Rating: 
Summary: History as a soap opera
Review: A biography which hides, behind an overwhelming amount of details, a disarming lack of substance. Nothing more than a historical soap opera. From Antonia Fraser, author of an exemplary "Mary Stuart", it is legit to demand much more.
It is singular that two of the best queen's biographies of the post Zweig and Castelot era were never translated into English: the moving "Chère Marie-Antoinette" (1988) by Jean Chalon and the unreachable "Marie-Antoinette l'insoumise" (2002) by Simone Bertière, maybe the best work on Marie Antoinette I've ever read. Whoever knows French should not miss these books. I also signal the recent French DVD release of the movie "L'Autrichienne" (1989), written by the specialist Castelot, based entirely on the proceedings' minutes of the trial of the queen: a stunning piece of work with an absolutely superb Ute Lemper as Marie Antoinette.
Rating: 
Summary: Marie Antoinette's day in court...209 years after her death
Review: Antonia Fraser does an excellent job with her detailed biography of one of history's most maligned figures, and offers a view of a different, more human Marie Antoinette. I liked very much that she took the time to provide the background of court life and politics in both France and Austria, what drove these two countries (not traditional enemies like France and Britain, but uneasy, distrustful, sometimes allies, sometimes enemies) to make the kind of political pact represented by the marriage of Marie Antoinette to Louis XVI, and the not-so-surprising results of the doomed-from-the-start union. She goes into great detail about how ill-prepared Marie Antoinette was to cope with being the Queen of France. She was poorly educated, not given enough instruction about political intrigue, nor given good advice about how to go about fulfilling her primary duties (to provide an heir to the Bourbon throne) when she had a husband who had no interest in her and plenty of his own issues to address! She was asked to serve far too many masters--her husband, France and the French people, her mother, Austria, her family, etc. The French people (and the French court) accused her of serving Austria. Her mother (Empress of Austria) accused her of forgetting her duties (she was married off to Louis in order to influence France and to bring France into a closer relationship with Austria) because she was not advancing Austria's cause! She was married to the heir to the throne who did not consumate the marriage for 7 years, yet she was blamed for not providing an heir! Granted, both she and Louis were very young when they married in 1770--she was only 14 years old, and Louis was only 15 years old. Fraser provides descriptions of a child-like (physically and emotionally) Marie Antoinette, and Louis as an overweight teenager who had issues of his own in addition to having been taught not to trust Austrians. Marie Antoinette was not perfect. She was extravagant, spent huge sums of money on clothes, parties, and a residence called (Le Petit Trianon) at a time when France was facing internal and external hardships. Should she have been wiser about the political storm brewing in her adopted country? Perhaps, but since she had so little influence with her husband, I have many doubts that she could have saved the monarchy by behaving differently. She was a convenient scapegoat for many different factions in France because she was considered an outsider, even after she had children. She became a symbol of everything that was wrong with the monarchy, and at that point, nothing could save her or her family.
I enjoyed this book because Fraser shows a side of Marie Antoinette that is often conveniently forgotten in standard history classes, and gives her her day in court (a chance to state her side of the story, a chance to defend herself, a chance to be heard). I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The very best biography of a complex and interesting woman
Review: Every elementary school student knows all about Marie Antoinette... the selfish, petty queen who said "let them eat cake!" and had her head chopped off. She is the byword for upper-class excess, for the demolition of monarchy, and for ditziness. Visitors to Versailles can wander around her strange little village, where she play-acted at being a commoner, and shake their heads, glad to live in a 21st century democracy.
This book cuts through the incredible amount of mythology that surrounds Marie Antoinette, and offers an excellent study of someone who you may be shocked to discover was actually an extremely complex character. You might even be surprised at the origin of the infamous baked-goods comment. You will certainly come away from this book feeling sorry for this much-maligned lady, who certainly was not perfect but was also absolutely not the monster that we teach our children about.
Mr. Frasier is one of the most talented historians writing today, and it is great to see her turn her attention to the other side of the Channel. Her research is, as always, impecable and her writing style is neat, accessible, and interesting. Long-time fans of Ms. Frasier will be thrilled with this book, and people who are unfamiliar with her work on Renaissance England will have a wonderful introduction to her work.
