January 2012: Marie Antoinette

[Misfit]

Here you go Moppet. Let me know if you'd like any changes to the title.

[Miss Moppet]

Here you go Moppet. Let me know if you'd like any changes to the title.

Thanks, Misfit! Title is just fine, first post coming up soon.

[Miss Moppet]

I will be posting on the following topics in this order:

1: Marie Antoinette's Life - Important Dates and Controversies
2: Marie Antoinette in Fiction
3: Marie Antoinette - Biographies, Non-Fiction and Primary Sources
4: Marie Antoinette in Film
5: Marie Antoinette Online
6: Finding Marie Antoinette - where to see places MA lived and objects associated with her

I'll subdivide the topics as necessary so my posts don't get too long. None of these topics will be covered comprehensively because there is such a huge amount of material, but I will aim to mention the most important/interesting works, books and sites in each category. Anything I've missed (links, titles of books etc) that others mention/recommend I will edit into my posts (with a credit) so as to make this thread a permanent guide to all things MA. I will launch the topics as often as needed in order to keep discussion going through the month. The topics are really just intended to spark discussion so we don't have to keep to them too strictly.

[Miss Moppet]

2 November 1755: Birth of Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette Josephe Jeanne de Lorraine, Archduchess of Austria, daughter of Francois de Lorraine and of Maria Theresa, was born on the
2nd of November, 1755, the day of the earthquake at Lisbon; and this catastrophe, which appeared to stamp the era of her birth with a fatal mark, without forming a motive for superstitious fear with the Princess, nevertheless made an impression upon her mind.
The Private Life of Marie Antoinette, by Madame Campan.

The second of November, in the Catholic Church, is celebrated as the Feast of All Souls (http://catholicism.about.com/od/holydaysandholidays/p/All_Souls_Day.htm). In France this is still a day on which families lay flowers on their relative's graves (http://blog.catherinedelors.com/chrysanthemums-and-all-souls-day/). The proximity of this sombre ceremony to Hallowe'en two days earlier may be the reason why Hallowe'en has never really taken off as a commercial holiday in France (http://blog.catherinedelors.com/halloween-in-france/).

MA was the fifteenth of the sixteen children of the Empress Maria Theresia and her consort Francois-Etienne de Lorraine. As the youngest of seven surviving daughters, she seemed destined for a relatively modest marriage, perhaps to one of the rulers of the many small principalities which made up the Holy Roman Empire. Had Maria Theresia suspected that she might one day be in the running for the queenship of France, the greatest matrimonial plum in Europe, she would have taken far more care with Marie Antoinette's upbringing and education. As it was, MA was indulged by her governess and allowed to run wild with the sister next in age, Marie Caroline (known as Charlotte during her childhood). Meanwhile, a sequence of events was unfolding which would put her on the path to the French throne.

1 May 1756: An alliance was signed between France and Austria.

This is known to historians as the "reversal of alliances" because these two countries, traditionally enemies, were joining forces for the first time in centuries. This made a marriage between an Austrian archduchess and the French heir, the Dauphin Louis-Auguste (a year older than MA) possible. But it also meant that the Austrian bride, once arrived in France, would be faced with the task of overcoming a very deep-rooted antagonism to her country. In years to come, Marie Antoinette would be known as "the Austrian woman" - in French, l'Autrichienne, which can also be translated as "the Austrian bitch."

18 August 1765: Death of the Emperor Francois, MA's father
20 December 1765: Death of the Dauphin, son of Louis XV
13 March 1767: Death of the Dauphine Marie-Josephe of Saxony
24 June 1768: Death of Marie Leszczska, wife of Louis XV

The death of MA's father, who had been very fond of her, left her completely under the control of her mother, who was herself prostrated with grief and went into permanent mourning just as Queen Victoria was to do following Albert's death. The passing of Louis XV's queen, son and daughter-in-law, although unknown to MA, was even more significant. The death of Louis XV's heir meant that his grandson Louis-Auguste, MA's future husband, was next in line to the throne. The deaths of his queen and daughter-in-law meant that the teenage MA, on arrival at Versailles, would be expected immediately to take up the role of First Lady of France - a role heavily weighted with etiquette and expectation. In similar circumstances, Louis XV's mother, the Duchesse de Bourgogne, had arrived in France as a twelve-year-old and been thoroughly schooled by Louis XIV and his morganatic wife Mme de Maintenon before taking up her ceremonial duties. MA would have no such period of training and no older female figure such as Maintenon to guide her. The nearest equivalents were the Comtesse de Noailles, head of her household, whom she disliked for her rigid approach to etiquette, and her aunts-in-law, Louis XV's daughters, who had their own very specific agenda.

