Marie Antoinette: The Journey

I loved this book, even though it is absolutely tragic. The author does an excellent job at the end of depicting the misogyny of the times by contrasting the authorities' treatment of Marie Antionette and King Louis XVI - or is it just lingering scraps of respect for a king being demonstrated, when no such scraps existed for this "enemy alien" queen?

Marie Antoinette did not say "Let them eat cake" nor she was promiscuous or spent all the money in luxury more than anybody else in the royal court or her private society, nor she was illiterate or had ADHD. What she was was a smart woman who had her education delayed from her mother, the mighty Maria Teresa of Austria, not being her main concern, she was incredibly sympathetic to everyone in any social class making her understand the complaints of the common people, she had a remakable maternal instinct making her a better mother than most queens, she was a people pleaser surprising everybody who ended up knowing her, she never escaped from France when she had the opportunity when the result would be leaving her husband and/or show more children, she never had anything but love for France her brothers and sisters abroad, she had a great sense of duty so even though her husband couldn't perform for the first seven years of their marriage she waited and waited and tried to get involved in politics the last few years of her life even though she was never interested. For all these virtues she was the political tool of her mother and older brother (Joseph II emperor of Austria), and the scapegoat for the problems of France and the opportunists who wanted her death long before the revolution. She did nothing but suffer humiliations and torture for the last four years of her life, and even though this remakable book makes you care for everything that's happening Marie Antoinette is always in the background, until the last three chapters where you can't feel anything but empathy for this woman who had her destiny already set by France and disgust for this world knowing full well that when we talk about "politics" in the dinner table with the family or friends is nothing more than gossip and charitable reforms that we happened to believe in, knowing full well that to actually talk about politics we need to understand complex structural reasons from a anthropological, philosophical, historical and cultural perspective of the contemporary problems that haunt us every day, but God knows we haven't change. Anyway this book is incredible, please read it. Bye.

Her was an uncommon story but did not begin with an uncommon situation. Where she was exceptionally unlucky was to be shunted off to France in order the cement a Habsburg-Bourbon teatry, entered into after the Seven Years War, which reversed traditional alliances. Yet this treaty was purely one of convenience for the great ones involved; it carried with it neither the hearts not the minds of the French court. She was, after all, l'Autrichienne long before she appeared in France. show less

Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette is a vast improvement on Évelyne Lever's flowery and decidedly prejudiced account, at least in my opinion! Sofia Coppola also based her 2006 film on Fraser's account of the late queen's life. The author aims were 'to unravel the cruel myths and salacious distortions surrounding [Marie Antoinette's] name' (from 'let them eat cake' to her alleged affairs with close female friends) and 'to exert common sense in an area which must remain forever speculative, as indeed it was in her own day' (Count Fersen). She is fair to Marie Antoinette, if not a little biased in opposition to Lever, concluding that the French queen was in a way 'a victim from birth'. Her bluntness in appraising Louis XVI - show more 'What he lacked in confidence, the Dauphin certainly did not make up for in physical attraction' - and the Princesse Lamballe (who was 'not clever') among other made me laugh, however.

I think the most shocking part of Marie Antoinette's life to remember is that she was only fourteen when her mother, the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa, married her off to a stranger in another country. Fourteen! And almost from the start, she faced abuse from the French court: Marie Antoinette was sneeringly baptized l’Autrichienne by Madame Adélaïde, eldest surviving daughter of Louis XV, years before it became a popular term of derision. Her husband, the future Louis XVI, was only one year older and not interested - or perhaps unable - to consummate the relationship, either through shyness or a medical condition. It's hardly surprising, therefore, that Marie Antoinette turned to friends like the Princesse de Lamballe and the Duchesse de Polignac and preferred to have fun gambling and attending parties, catching the disease of Versailles at an early age. Her historical reputation is one of excess, ignorance and haughtiness when contemporary accounts portray her as compassionate, affectionate and loyal. When all of Paris turned out to celebrate her marriage to the Dauphin, Marie Antoinette recognised that ‘in seeing the people who treat us so well despite their own misfortune, we are more obliged than ever to work hard for their happiness'. And during the infamous 'Affair of the Diamond Necklace', she told the jewellers that 'We have more need of ships than of diamonds'. Fraser's biography highlights how Marie Antoinette became the scapegoat of France ('Madame Deficit', 'Madame Veto') because she was a foreigner and her husband was not fit for the role he was born into. What happened to her during the Revolution was horrendous by any standards. 'Oh my God,’ she wrote in October 1790, ‘if we have committed faults, we have certainly expiated them.’

