Antonia Fraser is able to give voice to one of the most misunderstood and besmirched figures in history.. Marie Antoinette. As the youngest child of Empress Marie Therese, Marie Antoinette had a largely care-free childhood in Austria. But it was a tragic twist of fate that transplanted MA from the informal court of Vienna to the austere and formal court of Versailles, at the age of fourteen when she became the bride of Dauphin Louis Auguste, the fifteen year old heir to the French throne. MA was hopelessly unprepared for the public life she was to lead in Versailles, and was almost immediately the target of tabloids who nicknamed her "l' Autrichienne" or "The Austrian Woman". And thus began her 23 year life in a country that mostly viewed her with suspicion and never wholly embraced her as their Dauphine, and later their Queen.The book is quite a page-turner, and Fraser is adept at revitalizing a history lesson into something that is both intelectually stimulating and entertaining. The author offers fascinating details of 18th century life in the royal courts of Vienna, Versailles and Paris, while also trying to dispel the many myths that masked MA's real personality. However, I have to give the book only 3 stars out of 5, because I would have enjoyed the book even more if the author had given a more cohesive picture of the events that led up to the French Revolution (instead of focusing on just the events that had a direct impact on MA's life). Yes, the book is supposed to depict MA's evolution from an Austrian princess to the Queen of France, but no biography of MA would be complete without a more detailed explanation of one of Europe's most violent and pivotal revolutions. It was very frustrating that key figures and events of the revolution were merely mentioned in passing!
My second point of criticism is that sometimes Fraser gave herself license to embellish events when presented with an absence of documentary evidence. For example, there is no "real" evidence to support that MA had an extramarital affair with the dashing Count Fersen of Sweden, however the author makes it a point to insist that this was the case, basing her assertions on hear say. The best historical non-fiction writers not only share facts, but also their invaluable insights. Yet there were times when I got the feeling that Fraser was extending her insights into the dangerous territory of exaggeration.
Despite these shortcomings I would still recommend this book for anyone wanting to get a better understanding of MA, and her life from its innocent beginning in Vienna to its brutal end in Paris. You cannot help but feel some compassion for this woman who, despite the accusations of frivolity, was a generous person, a loving mother, a connoisseur of art, lover of music, theater, architecture and all things beautiful. MA's biggest fault was that she did not keep wise counsel. But how could she, when everyone around her was using her as a pawn to advance their own political interests? By the end, her head was wanted by one of the extremist proponents of the Revolution - Jacques Hebert- who had promised it to the "sans-culottes", or the poorer, more radical faction of the Revolutionaries. And so, MA's death - as her life - was yet another political calculation.