One more death sealed Marie Antoinette's fate. In 1767, the Archduchess Marie Josephe, who was betrothed to Ferdinand of Naples, died of smallpox. It seems that one of the most widely reproduced portraits of MA, by Martin van Meytens, actually depicts Josephe (http://vivelareine.tumblr.com/post/12452949412). Marie Caroline went to Naples in Josephe's place. Otherwise, she rather than her younger sister probably would have been Queen of France.

Once it was clear that Marie Antoinette would be going to France, Maria Theresia made every effort to prepare her for the role, hiring tutors to make up her lost education and employing a hairdresser and a dentist to give her a makeover (which has received a lot of attention recently from authors such as Carolyn Meyer, Melanie Clegg and Juliet Grey).

22 April 1769: Presentation of Mme du Barry at the court of Versailles
19 April 1770: Marriage of MA to the Dauphin by proxy in Vienna
16 May 1770: The real marriage, at Versailles

In the absence of any senior female royal, MA became First Lady of France, but not of Versailles. That place was already taken by Louis XV's beautiful, plebeian mistress, the Comtesse du Barry. The rivalry between MA and the Du Barry would create the drama of her four years as Dauphine, while behind the scenes another drama was unfolding: the ongoing saga of the non-consummation of her marriage.

More to follow!

[fljustice]

Thanks for the post, Misfit. Already leaned a lot. While reading Catherine the Great by Massie, I was fascinated by the role MA's mom Marie Theresa played in European politics. Another powerful woman, I had heard almost nothing about. The fact that she neglected MA explains a lot.

[LoveHistory]

Last year I read Antonia Fraser's book about MA. This is bringing it all back. :)

[boswellbaxter]

Thanks for getting us started with our new feature, Miss Moppet!

[Brenna]

I read Becoming MA and saw the movie with Kirsten Dunst, which was a little overdone, but ok. That concludes my limited knowlege of this lady.

[Miss Moppet]

While reading Catherine the Great by Massie, I was fascinated by the role MA's mom Marie Theresa played in European politics. Another powerful woman, I had heard almost nothing about. The fact that she neglected MA explains a lot.

Last year I read Antonia Fraser's book about MA. This is bringing it all back. :)

<object width="450" height="560"><param name="movie" value="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf?1"><param name="flashvars" value="id=189138729&width=1337"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://backend.deviantart.com/embed/view.swf?1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="450" height="560" flashvars="id=189138729&width=1337" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br><a href="http://Sheilacherry.deviantart.com/art/Maria-Theresa-statue-in-Vienna-189138729">Maria Theresa statue in Vienna</a> by ~<a class="u" href="http://sheilacherry.deviantart.com/">Sheilacherry</a> on <a href="http://www.deviantart.com">deviantART</a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bruchez/2286201074/" title="Kaisergruft / Kapuzinerkirche by Olivier Bruchez, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2072/2286201074_fdea9c4cfa.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Kaisergruft / Kapuzinerkirche"></a>

The double tomb of MA's parents, by Olivier Bruchez at Flickr.

MA's two most recent biographers, Fraser and Simone Bertiere, both point out that while MA was raised to be a consort queen and not to hold political power, her role model throughout childhood was her mother, a powerful ruler in her own right. MT was also not well equipped to guide MA through an arranged marriage, since she herself had married for love. Their experiences in this respect were totally different.

While MT is remembered and celebrated in Austria, MA is thought of as French. The French thought of her as Austrian, so in effect she became stateless!

