Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser

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Recently, I discovered the library of my home town Sint-Niklaas again. I 
immediately noticed that there were many books about royal houses and the 
history of different countries.  

 One of the books that instantly caught my attention was a biography of
Queen Marie Antoinette of France written by Antonia Fraser. 



own picture of the book with my notes (in Dutch)

About Queen Marie Antoinette of France
However, I think that everyone knows Queen Marie Antoinette of France by
name, here is a short introduction.  

Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born on 2 November 1755 in Vienna
as an Archduchess from Austria. She was the daughter of Maria Theresa of
Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.

 As a daughter she was a pawn on the dynastical chessboard of Europe.
After long negotiations she had to marry the dauphin of France. This big
royal event (the ceremony) took place on 16 May 1770 at Versailles.

On 10 May 1774, Marie Antoinette became Queen of France when her
husband ruled as King Louis XVI. No Queen was ever so much loved or
hated as Marie Antoinette.




Marie Antoinette of France - Source picture: Wikipedia




She was accused of cheating, lying, political intrigue and finally she
became the personalization of all evil.  Her life ended tragically at the
guillotine in Paris on 16 October 1793.

Although I knew the very sad history of Marie-Antoinette well,
the book took me on a trip together with the French Queen. 

 Her death touched me again and again. As always there is the BIG 
question: could this drama be avoided? Why didn't anyone help
 her from the  related  royal houses? 

Anyway, she kept her dignity till the end and finally her myth will
be preserved forever.




Screenshot of the book



About the book

Marie Antoinette de biografie (I read this master piece in Dutch), was
written in 2001 and edited by Phoenix. The translation was made by
Henk Moerdijk, Peter van der Veen and Chiel Soelen. The Dutch
edition was released in 2006. So, the English readers had a big advantage :-)

The book contains 591 pages divided in 6 big parts and 27 chapters.
The layout made the amount of text (it really is a big book) very clear and
easy to read.

About the writer

Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser is a British author of history,
novels and biographies as well as detective fiction. She also wrote
about King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Tables and Robin Hood.
As well as many non-fiction books inter alia:

Mary, Queen of Scots (1969);
Love and Louis XIV, The Women in the life of the Sun King (2006);
Marie Antoinette the journey (2001);
and of course many more.


I found a youtube movie with a bookreview of 'Marie Antoinette the journey'
written by Antonia Fraser. More on this link.
Location: Frankrijk

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