Miss Moppet
12-09-2009, 05:10 AM
Marie Jeanne Becu began life as the illegitimate daughter of a humble cook, but by the time she was twenty-three she had become Madame du Barry, the official mistress of King Louis XV of France. By virtue of her exceptional and seductive beauty, her enchanting wit and her unfailing good nature, she came to govern the monarch and all around him.
While the king is alive, she can endure the jealousy and resentment of others who are constantly seeking to usurp her place. But once King Louis is dead, it is clear that she is no longer welcome at the French court. Yet there is far worse to come, for in 1789 the French Revolution casts its long shadow and Madame du Barry's life is in mortal danger...
Madame du Barry was first published in 1959, when bodice-rippers like the Angelique series were flying off the shelves. Jean Plaidy, despite having an entirely bodice-ripper-worthy subject, chose not to go there. The sexiest passage in Madame du Barry is this one:
Jeanne held up her radiant face, and the blue beribboned gown which had caused the Comte du Barry such anxiety was crushed against the somewhat sombre garments of the self-styled Baron de Gonesse who, as though at the waving of a wand, had been turned into the King of France.
It was a Jean Plaidy book (or rather a Victoria Holt, one of her pseudonyms), The Queen’s Confession, an novel about Marie Antoinette which sparked my interest in French history and led to my doing a history degree. I remember how pleased I was to find the first of her French Revolution series, Louis the Well-Beloved, in a second-hand book sale. (The sequels are The Road to Compiegne and Flaunting, Extravagant Queen; she also wrote a novel about the Diamond Necklace Affair, Queen of Diamonds). Coming back to Jean Plaidy as an adult, I find her narrative voice a bit flat – she tells the story from a detached omniscient viewpoint which has gone right out of fashion. But she still gives me that same urge to go to the non-fiction shelves in the library to find out if what she describes really did happen. And here’s a coincidence: after reading The Queen’s Confession, I started what would become a very large personal library of books about French history with a biography of Marie Antoinette by Joan Haslip. Looking to find out more about Madame du Barry, I found that the most recent biography (1991) was by Haslip, Madame du Barry: The Wages of Beauty.
The two books read in a quite a similar way, because Jean Plaidy’s is solidly based on fact and Joan Haslip allows herself quite a few novelistic excursions.
Madame du Barry is not a long book. Jean Plaidy focuses on Madame du Barry’s five or so years as Louis XV’s mistress, summarising her early life and the years from Louis XV’s death in 1774 to the outbreak of the French Revolution. The first two chapters play catch-up, setting the scene: Louis XV is approaching sixty, bored and lonely since the death of his beloved mistress Madame de Pompadour, whom he has not managed to replace. Everyone around him is desperately trying to find a substitute mistress through whom they hope to rule the King. So the book really begins with the introduction of Jeanne on page 47:
Her hair was thick and fell in golden curls about her shoulders; her skin was fine and delicate, her eyes a dazzling blue and, because it seemed that Nature had wished to give her that kind of beauty which occurs but rarely, her brows and lashes were of dark brown in an entrancing contrast to her sparkling fairness.
We then backtrack through Jeanne’s childhood. She was born the illegitimate daughter of Anne Becu, a seamstress whose relatives mostly worked as servants to the nobility. Anne moved to Paris where her employer paid for Jeanne to have a convent education. After various different jobs (hairdresser, paid companion, shopgirl) she drifts into high-class prostitution, finally ending up in the King's bed. Plaidy describes her as warm-hearted, playful, kind and generous, a woman who knows how to enjoy life and lives for the moment.
For some time Jeanne lives a shadowy existence at the King’s side, following the Court from palace to palace but unable to appear in public in his company as she has not been presented. The kerfuffle over her presentation is the first of three highly dramatic episodes in her life at Court which Plaidy chooses to focus on. The other two are her quarrel with Marie Antoinette, who refuses to speak to her, and her exile from Court on the death of Louis XV. As official mistress, she has immense power and acquires a vast fortune, but she frequently uses her power for the benefit of others, even her enemies, often obtaining a reprieve from the King when no-one else could.
Despite Marie Antoinette's harsh treatment of her after the King's death, Madame du Barry remains deeply royalist, and during the French Revolution this puts her in terrible danger.
To sum up: I would definitely recommend this. I can't find another novel devoted to du Barry, although there are two in French about her page, Zamor (http://www.amazon.fr/r%C3%AAve-Zamor-Eve-Ruggieri/dp/2259186475), and her sister-in-law, Chon du Barry (http://www.amazon.fr/Mademoiselle-Chon-Barry-surprises-destin/dp/2221083938/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260338786&sr=1-1).