[Miss Moppet]

10 May 1774: Death of Louis XV
6 August 1775: Birth of the duc d'Angouleme to the comte d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI
18 April 1777: Joseph II, MA's brother, arrives in Paris
20 December 1778: MA gives birth to a daughter, Madame Royale

Marriage and motherhood

It was several years before MA's marriage was consummated, and she was not to give birth to a child until 1778. In the intervening years she and her husband Louis-Auguste faced tremendous pressure from their families, equally anxious to see them produce an heir. While Maria Theresa told MA that the situation was all her fault for not showing the Dauphin more affection, Louis XV called in physicians to try to determine if his grandson needed to have an operation. The Dauphin's hunting diary bears witness to the fact that the situation was resolved without an operation: while the entry ("Rien" = "nothing") on his wedding night simply meant that he had not hunted that day, later entries show that he was never out of the saddle long enough to recover from surgery. Advice from MA's brother Joseph, who visited Versailles in 1777 partly in order to resolve his sister's marital troubles, seems to have been effective. Joseph himself wrote an account of the problem to his brother Leopold, but it is rather frank so I'm putting it behind spoilers:

He [the King] has strong, perfectly satisfactory erections; he introduces the member, stays there without moving for about two minutes, withdraws without ejaculating but still erect, and bids goodnight. It's incredible because he sometimes has night-time emissions; it is only when he is actually inside and going at it, that it never happens. Nevertheless the King is satisfied with what he does.

Although MA was eventually to become a mother, her childless years had done great damage to her image. As dauphine and later queen, her most important job was to provide an heir for France. She knew that the entire court was discussing the matter and that it was being reported back to every other court in Europe. An unconsummated marriage could be annulled, and a queen who had not produced a son could be repudiated and sent back to her homeland. By contrast, the mother of an heir was safe and secure, because any challenge to the legality of her marriage would also bring the legitimacy of the heir into question.

The birth of a son to her sister-in-law, when she herself was still childless, was deeply humiliating to Marie Antoinette. Moreover, the state of her marriage invited speculation: would she take a lover in order to have an heir? When she finally did become a mother, not everyone believed that the King was the father. Both the monarchy and MA's reputation were damaged by her years of celibacy.

Dauphine vs Du Barry

I've written a blog post which goes into more detail (http://misadventuresofmoppet.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/royal-mistress-challenge-jean-plaidys-madame-du-barry-part-one/) on the MA/DB rivalry (scroll down). Madame du Barry would have liked a friendly relationship with MA, and made several overtures to her, even offering to have the King buy her diamonds - an offer haughtily rejected by MA. With the encouragement of the king's aunts, particularly the strong-willed Mme Adelaide, who loathed Mme du Barry, she began to freeze out the favourite, refusing to speak to her in public. Eventually MA was forced to comply, speaking one sentence to Mme du Barry: "There are many people at Versailles today." On the death of Louis XV from smallpox in 1774, making her Queen at 19, she had the royal mistress packed off to a convent.

Unusually for a queen of France, MA was unrivalled by any mistress or favourite. However, this meant that the hatred that royal mistresses usually attracted was diverted to her. Her popularity as Dauphine rapidly dissipated once she was queen, and she succeeded Mme de Pompadour and Mme du Barry as a national hate figure.

[Miss Moppet]

I'm slightly under the weather at the moment, so this is just to let everyone know I won't be posting for a day or two.

[fljustice]

Hope you feel better soon!

[LoveHistory]

Get some rest, Miss Moppet. Hope you're back in tip top shape soon.

[Brenna]

So I am reading Madame Tussuad and I'm gaining a whole new perspective on Marie Antoinette. I grew up learning she said "Let them eat cake" so any book that shows her to be a caring mother, wife, and a pretty decent person is a positive.

Wow, cannot believe the entire family was wiped out. I'm curious about M.A's daughter and where Michelle Moran figured out she was so wretched.

[Miss Moppet]

Hope you feel better soon!

Get some rest, Miss Moppet. Hope you're back in tip top shape soon.

Thanks everyone for your good wishes! I'm feeling much better now.

So I am reading Madame Tussuad and I'm gaining a whole new perspective on Marie Antoinette. I grew up learning she said "Let them eat cake" so any book that shows her to be a caring mother, wife, and a pretty decent person is a positive.

Wow, cannot believe the entire family was wiped out. I'm curious about M.A's daughter and where Michelle Moran figured out she was so wretched.

Yes, MA's daughter was the only survivor of her family. Elena Maria Vidal has written a novel about her (Madame Royale) and there is at least one biography in English, Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter, by Susan Nagel. I haven't read either of them though. Madame Royale wrote her memoirs and there are some translated extracts from them here (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/France/_Texts/CROROY/home.html).

