the compromised position of Louis' uncrowned Queen. Through the rags-to-riches tale of the marquise de Maintenon, Veronica Buckley reveals every layer of the vibrant and shocking world that was France in the age of Louis XIV.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84338 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Review
'Riveting and beautifully written' Daily Telegraph 'Buckley has written an admirably balanced life with a wealth of biographical detail and great sympathy for her subject' Economist 'Compelling ... Veronica Buckley writes extremely well, and her narrative never fails to grip ... Madame de Maintenon is convincing and ultimately moving, a perceptive appreciation of a remarkable woman' Sunday Telegraph 'A colourful tale' Financial Times

Economist
'Buckley has written an admirably balanced life with a wealth of biographical detail and great sympathy for her subject'

Daily Telegraph
`Riveting and beautifully written'

Customer Reviews

I came to see everything worthy of note that France contains
is what Tsar Peter the Great of Russia is suppose to have said when visiting the bed-ridden widow of the Sun King Louis XIV at St. Cyr. Taking into account the changing loves of the King she was dismissed as Madame de Maintenant (Madame now), but she stayed.

So Madame de Maintenon was worth a visit by the all powerful Russian Tsar and her life is worthwhile reading about. She was one of the luminous female stars of the 17th century. A woman who made it to the very top of the society by becoming the secret wife of the most famous of all French Kings, Louis XIV. How did she do that? She was a woman much loved and much hated. The King's sister-in-law, The Princess Palatine and Duchess of Orléans, used very strong language to describe her which would have properly get a TV-warning nowadays. How did she become a person of such controversy? She is mostly remembered as a very Catholic woman and her institute for the education of the daughters of noble houses of broken fortunes, the famous St. Cyr.

Author Veronica Buckley was born in New Zealand, studied in London and Oxford and now lives in Paris. So it is logic taht she takes up a French topic. After her first and well received book on Queen Christina of Sweden this is her second book. And it started of badly after it emerged that one of the main sources for the book was a non-existent secret diaries of the Sun King found in 1997 in a house in the Loire Valley.Yet she was apparently unaware that this 'diary' was in fact the work of a French academic called Francois Bluche, who reconstructed the book from various other historical sources. Buckley issued an apology on April 19, reported The Guardian, saying: "Le Journal secret de Louis XIV was not in fact written by Louis himself, but was instead reconstructed from historical sources by historian François Bluche, a specialist in the reign of Louis XIV. In my bibliography the journal is listed as a primary source, with Bluche the author." Does that undermine the author's new biography?

Veronica Buckley describes the extraordinary life of Madame de Maintenon in a quite balanced way, follows the ups and downs and twists and turns her lives takes. Here a woman of strength and determination, but as well of charm, poise and cultivation, clever and sophisticated emerges and not merely a nun-like woman whose whole life is spent in prayer. It becomes clear that character is what matters with her, but she is by far not an ugly or un-elegant woman. The attraction the King finds with her are less surprising. The power she had was immense, even if she had to pay a price for it and was shy to admit it. She encouraged an atmosphere of dignity and piety at court contrasting deeply with the frivolous court before and after. But this could have been quite oppressive. Of course her background was held against her: a mere commoner raised to be a marquise was not suppose to hold such power and the love of the King.

Veronica Buckley writes with her usual and very readable style. She writes with sympathy about Madame la Marquise, maybe sometimes too sympathetic. Her life is a bit too strongly written from the end. It seems as if becoming the King's wife was inevitable. That is by far not the case. Her knowledge about the time is wide, but a bit feeling is missing. Still it is a lively account and enjoyable to read. The hiccup about the source is properly bad from an academic point of view, but for non-academics is matters hardly as Veronica Buckley leaves the reader with a clear picture how she judges Madame de Mainetenon and that is what matters to me.

Fascinating study of a complex person
Madame de Maintenon was born (in prison) and raised a Protestent but was converted to Catholicism in her teens. Throughout her life she remained devoutly Christian, but took a far more pragmatic view than was normal at the time of religious affiliation, advising Protestent relatives to convert for the sake of their careers and, apparently, being unable to understand their objections. Her connection with Athenais de Montespan and interest in and skill with children saw her made governess to Louis' bastard children, who she seems to have treated as if they were her own (she was never to have children of her own). She subsequently became mistress and later secret wife of Louis XIV and was held responsible for creating a a more devout, less decadent court.

Veronica Buckley has done this fascinatingly complex character justice in a very readable biography.