Although probably not Antonia Fraser's intention, I am a now a firm defender of Marie Antoinette. There is a lot of background politics to plough through - the power play of Versailles and the Queen's relationship with her Austrian mother and brothers - but the heart of the story is a young woman who had to adopt a new country and language at a tender age, and wanted nothing more than to be a wife and mother, yet who faced judgement for being both an outsider and a 'flaunting, extravagant queen'. show less

Well, she never said “Let them eat cake”, and was actually fairly kind to the poor for a person who had no idea how they lived. Her story is really rather sad – groomed from infancy to be a royal bride, she learned all sorts of court etiquette and the noble accomplishments – playing the harpsichord and virginal, embroidery, flirtation and diplomacy – but was never able to read or write with fluency. Her education apparently did not include the activities of the birds and the bees, since her brother (the Austrian emperor) had to visit the court of Versailles and have a long private talk with King Louis on bedroom activities before they had children. (One of the problems of royalty is total lack of privacy – diplomatic letters show more from Austrian agents in France detail exactly what the King was doing wrong, but nobody but a fellow ruler could explain it to him, and apparently Marie didn’t know what she was supposed to be doing either). About half the book takes place after the Revolution started; ironically King Louis more or less fell apart while Marie, belying her reputation as an airhead, pulled herself together and kept herself more or less intact until the end.


Antonia Fraser is, as usual, excellent and does justice to Marie Antoinette’s life and reputation. I had no particular interest in her but picked up the book on remainder – I’m glad I did. show less

An excellent, humanising biography, the book completely deconstructs the pop culture image of the frivolous, extravagant, debauched Marie-Antoinette, revealing the sensitive, naïve woman used as a political pawn and gestation chamber for future kings. Her upbringing did not prepare her for the hotbed of malicious political and sexual intrigue (with its rigid protocols and constant spectators) that is Versailles, nor was her husband an ally beyond their common goal of producing a future king. Marie-Antoinette was trapped in circumstances beyond her control, were any of us to be in her shoes, I doubt history would have been that much different.

Full credit goes to the author for her careful dissection of the psychology of and the show more influences behind Marie-Antoinette's personality (how her position in her family has influenced her disposition, and eventually world history), presenting a full sympathetic picture of Marie-Antoinette the person behind the populist scapegoat. For the busy or the rereaders, the epilogue was a very good summary of the entire book. show less

With a nice and very accessible writing style, we go through 'The Journey' more like through a novel than an historical biography; making for a quick and pleasing read. The fact the author deals straightforwardly with Marie-Antoinette as a woman and a mother above all, beyond the historical and well-known character, also allows for an original outlook helping to sympathise with her.

Simple pawn on the geopolitical chessboard of the times, married at 15 and against all expectations just so as to seal a weak alliance between Habsbourg and Bourbons, sent over like a parcel in a foreign country despising hers and, later victim of hideous propaganda, political games of the Terror and a disgusting trial, there is indeed more than one reason show more to have pity for her! And, sure enough, Antonia Fraser doesn't hesitate to assail reader's sensitivity with a wealth of pathos and cheesy emotions spilling all over, until overflowing to the extreme in the last chapters!

Here's in fact the problem: refusing to take some distance with her subject by having a clear (and well asserted!) bias surely makes Marie-Antoinette more accessible and human, but such dismissal of the cold analysis expected from an historian also carries the risk of losing some objectivity. The Necklace Affair (in which she was without a shadow of a doubt an innocent victim, let's be fair) is for example dealt with in great details whereas, on the contrary, other aspects more controversial of her personality are gently brushed under the carpet (e.g. what about her influence upon Louis XVI and the choice of his ministers?). Without being completely apologetic (the excesses of 'Madame Deficit' and her court are widely recognised) that all along the book private matters like her relationship with Fersen get more attention than political ones is indeed problematic; and such a lack of balance is frankly disappointing.

Disappointing because, despite it all, Antonia Fraser clearly knows her topic in depth, knows how to convey her passion for the era and, if one can regret the over-sentimental clichés, her work remains well documented, referenced, without any argument put forward without evidence. In a word, it still is a serious book.

A good read, but damn it! Keep some tissues at hand! show less

The French queen who emerges from the pages of Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a sympathetic figure, a well-meaning yet flawed woman tragically caught up in political and social forces beyond her control. In this biography, Fraser achieves an effective mixture of exhaustive research and engaging storytelling, weaving together the documentary evidence to produce a rich narrative of the Austrian archduchess who became a French queen. A reading of this work enhances the viewing of Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette, based rather closely on the first two-thirds of Fraser's book, up to the day when the royal family was forced to decamp from Versailles to Paris; symbiotically, a viewing of the Coppola film brings show more many of the characters and events described by Fraser vividly to life, illustrating key episodes in Marie Antoinette's reign as dauphine and queen consort of France.

One failing of Fraser's biography arises from the very complexity of its subject. Even though the author includes a number of supplementary aids to understanding the history – genealogical charts, a map of 18th-century Europe, a detailed index – the sheer number of characters and the overwhelming complexity of French revolutionary politics sometimes make events difficult to follow. Additional appendices, for example a list of major historical figures and a simplified timeline of events, would help the reader in making sense of all the details of the narrative. But even without them, Fraser has skillfully accomplished a remarkable feat. She breathes new life into a legendary historical figure who lost hers over two centuries ago, and in doing so she makes the story of Marie Antoinette and the history of her times as compelling as any adventure novel, as touching as any romance. show less