[lauragill]

So I am reading Madame Tussuad and I'm gaining a whole new perspective on Marie Antoinette. I grew up learning she said "Let them eat cake" so any book that shows her to be a caring mother, wife, and a pretty decent person is a positive.

Wow, cannot believe the entire family was wiped out. I'm curious about M.A's daughter and where Michelle Moran figured out she was so wretched.

Marie-Therese was a very bitter woman. She was tricked into marrying her first cousin, who wasn't at all what her uncle painted him to be; that marriage wasn't consummated. She had to return to France with him as queen and face the people who had executed her parents, and she constantly had to deal with imposters claiming to be her brother Louis XVII.

[princess garnet]

One of our members, EM Vidal, wrote a well-written novel titled Madame Royale which is about the daughter. Her blog is "Tea at Trianon" and she has written articles about Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and their family there.

[Miss Moppet]

22 October 1781: Birth of a Dauphin, Louis Joseph
June 1783: The Comte de Fersen returns from America to France
20 February 1785: The Chateau de Saint-Cloud purchased for MA
27 March 1785: Birth of a second son, Louis Charles
15 August 1785: Beginning of the Affair of the Necklace
9 July 1786: Birth of a second daughter, Madame Sophie
18 June 1787: Death of Madame Sophie
5 May 1789: Opening of the Estates General
4 June 1789: Death of the Dauphin Louis-Joseph
14 July 1789: Fall of the Bastille

During these years MA was increasingly unpopular at all levels of society. Within her family, her brothers and sisters-in-law resented her having finally produced an heir to the throne. Her husband's aunts were estranged from her and his cousin the Duc d'Orleans hoped to find his own opportunity in the troubles the monarchy was experiencing. The courtiers and aristocracy, traditionally expected to support the monarchy, were turning away from it: the Assembly of Notables the King called in 1787 to resolve the country's financial crisis refused to introduce new taxes on the grounds that the decision should be taken more democratically. Many of the court nobility had a personal grudge against MA because she favoured her own small group of friends, such as the Princesse de Lamballe and Gabrielle de Polignac. For the Princesse she revived the obsolete and highly paid function of Superintendent of her Household, which insulted the other ladies of the household who were effectively demoted. Gabrielle de Polignac was made a duchess, with much more royal largesse received by her family and friends. Louis XVI had given MA the chateau of Trianon, in the grounds of Versailles, for her own after the death of his grandfather and she enjoyed retiring there with her closest friends for entertainment and private theatricals. Even the King was not allowed to come to Trianon without her invitation.

Although Louis XIV had enjoyed private retreats, he had used them as a political tool, inviting people he wanted to reward or who might be useful to him to join him there. He held it as a principle that royalty owed itself completely to the public and was not entitled to a private life. MA felt that she was entitled to a private life and her lack of enthusiasm about her public role was obvious to all. For example, she loathed the tradition of royalty eating in public and would barely touch her meal when she had to eat in front of visitors and tourists. Her lack of accessibility was resented and meant that the propaganda which circulated about her was more easily believed.

MA was said to have many lovers, male and female including her brother-in-law Artois, Lamballe and Polignac. But only one man seems to have been romantically linked to her, the Swedish Comte de Fersen. It's certain that MA and Fersen were in love but it is unknown whether the relationship was consummated. Personally, I don't think it is likely that MA would have risked pregnancy by a lover. She also experienced poor gynaecological health after the birth of Madame Sophie in 1786.

In the mid 1780s the scandal of the Diamond Necklace affair further blackened MA's reputation.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Collier_reine_Breteuil.jpg/415px-Collier_reine_Breteuil.jpg

This is a reconstruction of the diamond necklace originally intended by the jewellers Boehmer and Bassenge for Madame du Barry, and offered to MA after the death of Louis XV. MA refused the necklace several times, but a con woman called Jeanne de La Motte-Valois managed to convince the jewellers that the Queen was a close friend of hers and did indeed want the necklace. La Motte-Valois stole the necklace, broke it up and sold the diamonds in England. Although she was captured and brought to justice, many people believed her story.

The final years before the Revolution were overshadowed by the deaths of Madame Sophie in 1787 and the first Dauphin in 1789. Although the birth of Louis-Joseph in 1781 had been greeted with great joy and national rejoicing, MA observed bitterly that his death, the month before the fall of the Bastille, went almost unnoticed by the public.

