Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15267 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Sunday Telegraph
"A sparkling history which captures the giddy quality of the times"

Review
"A sparkling history which captures the giddy quality of the times" (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

"Vividly capturing 17th-century Europe's most extravagant court.' (Mark Comber THE DAILY EXPRESS )

'Antonia Fraser's colourful history emphasises the conflict between private pleasure and religious dut in the life of Europe's grandest Catholic ruler.' (Simon Shaw THE MAIL ON SUNDAY )

'Fraser brilliantly dissects the intense rivalry of the ladies who indulged in 'commerce' with the king. (Ian Pindar THE OBSERVER )

'this enjoyable account. Fraser brings to life the female stars circling the Sun King in an account that successfully combines erudition with gossipy stories of the kind the Versailles courtiers loved so much.' (THE SUNDAY TIMES )

"Louis springs to life as fresh and as fascinating as ever" (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )

Simon Shaw, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
'Antonia Fraser's colourful history emphasises the conflict between private pleasure and religious dut in the life of Europe's grandest Catholic ruler.'

Customer Reviews

More Light On The Sun King
Another historical masterpiece from the author of `Mary Queen Of Scots', `Marie Antoinette The Journey' et al.
The book has at its centre the life of Louis XIV and the women who found themselves in his orbit.
Despite the allusions to romantic love in the title, there is a platonic element to the numerous biographies that Fraser intertwines with Louis', such as his mother and daughter-in-law.
The light shone on the Sun King is painted in delicate colours and there is little allusion to `goings on' outside his immediate court, such as the Edict of Nantes (a very significant event of his reign) and the wars with the Dutch and the `Grand Alliance' under Marlborough and Eugene. This is because it is a biography devoted to the emotional - dare we say it - human side of Louis.
One really can find little fault in any of Antonia Fraser's scholarly works, of which this is an elegant and insightful example.

Entertaining but not shallow - a better understanding of Louis XIV and his relationships
Antonia Fraser is one of the best writers of (popular) history and this book just proves why.

So many books have been written about Louis XIV and it seems nearly impossible to shed a new light on this most famous of all French kings. So it was a very pleasant surprise that Antonia Fraser did this.

She follows the relationships of the Louis XIV with females from birth to death: from the long-for heir to the French throne, boy king at the age of 4 years and 8 months, through the period when the Sun King dominated Europe to the period when France and his king were nearly going down under and the reign ended on a sad notion. Each period had a distinct female symbolizing that very period: Anne of Austria, the King's mother and regent, Maria Theresia, his Queen, Madame de La Valliere and Madame de Montespan, his most famous mistresses and la Marquise de Maintenon, his morganatique wife. Of course, there are more like la Princesse Palatine, the Duchess of Burgundy or the first Duchess of Orleans. It seems that the Sun King did a full circle - Anne of Austria and Madame la Marquise had much in common and might be described as the same kind of personality. It is very much appreciated that Antonia Fraser restores Louis XIV's Queen Consort to her rightful place. The Queen is often neglected as the king did and she was properly the most remote person in terms of personal affection, but her role was vital for his gloire. The Infanta of Spain was the most valuable princess and none other would have done for the King and she was the mother of the rightful heirs to the throne.

Antonia Fraser commands the rare gift of writing in an entertaining manner without becoming shallow or superficial. All in all a book one can only recommend. I enjoyed it immensely.

Another triumph for Fraser!
This book, a study of King Louis XIV of France and the women in his life, including his mother, Anne of Austria, his wife Marie-Therese of Spain, his two sisters-in-law, Henriette-Anne of England and Liselotte of the Palatinate, his granddaughter-in-law Adelaide of Savoy, and of course his mistresses, Louise de La Valliere, Francoise-Athenais de Montpesan, Angelique de Fontagues and Francoise d'Aubigne, Madame de Maintenon. Then there's the mistress who never was, Marie Mancini.

As ever, Fraser tells a wonderful story - this is history at it's best. One of her best skills as an author, in my opinion, is the way she treats her characters as human beings; she is sympathetic to Louis being biased. She doesn't overlook his faults, but she isn't pessimistic about him. The characters come alive spectacularly, even though it's a non-fiction book - by the end, we feel as though we know Louis, Liselotte, Adelaide and the others. The Sun King has always been a compelling characters - I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out more not only about him, but about the women in his life!