Rating: 
Summary: Read It and Weep
Review: I began reading this wonderful biography of Marie Antoinette while planning a trip to France and although the book is long, and at times rather tedious, it did not dissapoint my intrigue with this historically tragic figure.Antonia Fraser has written what seems to be about as accurate a biography as possible. Many horrible stories have been told about Marie Antoinette and this book covers those as well as many more that I never knew. Like most people my introduction to Marie Antoinette was with her "Let them eat cake..." speech and her over-extravagant life style. It seemed almost understandable that she was beheaded based on such misrepresentation. In reality the story reads much more tragically once you get to know a bit about her life and how it all ended. Imagine being a precocious but innocent young girl raised up like property to be sold to the highest royal bidder. Then at 14 being sent away from your friends and family to become the wife of another royal child. Marie Antoinette left Austria and had to adapt to becomming a future queen of France within only a few short years. The French, during those times, being notoriously inclined to think of Austrian women as unflattering and unfeminine oafs. But young Marie pulled it all off and successfully became the star of France. Her husband Louis XVI was more interested in hunting and gadgets than creating a future French dynasty with Marie. So it isn't a wonder that she fills up her life with all the riches of royality. Her life is a sad saga from beginning to end despite her royality and wealth. The final chapters of this book are unimaginable to fathom. She is taken from her family once again, thrown in a small cell, stripped of any royal privileges and left to contemplate her own demise. Imagine becomming all you never dreamed of, hearing the crowd cheer the beheading of your husband, listening to the coerced testimony of your only son stating the abuses he suffered by your own hands, seeing the head of your friend paraded on a stake past your cell window, hemorrhaging from stress and exhaustion and then having to walk up a platform towards your death with a roaring crowd surrounding you.....few of us could stand it, but Marie Antoinette did. Her story is a great read but in order to get Marie's true essence one must walk the halls of Versailles and then sit in contemplation near her cell in the La Conciergerie.....this extraordinarily strong woman lives on in infamy and her spirit reigns supreme.
Rating:
Summary: Romance, reality and terror
Review: I have read numerous books on this topic, from Quentin Reynolds 1950's schoolbook biography through the memoirs of Madame Campan and Oliver Bernier's edition of the letters between Marie Antoinette and her mother, Empress Maria Theresa. In none of these previous books have I found the small touches of personality which humanize this well-biographed personality of Revolutionary France. In specific, I find the details of her relationship to her own daughter, Marie Therese, of great interest. That Marie Antoinette was aware of the reasonably immature snobbishness of her daughter is an interesting insight. Of course the incredible brutality of the revolutionaries - in the name of freedom - and the making of both the king and his wife into scapegoats, as well as the vileness of the pamplets published by ambitious would be kings and unfortunately, relatives of the king create sympathy for both monarchs. The revolution was about the abolition of privilege, yet the very people taking down the nobility, took on their former privileges for themselves, and would soon replace the late Louis XVI with his two brothers, a nephew and two emperors, demonstrating how pointless the deaths of the monarchs was. Revolution, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Much too biased -
Review: I normally read history looking for battles and excitement (Napoleon bios for example), or looking for funny stuff. In this case I bought the book because of the charming picture on the cover, and was surprised to find myself so deeply moved. Marie Antoinette was flawed, as Fraser tells us often enough, but she was also good and lovable. To see her slowly, inexoribly moving toward what we know is going to be a horrible fate is quite gut-wrenching, but compelling all the same. Fraser has also done a fine job of setting up the social atmosphere of the period (and I couldn't care less if she got a few details wrong). Whichever reviewer said that it should be a TV movie was right! This modern take on a traditionally maligned woman could easily capture the hearts of millions of North American television--or movie--viewers.
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Summary: Excellent read..wish ending was better for Marie!
Review: I was so sad to have this book end! As you read the book, you learn to appreciate Marie for the person she was. There were so many facts about her life that I did not know. As you turn the pages, you share her good times and bad times. I wish the ending was better...but she was courageous to the end. Sorry that she had such a rotten ending. Buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Very good biography on Marie Antoninette
Review: Marie Antoninette proves to be a highly readable and nicely research biography. Antonia Fraser made it pretty clear that this Queen of France was probably one of the most misunderstood and most falsely maligned personalities of the French Revolution, accused by her enemies from being a lesbian to a drunkard. While Marie Antoniette was a person of many weaknesses, the author made it clear that outside of her undereducated and immature mind, her spendthrift ways which probably wasn't good for France, Marie Antoniette was none of the things that she was accused of being. Actually in reading this book, I was bit surprised how ordinary and somewhat boring her life was until the last six years before her death. But here's lies the weakness of the book. The book really doesn't go that deep into Marie Antoniette's life during that crucial period. I have read more detail accounts of her life in other books that dealt strictly with the French Revolution then I have in this biography. The book was very good in informing the reader of the pre-French Revolution period of Marie Antoninette's life but faltered afterward. Maybe Antonia Fraser should have stop in 1789 since she really didn't have much to add that wasn't written before by other authors. (Of course, if she did that, it won't be a "complete biography".) Overall though, this book is well worth any reader's time to read if you have such interest in the life and time of Marie Antoninette. For those who don't read much on the French Revolution, its an excellent choice! Author's effort to rehabilitate Marie Antoninette's reputation proves to be pretty successful and with certain justice, long overdue.