[Miss Moppet]

5-6 October 1789: A mob invades Versailles and carries the royal family to Paris
20 February 1790: Death of Joseph II, succeeded by Leopold II
18 April 1791: The royal family are prevented from travelling to Saint-Cloud
20 June 1791: Flight from Paris of the royal family
21 June 1791: The royal family arrested at Varennes and taken back to Paris
20 June 1792: A crowd invades the Tuileries
10 August 1792: The Tuileries is invaded and the royal bodyguards killed
13 August 1792: The royal family are moved to the Temple
21 January 1793: Execution of Louis XVI
16 October 1793: Execution of Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette is said to have been at the Trianon when a courier brought news of a crowd approaching Versailles. Overnight the palace was invaded and MA had to flee to the King's apartment. The next day she, the King and her children were forced to travel to Paris in the middle of a mob brandishing the heads of their murdered bodyguards on pikes.

During the Revolution MA won praise from her political opponents for the courage she showed in the face of physical danger and the energy and tenacity she devoted to the task of saving the monarchy. As the King sank into depression and apathy, she made secret approaches to politicians she thought might be sympathetic to her cause and carried on a correspondence, written in code, with other European monarchs, in the hope that they would lend their support. Neither she nor the King could accept the idea of a constitutional monarchy: they both felt that he had been appointed by God to rule and should not have to answer to a democratic assembly. They were also horrified by the nationalisation of Church property and the law introduced to make all priests swear loyalty to the state.

Fersen was her greatest support at this time, acting as her ambassador abroad and organising the royal family's escape from Paris. Unfortunately the King was very quickly recognised and the royal family were arrested at the little town of Varennes and forced to return to Paris. MA subsequently considered trying to escape France with the Dauphin but decided that the family should stay together.

Their move to the medieval stronghold of the Temple in August 1792 made the royal family prisoners. MA lost first her husband, executed in January 1793, then her son the Dauphin, who was taken from her care and given to a cobbler to bring up. Finally she was moved to the Conciergerie for her own trial, leaving her daughter and sister-in-law Elisabeth at the Temple. Her last letter, written to Elisabeth the night before her execution, never reached its destination.

It is to you, my sister, that I write for the last time. I have just been condemned, not to a shameful death, for such is only for criminals, but to go and rejoin your brother. Innocent like him, I hope to show the same firmness in my last moments. I am calm, as one is when one's conscience reproaches one with nothing. I feel profound sorrow in leaving my poor children: you know that I only lived for them and for you, my good and tender sister.

David's famous sketch of MA on her way to the scaffold (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jacques-Louis_David_-_Marie_Antoinette_on_the_Way_to_the_Guillotine.jpg ) shows the "firmness" MA had hoped to display. The crowds who attended her execution did not realise that the former Queen was a dying woman: MA was weakened by continual heavy bleeding, probably a symptom of uterine cancer. She may also have been suffering from tuberculosis, most likely contracted from her husband. She may only have had a few months to live, but the political value of her execution was such that she went to the scaffold anyway.

[Ludmilla]

Yes, MA's daughter was the only survivor of her family. Elena Maria Vidal has written a novel about her (Madame Royale) and there is at least one biography in English, Marie-Therese, Child of Terror: The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter, by Susan Nagel. I haven't read either of them though. Madame Royale wrote her memoirs and there are some translated extracts from them here (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/France/_Texts/CROROY/home.html).

LauraGill said: Marie-Therese was a very bitter woman. She was tricked into marrying her first cousin, who wasn't at all what her uncle painted him to be; that marriage wasn't consummated. She had to return to France with him as queen and face the people who had executed her parents, and she constantly had to deal with imposters claiming to be her brother Louis XVII.


