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Marie Antoinette by: Antonia Fraser

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Rating: - The journey - Marie Antoinette

From the Beginings of a political pawn in Austrian-French politics, Antonia Fraser takes us on the Journey of Marie Antoinette's life.

Fabulously written, with womanly flair, Antonia Fraser once again shows her extensive research on her subject.

In gripping style, the author relates to the reader the "travesty" of the trial, and the "humiliating" death of Marie Antoinette, as impartially as possible, although one cannot help but get caught up in the emotion of it.

A brilliant read, leaving the reader wondering what did become of the royal children, and what has happened since. Which the author also provides in her epilogue.

Rating: - The journey - Marie Antoinette

From the Beginings of a political pawn in Austrian-French politics, Antonia Fraser takes us on the Journey of Marie Antoinette's life.

Fabulously written, with womanly flair, Antonia Fraser once again shows her extensive research on her subject.

In gripping style, the author relates to the reader the "travesity" of the trial, and the "humiliating" death of Marie Antoinette, as impartially as possible, although one cannot help but get caught up in the emotion of it.

A brilliant read, leaving the reader wondering what did become of the royal children, and what has happened since. Which the author also provides in her epilogue.

Rating: - Excellent Book - Unfair Criticism

I mainly write this review in order to save the book from the bashing that 'Reader from France' (above) has given it.

Yes he/she quite rightly says that this book is not the place to look if you want to know why the last Queen of France lost her head - but that is not what this book is about or even purports to be about! So if that is what you are interested in finding out then perhaps take a look at Simon Schama's 'Citizens' - I wouldn't know because I got everything, and more, that I wanted to know from Antonia Fraser's book.

This is not a historical study into the reasons surrounding the French Revolution, nor is it a study into the reasons why Marie Anoinette lost her head. It is an extremely well researched and excellently written book on Marie Antoinette - her life, her passage through that life, and everywhere it took her. The detail is excellent and really makes you able to envisage it all as if you were there - having been to the Palace of Versailles it makes the reading even better because the feeling that you have been in the very rooms where all this took place is fantastic!

I think that Antonia Fraser has done an excellent job in piecing together a work which is quite evidently authoritative and helps put Marie Antoinette in a better light than history seems to have done. The criticism it seems to have attracted is totally unwarranted given that the criticism is directed at an angle which this book doesn't attempt to tackle.

A fantastic read - definitely recommended.

Rating: - extraordinary book of truth

Shocking book of truth on the French revolution and its atrocities. Breathtaking !

Rating: - Better than a time machine!

A biography of Marie Antoinette is a bit of an old chestnut, like Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Jackie O, there can't be much more to say - or can there? In the case of this book, I would answer a resounding yes!
If you are looking for a sensational soap storyline, if you want to climb the hill of false indignation of reviling someone who apparently told the starving to eat cake, you'll be disappointed. Fraser debunks the myths that the gullible and small minded seem to find so satisfying. Very few people, if any, are all bad or all good and that holds true throughout the years and centuries.
We can never know fully what it is like to be in someone else's shoes, but I suspect that this gentle, engaging and ultimately enthralling book is about as good as it gets.

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