Marie Antoinette
The Last Queen of France

I read this Marie Antoinette biography, by a French historian, in tandem with another with the same title by a British historian, which made for a particularly interesting exercise. Fortunately, both books are quite good. There’s a wealth of information out there about Marie Antoinette and the autho......more

When I read this a decade ago all I knew about Marie Antoinette was what I had read in Antonia Fraser's book as well as what I had seen in Coppola's movie. This author is French and her viewpoints and perspective weigh more than less impacted authors opinions. I think this is a rigorous but fair look......more

I jumped on the Marie Antoinette bandwagon with this book after seeing the movie with Kirsten Dunst--which wonderfully filmed, but not much meat too it. I enjoyed the author's attempt to stay unbiased, although you could tell that she had a soft spot for the queen, she didn't hesitate to point out h......more

A little bit dry for my taste and it seems like the author pitied Marie Antoinette but didn’t really like her and that influences how she writes. An interesting read, but maybe not my first choice in biographies.......more

Lever feels sorry for Marie Antoinette, although past a certain point she sort of throws up her hands because the woman literally did nothing but make poor choices. However, it is painfully obvious that Maria Theresa sent her badly-educated, not-very-bright teenage daughter (14!) to the most treache......more