I guess you could make comparisons between Louis XVII and Russian Princess Anastasia in being mythologized in popular culture. I was curious how many writers have written stories about Louis XVII and found this list on Wik:


In fictionThe story of Louis Charles is central to the young adult novel Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly.
Louis XVII is one of many aristocrats rescued by the eponymous Scarlet Pimpernel in one of Baroness Emmuska Orczy's novels - Eldorado
The rescue and subsequent attempt to return Louis XVII to the throne is told in the 1937 novel The Lost King by Rafael Sabatini. The now out of print novel covers his supposed escape from the tower mixing fiction with factual names and events.
Mark Twain satirised the host of claimants in the characters of the Duke and the Dauphin, the con men in the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In the novel, a con man claims to be the "Lost Dolphin" of France in order to gain sympathy and charity from the novel's eponymous character.
The apparent discovery of the adult Louis XVII is the central plot point of The Black Tower by Louis Bayard.
A highly-fictionalised Louis XVII appears in the 1991 film Killer Tomatoes Eat France portrayed by Steve Lundquist (credited as "Gerard Lundquist"). In the film, Louis is the modern-day descendant of the French royal family and is restored to the throne by the end of the film.
The 1957 British film Dangerous Exile presents the theory of Louis XVII having been exiled to Wales by balloon.
He is also portrayed in the Japanese anime The Rose of Versailles.
The escape of Louis XVII from The Temple prison is portrayed in "Live Free or Die" by Dominic Lagan (ISBN 0956151809)
The dauphin appears in The Grave Watchers by Missouri Dalton as a watchman (person who has risen from the dead) and is considered to be in control of the French government from the shadows (ISBN 9781610402842).

[Miss Moppet]

That's an interesting list, Ludmilla! In non-fiction, there's The Lost King of France: Revolution, Revenge and the Search for Louis XVII by Deborah Cadbury, which follows the forensic research done to prove whether or not Louis XVII died in the Temple or escaped.

[Miss Moppet]

1810: Marie-Louise, great-niece of MA, marries Napoleon
1814: Restoration of the Bourbons. Louis XVIII commissions the Chapelle Expiatoire
1830: Charles X (former comte d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI) overthrown. Louis-Philippe d'Orleans becomes King of the French and Marie Amelie of Naples, niece of MA, becomes his Queen
1867: Exhibition of objects associated with MA at the Petit Trianon, organised by the Empress Eugenie
1911: An Adventure published by Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain


MA's fate continued to haunt her nineteenth-century successors on the throne of France. in 1810, Napoleon, having divorced the Empress Josephine, chose a great-niece of MA, Marie-Louise, to be his bride. Eerily, he decided that she should travel to France by exactly the same route MA had taken (which also, for part of the way, was the route she had taken on the flight from Paris to Varennes).

In 1814 Napoleon was overthrown and the Bourbons returned. As MA's son Louis XVII had died in the Temple, his uncle, the former Comte de Provence, became Louis XVIII. He ordered the remains of Louis XVI and MA removed from the cemetery of the Madeleine to the Bourbon mausoleum at Saint-Denis and commissioned the Chapelle Expiatoire (http://madameguillotine.org.uk/2010/06/11/chapelle-expiatoire-june-2010/) on the site where they had been buried.

MA's daughter Madame Royale married her first cousin, the son of the comte d'Artois, and when Artois became Charles X on the death of Louis XVIII in 1824, she became Dauphine of France. However, the Revolution of 1830 meant she went into exile instead of becoming Queen. The next Queen of France, or rather Queen of the French, was Marie Amelie (http://teaattrianon.blogspot.com/2007/06/marie-amlie-last-queen.html), daughter of MA's sister Caroline, Queen of Naples, who had once been betrothed to MA's eldest son, the first Dauphin.

In 1851 Napoleon's nephew seized power, eventually becoming Napoleon III. His wife, the Empress Eugenie, had a fascination with MA (http://blog.catherinedelors.com/marie-antoinette-and-eugenie-the-queen-and-the-empress/) and made an effort to collect objects which had belonged to her. These were exhibited at the Petit Trianon in 1867.

The Petit Trianon remains very strongly associated with MA. The book An Adventure, written and published by two Englishwomen in 1911, tells the story of a visit to the Trianon ten years earlier in which they believed they might have encountered the ghost of MA (although only one of them actually saw her; the other only sensed that someone was there, but saw nothing). The book can be read online here (http://www.archive.org/stream/adventurewithapp00mobe#page/n13/mode/2up).

[Miss Moppet]

Jean Plaidy drew on the story of MA several times for her fiction. The Queen's Confession, published in 1968 under the name of Victoria Holt, has the most usual format for MA novels, the Queen telling her own story from the cradle to the grave. Jean Plaidy also produced Flaunting, Extravagant Queen, which was the third in a trilogy on eighteenth century France (the first two are Louis the Well Beloved and The Road to Compiegne, which cover the reign of Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour). It's been a while since I read this one but as I remember it covers much of the same ground but in third person and thus has a less immediate, dryer feel to it than The Queen's Confession which I loved. To my knowledge, FEQ is the only one of Plaidy's MA books currently in print.

