Becoming Marie Antoinette
is the first book in a new trilogy about the notorious French Queen, Marie
Antoinette. In this first novel, author
Juliet Grey takes us on a journey from Schönbrunn castle in Vienna, Austria to
Versailles in France, as we watch little Maria Antonia, archduchess of Austria
transform into Marie Antionette, madame la Dauphine and eventually Queen of
France. In Austria, Antonia (as she is called) is raised alongside her many
brothers and sisters as the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa of
Austria. Her idyllic life consisted of sunny picnics with her sisters and
playing with her dolls and dog Mops. She knows that one day she will be
sacrificed to her family’s political ambitions, after all the Hapsburg family motto
is “Others wage wars; you, happy Austria, marry” however she does not expect
that the day will come so soon.
At age 10 Antonia is betrothed to Louis Auguste,
Dauphin of France and grandson of Louis XV. Before Antonia is allowed to marry
the Dauphin, she must undergo a complete transformation, from her teeth to her
hair to her knowledge of history and French, before she is deemed to be a
suitable wife for the next King of France. Once the transformation is complete,
Antonia leaves her beloved homeland for the French court at Versailles where
she becomes Marie Antoinette. Life at Versailles isn’t at all what she had
imagined; instead of a glittering court she finds a rundown palace and she soon
finds that life as the Dauphine and a wife is quite boring and lonely. Her
husband won’t touch her, she doesn’t know who she can trust and the king is in
poor health, Marie Antoinette’s survival at the court of Versailles hangs in
the balance.
☆☆☆☆½
I
thoroughly enjoyed the debut novel from Juliet Grey. Marie Antoinette is one of
my favourite historical figures and I find her life extremely interesting. Every
time I pick up a novel about this infamous French Queen, I always find myself
wishing for a happy ending, although I know that this will not be the case. I
absolutely loved the way that this novel was written; there was enough
background information given for the reader to fully understand what was going
on in the daily lives of the characters, which were developed with care and detail
as well.
I loved how Marie Antoinette was portrayed in a sympathetic manner, from
a naive, frivolous little girl who develops into a mature and intelligent (yet
still naive) young woman throughout the novel. There is evidently character
growth throughout the novel as Maria Antonia becomes Marie Antoinette. I really
appreciated that Grey focused as much on her early life as an Austrian
Archduchess as she did on her being the Dauphine as this is uncommon in the
world of historical fiction based on Marie Antoinette. The details included
were amazing and they made the story vivid and life like.
The only criticism I had about the novel was
that although it was impeccably researched, it has a lot of repetition of
events from other historical fiction novels based on the life of Marie
Antoinette, for example her relationship with her strict mother, her strong
distain for French etiquette and her husbands inability to consummate their
marriage for many years. With that being said, I think that the way that Grey
wrote these events made them unique and enjoyable to read.
Overall I really,
really enjoyed this novel and I cannot wait for the second and third books to
come out.
Book
2: “Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow” due out in Summer 2012
Book
3 due out in 2013
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