Adapted from a post at The Misadventures of Moppet (http://misadventuresofmoppet.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/royal-mistress-challenge-jean-plaidys-madame-du-barry-part-one/).
While the king is alive, she can endure the jealousy and resentment of others who are constantly seeking to usurp her place. But once King Louis is dead, it is clear that she is no longer welcome at the French court. Yet there is far worse to come, for in 1789 the French Revolution casts its long shadow and Madame du Barry's life is in mortal danger...
Madame du Barry was first published in 1959, when bodice-rippers like the Angelique series were flying off the shelves. Jean Plaidy, despite having an entirely bodice-ripper-worthy subject, chose not to go there. The sexiest passage in Madame du Barry is this one:
Jeanne held up her radiant face, and the blue beribboned gown which had caused the Comte du Barry such anxiety was crushed against the somewhat sombre garments of the self-styled Baron de Gonesse who, as though at the waving of a wand, had been turned into the King of France.
It was a Jean Plaidy book (or rather a Victoria Holt, one of her pseudonyms), The Queen’s Confession, an novel about Marie Antoinette which sparked my interest in French history and led to my doing a history degree. I remember how pleased I was to find the first of her French Revolution series, Louis the Well-Beloved, in a second-hand book sale. (The sequels are The Road to Compiegne and Flaunting, Extravagant Queen; she also wrote a novel about the Diamond Necklace Affair, Queen of Diamonds). Coming back to Jean Plaidy as an adult, I find her narrative voice a bit flat – she tells the story from a detached omniscient viewpoint which has gone right out of fashion. But she still gives me that same urge to go to the non-fiction shelves in the library to find out if what she describes really did happen. And here’s a coincidence: after reading The Queen’s Confession, I started what would become a very large personal library of books about French history with a biography of Marie Antoinette by Joan Haslip. Looking to find out more about Madame du Barry, I found that the most recent biography (1991) was by Haslip, Madame du Barry: The Wages of Beauty.
The two books read in a quite a similar way, because Jean Plaidy’s is solidly based on fact and Joan Haslip allows herself quite a few novelistic excursions.
Madame du Barry is not a long book. Jean Plaidy focuses on Madame du Barry’s five or so years as Louis XV’s mistress, summarising her early life and the years from Louis XV’s death in 1774 to the outbreak of the French Revolution. The first two chapters play catch-up, setting the scene: Louis XV is approaching sixty, bored and lonely since the death of his beloved mistress Madame de Pompadour, whom he has not managed to replace. Everyone around him is desperately trying to find a substitute mistress through whom they hope to rule the King. So the book really begins with the introduction of Jeanne on page 47:
Her hair was thick and fell in golden curls about her shoulders; her skin was fine and delicate, her eyes a dazzling blue and, because it seemed that Nature had wished to give her that kind of beauty which occurs but rarely, her brows and lashes were of dark brown in an entrancing contrast to her sparkling fairness.
We then backtrack through Jeanne’s childhood. She was born the illegitimate daughter of Anne Becu, a seamstress whose relatives mostly worked as servants to the nobility. Anne moved to Paris where her employer paid for Jeanne to have a convent education. After various different jobs (hairdresser, paid companion, shopgirl) she drifts into high-class prostitution, finally ending up in the King's bed. Plaidy describes her as warm-hearted, playful, kind and generous, a woman who knows how to enjoy life and lives for the moment.
For some time Jeanne lives a shadowy existence at the King’s side, following the Court from palace to palace but unable to appear in public in his company as she has not been presented. The kerfuffle over her presentation is the first of three highly dramatic episodes in her life at Court which Plaidy chooses to focus on. The other two are her quarrel with Marie Antoinette, who refuses to speak to her, and her exile from Court on the death of Louis XV. As official mistress, she has immense power and acquires a vast fortune, but she frequently uses her power for the benefit of others, even her enemies, often obtaining a reprieve from the King when no-one else could.
Despite Marie Antoinette's harsh treatment of her after the King's death, Madame du Barry remains deeply royalist, and during the French Revolution this puts her in terrible danger.
To sum up: I would definitely recommend this. I can't find another novel devoted to du Barry, although there are two in French about her page, Zamor (http://www.amazon.fr/r%C3%AAve-Zamor-Eve-Ruggieri/dp/2259186475), and her sister-in-law, Chon du Barry (http://www.amazon.fr/Mademoiselle-Chon-Barry-surprises-destin/dp/2221083938/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260338786&sr=1-1).
Adapted from a post at The Misadventures of Moppet (http://misadventuresofmoppet.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/royal-mistress-challenge-jean-plaidys-madame-du-barry-part-one/).