JP also wrote The Queen of Diamonds, which tells the story of the Diamond Necklace Affair.

More recent titles include Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette by Sena Jeter Naslund (first person, present tense). The first in a trilogy about MA by Juliet Grey, Becoming Marie Antoinette, came out last year and the second volume, Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow, will be released in 2012 (first person, memoir format). There's also The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette: A Novel by Carolly Erickson (first person, diary format). (I haven't read this one but I am told it takes quite a few liberties with history, including MA and Fersen going on a jaunt to Sweden, and it misses out the Diamond Necklace Affair, so may not be the best choice for anyone new to the period). By contrast, Elena Maria Vidal's Trianon covers the years from 1787 to 1807 in third person, using the viewpoints of MA, Louis XVI, their daughter Mme Royale and other family members and focusing on their Catholic faith.

There are also several titles intended for the YA market: The Bad Queen by Carolyn Meyer, The Secret Diary of a Princess by Melanie Clegg and Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles by Kathryn Lasky.

Additionally, MA appears in many novels as an important secondary character, notably in a recent novel about Madame Tussaud, who taught MA's sister-in-law Madame Elisabeth the art of wax sculpture: Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran, and in Catherine Delors' Mistress of the Revolution, about a French noblewoman at the French court in the 1780s. There's also Chantal Thomas' Farewell My Queen, covering the events of July 1789 from the point of view of a reader to the Queen.

[Miss Moppet]

Biographies

There have been numerous biographies of MA but the two most recent, Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser and Marie Antoinette l'insoumise by Simone Bertiere, are both excellent. Simone Bertiere's biography is the last in a series on the Queens of France, and benefits from her understanding of the demands and constraints of French queenship. She portrays MA as a woman of her times whose wish for privacy, freedom and fulfilment was completely in tune with her contemporaries but alienated her from the Court and the public. Her book is also beautifully written and a pleasure to read. Unfortunately there is no English translation but Antonia Fraser's biography is a very good alternative for the English-speaking reader.

Stefan Zweig's 1933 biography, Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of An Average Woman, is still in print and worth reading although dated. Zweig takes a post-Freudian approach and Bertiere in her own book pays tribute to him as the first author to explore the issue of the non-consummation of MA's marriage.

Non-Fiction

Chantal Thomas's The Wicked Queen: The Origins of the Myth of Marie Antoinette deals with the printed propaganda - crude and often pornographic - which changed MA's public image from heroine to harpy. The first chapter, "The Hostage Princesses" is an insightful analysis of how unpleasant the lives of queens and princesses often were and puts MA's experiences in the context of those of her predecessors.

Caroline Weber's Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution analyses MA's fashion choices and how it shaped her public image.

Primary Sources

Madame Campan's The Private Life of Marie Antoinette is one of the most widely translated and republished of the many memoirs dealing with the reign of Louis XVI which appeared in the nineteenth century. Madame Campan was a Woman of the Bedchamber (sometimes translated as Lady of the Bedchamber, but the two roles are quite different) to MA and remained in her service in the early years of the Revolution. She was viewed with suspicion under the Bourbon Restoration because during the Napoleonic period she had run a school and educated Josephine's daughter Hortense and Napoleon's sisters. Present-day historians are suspicious of her too, seeing the memoirs as an attempt to rehabilitate herself, but they are also very valuable testimony. To take just one example, the much-quoted account of how MA had to wait naked and shivering while her underclothes were passed around, because only the highest ranking woman in the room was allowed to present them to her, comes from Madame Campan.

Imperial Mother, Royal Daughter by Olivier Bernier presents an abridged translation of the correspondence between Marie Antoinette and Maria Theresia, plus excerpts from the dispatches of MT's ambassador, Mercy-Argenteau. This gives the reader the opportunity to hear from MA in her own words, to watch her maturing over the years and understand how strong the pressure from her family was to influence French politics in Austria's favour (which she rarely managed to do).

