Product Description

In Marie Antoinette leading French historian Evelyne Lever tells the compelling story of the last, and most infamous Queen of France. She draws on little explored sources including Austrian and Swedish archives and the correspondence of foreign ambassadors to Paris to paint vivid portraits of the Queen, her inner circle and the lavish court life at Versailles, as well as the tragic events leading to her death. Describes the queen's life in detail, from her birth in Vienna, through her turbulent, unhappy marriage, the intrigues of life at court, to the final bloody turmoil of the French Revolution and her beheading. Describes Marie Antoinette's relationship with the Swedish Count Axel Fersen, the grand passion of her life. Describes the seething social and political climate of prerevolutionary France and the degree to which the Queen remained wilfully out of touch with the nation's economic troubles. Based on little known diaries, letters, court documents and memoirs. Hailed by the critics as 'evocative', 'lively and informed' and 'erudite'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #150759 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

About the Author
Evelyne Lever is a leading French historian She is the author of seven books including Madame de Pompadour, Philippe Egalite, Louis XVIII and Louis XVI She lives in Paris

Customer Reviews

A first rate book - a must-read!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Lever does not make mass assumptions like some historical biographers and although perhaps not suited to the serious historian, this book is pitched just right for everyone interested in Marie Antoinette and the period in which she lived. Lever's style of writing is first rate, not too complex and not Janet and John either. I wholly recommend this book and I am about to order Ms Lever's other books based on the pleasure I got from reading this one.

Learning to know Marie Antoinette
This book is a good read. Ms Lever shows Marie Antoinette for who she was. A very young bride who was homesick and bored at Versailles. To becoming a young woman, a fashion victim, who liked to have fun. The author transforms the myth of Marie Antoinette into a real person. I think that afterall even in today's life a girl her age would react in the same manner if she would find herself in the same circumstances. This biography was one of the very few that I enjoyed reading. It is certainly not a dragging book. I could not stop reading it. I also think that it was very well researched.