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starting us off...

(see under "By Era" for French Revolution fiction)
annis
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Post by annis » Fri October 10th, 2008, 6:50 pm

I'll put in Evelyn Anthony's 1975 novel "Anne of Austria"

<Set in 17th century France this story charts the life of Anne of Austia Queen of Louis 13th and mother of Louis 14th.
Anne's life with Louis 13th was not an easy one and their marrage was childless for many years. Later she had to battle for her son's rights in the civil wars known as the Fronde.
But the strength determination and perseverance of this clever woman shine through in this book.
Anne of Austia steps forward out of the shadow of the brilliant men with whom she shared the worlds stage, not least her son Louis 14th and her possible lover Cardinal Mazaran, as a passionate capable intelligent woman>.

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Fri October 10th, 2008, 6:54 pm

[quote=""annis""]I'll put in Evelyn Anthony's 1975 novel "Anne of Austria"

<Set in 17th century France this story charts the life of Anne of Austia Queen of Louis 13th and mother of Louis 14th.
Anne's life with Louis 13th was not an easy one and their marrage was childless for many years. Later she had to battle for her son's rights in the civil wars known as the Fronde.
But the strength determination and perseverance of this clever woman shine through in this book.
Anne of Austia steps forward out of the shadow of the brilliant men with whom she shared the worlds stage, not least her son Louis 14th and her possible lover Cardinal Mazaran, as a passionate capable intelligent woman>.[/quote]

I'll have to find that one! Sounds interesting.
Susan Higginbotham
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Telynor
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Post by Telynor » Fri October 10th, 2008, 8:47 pm

Oh my, it can be quite a few:

Fiction:
Queen Margot by Alexandre DumasThe Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley
Mistress of the Revolution by Catherine Delors
To Dance with Kings by Rosalind Laker
The Angelique series by Anne and Serge Golon
Les Liaisons Dangereuse by Choderlos de Lachos

Nonfiction:
Athenais by Lisa Hilton
The Affair of the Poisons by Anne Somerset
Love and Louis XIV by Antonia Fraser
First Lord of the Bedchamber
Brother of the Sun King
Catherine di Medici, Queen of France by Leonie Frieda
Marie Antoinette, the Journey by Antonia Fraser
Marie-Therese, Child of the Terror

I know that there is probably more, but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Fri October 10th, 2008, 9:20 pm

A couple of really good one set during the French Revolution are Sandra Gulland's The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., which I've reviewed at http://www.historicalnovels.info/Many_Lives.html and our own Catherine Delors' Mistress of the Revolution, which I've reviewed at http://www.historicalnovels.info/Mistre ... ution.html. Both of these kept me up reading past my bedtime!
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

Holly Tucker
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Zowee!

Post by Holly Tucker » Sat October 11th, 2008, 9:09 am

Amazing suggestions. Somebody said that I'd start despairing shortly after I joined the group...because my TBR pile would be huge.

Anne of Austria fascinates me. Absolutely fascinates me. She was Spanish, had a heavy Spanish accent that she could never shake, was married off at something like 14, was accused of treason, took over 20 years to get pregnant (some of that was because she and Louis XIII grew to hate each other), was regent of France and reigned with the Italian Cardinal Mazarin, got booted from power unceremoniously by her son in 1661, and then died a miserable death from breast cancer. The treatments she received make me shudder everytime I think about them.

So...yes, I have to get my hands on the Anne of Austria book you suggested!

Holly
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com

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Amanda
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Post by Amanda » Sat October 11th, 2008, 9:20 am

[quote=""Holly Tucker""]Amazing suggestions. Somebody said that I'd start despairing shortly after I joined the group...because my TBR pile would be huge.

Anne of Austria fascinates me. Absolutely fascinates me. She was Spanish, had a heavy Spanish accent that she could never shake, was married off at something like 14, was accused of treason, took over 20 years to get pregnant (some of that was because she and Louis XIII grew to hate each other), was regent of France and reigned with the Italian Cardinal Mazarin, got booted from power unceremoniously by her son in 1661, and then died a miserable death from breast cancer. The treatments she received make me shudder everytime I think about them.

So...yes, I have to get my hands on the Anne of Austria book you suggested!

Holly
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com[/quote]

My only real contact with the Anne of Austria story was through The Musketeers saga. She was certainly an interesting character! And that is a great summary for her Holly!

annis
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Post by annis » Sat October 11th, 2008, 7:21 pm

One of Anne of Austria's ladies-in-waiting, Madame de Motteville, wrote the story of the queen's life in her "Mémoires d'Anne d'Autriche".

The book is available to buy second-hand (in English translation), but it can also be read free online at the Iinternet Archive:
http://www.archive.org/details/memoirso ... 02mottuoft
Last edited by annis on Sat October 11th, 2008, 7:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Ludmilla
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Post by Ludmilla » Sat October 11th, 2008, 9:55 pm

These are some old ones, mostly out of print, I think. We rescued these from my husband's grandmother's house after she died, and I haven't had a chance to read them. If anyone has read them, I'd love to know what you thought of them. I've been wondering which ones are worth trying (though I'm familiar with du Maurier's work already).

The Courts of Love; a Romance of Medieval France
by Peter Bourne
Fiction, General Literature, Middle Ages, France, Chivalry, Eleanor of Aquitaine

The Glass-Blowers
by Daphne du Maurier
Fiction, Historical, France, 18th Century, French Revolution

Bridge of Glory
by Bradda Field
Fiction, Historical, 18th Century, 19th Century, England, France, Napoleonic Wars, Lady Emma Hamilton

The Emperor's lady, a novel based on the life of the Empress Josephine
by F. W. Kenyon
Fiction, Historical, France, 19th Century, Napoleon

The Ivory Mischief
by Arthur Meeker
Fiction, Historical, 17th Century, France, Louis XIV

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Julianne Douglas
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Post by Julianne Douglas » Sun October 12th, 2008, 1:40 am

The Lacemaker by Janine Montupet

Gardener to the King by Frederic Richaud

Queen's Play by Dorothy Dunnett (second book in the Lymond Chronicles)

To Dance with Kings by Rosalind Laker
Julianne Douglas

Writing the Renaissance

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Sheramy
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Post by Sheramy » Sun October 12th, 2008, 9:48 pm

I enjoyed many of the books listed above, and I'd add...

Susan Vreeland, Luncheon of the Boating Party [about Renoir, natch]
Tracy Chevalier, Lady and the Unicorn [about the Cluny tapestries]
Tracy Chevalier, Virgin Blue [historical/contemporary mix]
Joanne Harris, Holy Fools [love all her books, but this one is a historical]
Gioia Diliberto, I Am Madame X [about the famous Sargent painting]
Arabella Edge, The God of Spring [about painter Theodore Gericault]
Harriet Scott Chessman, Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper [about American painter in Paris Mary Cassatt]
Sandra Gulland, Mistress of the Sun

It's a contemporary, not historical, but a really good Paris-themed novel I read this year is Katharine Davis' Capturing Paris. Wonderful!
Sunflowers: A Novel of Vincent van Gogh, forthcoming from Avon-A, 13 October 2009
My blog: http://vangoghschair.blogspot.com
My website: http://www.sheramybundrick.com
For it is truly the discovery of a new hemisphere in a person's life when he falls seriously in love. -Vincent van Gogh

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