[Miss Moppet]

Both the major films made about Marie Antoinette, in 1938 and 2006, were based on biographies: Stefan Zweig's Portrait of an Average Woman and Antonia Fraser's The Journey, respectively. The 1938 version (trailer here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0loWVGw69V8), review here (http://periodmovies.blogspot.com/2008/10/marie-antoinette-1938.html)) starred Norma Shearer - and featured catfights and gorgeous gowns against a background of swelling orchestral music and anachronistic deep-buttoned Victorian furniture. In Sofia Coppola's film (trailer here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuByY-DnGYo&feature=fvsr)) Kirsten Dunst (actually looking a little like Norma Shearer) plays MA. Unlike the 1938 version, which followed MA into the Revolution, the 2006 film ends in 1789 with the royal family leaving Versailles. Sofia Coppola's MA is equally gorgeous to look at if equally anachronistic with food and clothes dyed shades of pink that were only invented in the nineteenth century. Both Shearer and Dunst give strong performances.

[Miss Moppet]

These are a few of the blogs which focus on or regularly feature posts on MA or 18th century France:

Versailles and more (http://blog.catherinedelors.com/)
Madame Guillotine (http://madameguillotine.org.uk/)
Tea at Trianon
Reading Treasure (http://vivelaqueen.blogspot.com/)
Marie Antoinette Online (http://www.marie-antoinette.org/)
What Would Marie Antoinette Do? (http://whatwouldmarieantoinettedo.wordpress.com/)
Marie Antoinette's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century (http://marie-antoinettequeenoffrance.blogspot.com/)

[Miss Moppet]

Anna Amber has done a wonderful and very comprehensive post (http://vivelaqueen.blogspot.com/2011/07/finding-marie-antoinette-american-guide.html) on where to find MA-related objects in the US.

The two places most closely associated with MA in Europe are Paris and Vienna. Here are some suggestions of places to visit:

Paris and the Ile de France
Chateau de Versailles (http://en.chateauversailles.fr/homepage)
The park of Marly, where MA went to see the sun rise (http://www.musee-promenade.fr/site/gauche/bloc_menus_gauches/accueil)
The Conciergerie (http://conciergerie.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/)
The Chapelle Expiatoire (http://chapelle-expiatoire.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/), built by Louis XVIII to honour the memory of MA and Louis XVI
The Basilica of Saint-Denis (http://saint-denis.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/), where MA is buried
At the Chateau de Compiegne (http://www.musee-chateau-compiegne.fr/) and Chateau de Fontainebleau (http://www.musee-chateau-fontainebleau.fr/), summer and autumn residences of the French royal family, interiors and furniture created for MA survive

Vienna
The Hofburg (http://www.hofburg-wien.at/en/), where MA grew up
Schonbrunn (http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en.html), modelled on Versailles, summer residence of the imperial family
The Palace of Liechtenstein (http://www.palaisliechtenstein.com/en/home.html) and the Belvedere (http://www.belvedere.at/de), where celebrations were held for MA's wedding
The Abbey of Melk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melk_Abbey), where she spent a night on her way to France

In London, both the Wallace Collection (http://www.wallacecollection.org/) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (http://www.vam.ac.uk/) hold objects which once belonged to MA. The Wallace Collection has one room with more pieces of her furniture than anywhere else in the world (http://wallacelive.wallacecollection.org/eMuseumPlus?service=direct/1/ResultDetailView/result.tab.link&sp=10&sp=Sroom&sp=SfieldValue&sp=0&sp=2&sp=3&sp=SdetailView&sp=0&sp=Sdetail&sp=0&sp=F&sp=SdetailBlockKey&sp=1). The Victoria and Albert's European 18th century rooms are closed for refurbishment until 2014, so not all their MA pieces are on view.

[fljustice]

Misfit, I wanted to thank you for taking this on. I've been following the posts closely, but not commenting because it's not a time period I've spent a lot of time in. Very interesting!

[Miss Moppet]

I've just watched Versailles: Countdown to Revolution (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01cbq85/Versailles_Countdown_to_Revolution/) on the BBC iplayer site - well worth viewing for anyone interested in the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. It's dramatised with French actors (subtitles provided) and commentary from historians and biographers including Antonia Fraser. Filmed at Versailles with lots of lovely costumes and visuals. Only available to UK viewers unfortunately and only until the evening of Weds 22 Feb, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I haven't found a DVD version so far.