Rating:
Summary: The Austrian woman
Review: Pampered daughter of an Empress, doomed Queen of France, Marie Antoinette is one of the most Romantic figures in world history. Though many denounce her as selfish and stupid, she has her champions who see her as a compassionate woman victimized by historical circumstances. One of these is Antonia Fraser, whose "Marie Antoinette: The Journey" (2001) may well be one of the most sympathetic portraits ever written of a monarch, aside from "official biographies". (But then, the author handled Mary, Queen of Scots the same way.) Beginning with her childhood as an Archduchess in Vienna, daughter of the doting but stern Maria Theresa, the book follows Maria Antonia's journey into France as the fiancée of the hapless Dauphin, becoming the sparkling Marie Antoinette. Extraordinarily popular (at first), she usually displayed the finest discretion and kindness, despite her haughty attitude towards the Comtesse du Barry (who, incidently, was to share her fate). So many of the nasty rumors circulated about her were most likely untrue, including the "Let them eat cake" story, which Antonia Fraser says was first attributed to the wife of Louis XIV in the 17th Century. The libelles accusing Marie Antoinette of cruelty and promiscuity only prove that trashy publications are not confined to our era. Her attachment to Count Axel Fersen is recounted unblushingly, and it becomes particularly touching in 1791, when the dashing Swede tried to to help the Queen get her family out of France. Probably the most complicated and incriminating episode in Marie Antoinette's life was the Diamond Necklace Affair (Napoleon said it more than anything else led her to the guillotine), and Antonia Fraser describes its intricacies carefully -- emphasizing, bien sûr, the Queen's innocence. Oddly enough, of the many portraits of Marie Antoinette, few show her displaying a necklace at all, much less anything resembling the rivière of the scandal. For a woman supposedly so enamored of jewels, she didn't seem to wear many. (There are more than 50 illustrations, most of them color plates.) The book is nearly 500 pages long, but the descriptions of court life and an increasingly dangerous political situation make for easy reading. Despite her husband's respect and the adoration of her children, Marie Antoinette will always have her detractors. But this biography shows that the Queen's final torments, as well as the judicial travesties enacted against her, more than compensate for any mistakes she may have made during her luxurious journey to disaster.
Rating:
Summary: Unquiet ghosts of Versailles
Review: The best biographers know they have to be sympathetic to their subjects somehow or the biography just isn't very interesting; fortunately in Marie Antoinette Antonia Fraser found not only someone sympathetic but even someone who was, for all her faults, ultimately admirable in her composure and grace in the midst of horrors. Fraser does not whitewash the queen's extravagance nor her intellectual limitations nor even her affair with Count Felsen of Sweden, but she also shows that the Austrian-born consort has been unjustly maligned for being excessively Machiavellian (which she was almost incapable of being) and for the Diamond Necklace Affair (where the queen was almost wholly innocent, although she did mismanage her own exoneration). She is also very moving in her descriptions of how Marie Antoinette was a pawn in her mother's dynastic strategies, and perceptive in her explanations of how Louis XVI's sexual awkwardness resulted initially in the queen's constant anxiety regarding her inopportunity to provide an heir and then later in her unlucky assumption of the roles usually accorded to the king's mistress. Fraser writes beautifully, with a strong sense of narrative and character: I found it a hard to stop reading. The color photo inserts are also quite well chosen. My only strong gripe would be the inadequate genealogical charts Fraser provides, which is especially unfortunate given the multiple (and confusing) titles assumed by the king's and queen's immediate Bourbon and Hapsburg family members. Fraser wastes space providing a chart showing how both Louis and Marie Antoinette are descended from mary Stuart--something of great interest to her, perhaps (as the foremost biographer of Mary, Queen of Scots), but not to her readers, who would benefit more from a chart explainging other things.
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