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Becoming Marie Antoinette

by

Juliet GREY

480 pages

Publication:  August 2011, by Ballantine Books

Ebook provided by NetGalley & Ballantine Books

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS BOOK

Studying history in France, I never got a great image of Marie-Antoinette, but this book made me look at her in a totally different light. This book is actually really about Becoming who she was to be in history, that is, the tough preparation she had to go through in her native country, Austria, to be accepted as the French Dauphin’s bride, and the book ends with her coronation.

The book is excellent at describing the royal families and all the petty details of everyday life, from the rising to the preparation for the night;  at showing what it would have taken to become the queen of France, lots of advantages maybe, but also lots of sacrifices. I’m really looking forward treading next page in Marie-Antoinette’s life.

Edit on 10/5/21:
I also reviewed Book 2: Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow
And Book 3: Confessions of Marie Antoinette

NB: If you stumble upon the movie, just ignore it, no substance. The book is so so much better!

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike. [Goodreads]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Juliet Grey has extensively researched European royal history and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette. She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont. [Goodreads]

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