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Summary: History Gave Marie A Raw Deal
Review: The French were looking for a scapegoat and they found one in the Austrian Marie Antoinette. Such an awesome read! If you like rading about royalty or just hate the French, this book's for you!
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Summary: Another chef-d'oeuvre from Antonia Fraser
Review: This biography is a vivid example of how life is not black and white but purely gray.... Marie Antoinette is there, first as a spoiled child, poorly educated, cherished by her family only for the prospect of creating alliance for the country they run... Only marriage and children are expected from her... Then at 14, leaves for France, she even barely speaks French, finds herself in the middle of a culture she does not belong to... She is not smart enough to manage the relations... She finds herself immerged in pleasure and fun... And then comes the Revolution of which she really does not understand anything at all... You pity her for her stupidity, for her lack of insight, for her being so naive as well.... She is not a saint as pictured by royalist, she is not the "l'autrichienne" as revolutionists depict her... She is just a human being not readied for her role, not equipped with intelligence, wit nor wisdom required by her position in the history... Antonia Fraser did an excellent job to bring her back to life as she was, protected from the prejudices of history...
Rating: 
Summary: Not Up to Antonia Fraser's Other Efforts
Review: This book is a total white wash of Marie Antoinette. If you are looking for an unbiased biograph, do not look here. Compared to "Mary Queen of Scots" and "Cromwell", this book was just not up to Ms. Fraser's usual high standards. I could not wait for this book to come out, ran out and bought it and read it immediately. While reading it, I kept wondering, "This is Antonia Fraser?" Ms. Fraser would have written a much better book if she could have seen the good and bad in Marie Antoinette. Yes, she was a pawn of history. Yes, she was a devoted mother. BUT, she was part of that aristocratic world which presumed that certain people were--by reason of birth--better than everyone else. Ultimately she paid a price she really didn't deserve to pay.Next time I'll wait a bit longer to run out and buy a book by Ms. Fraser.
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Summary: Not Up to Antonia Fraser's Other Efforts
Review: This book is a total white wash of Marie Antoinette. If you are looking for an unbiased biograph, do not look here. Compared to "Mary Queen of Scots" and "Cromwell", this book was just not up to Ms. Fraser's usual high standards. I could not wait for this book to come out, ran out and bought it and read it immediately. While reading it, I kept wondering, "This is Antonia Fraser?" Ms. Fraser would have written a much better book if she could have seen the good and bad in Marie Antoinette. Yes, she was a pawn of history. Yes, she was a devoted mother. BUT, she was part of that aristocratic world which presumed that certain people were--by reason of birth--better than everyone else. Ultimately she paid a price she really didn't deserve to pay. Next time I'll wait a bit longer to run out and buy a book by Ms. Fraser.
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Summary: A fabulous read about a truly tragic figure
Review: This book is fantastic - a must read for anyone who is interested in the life of Marie Antoinette, or in the political wranglings of the Court of Versailles, but mainly for the former. It gives an excellent history of Marie Antoinette from birth in Austria as an archduchess, to her tragic death at the hands of revolutionary France as a deposed queen. I only shy from rating this book with 5 stars because it can get a little confusing. There is a web of people that come in and out of the queen's life, and Fraser sometimes has a difficult time helping you to keep track of them all; other than that though, a worthy read. A scape-goat, a mother, a queen, and most of all, completely misunderstood. A Truly interesting take on a queen so scornfully detested by the ones she loved the most. Any notions you think you may have about her will probably be cast aside when you've finished reading this book.
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Summary: Much too biased -
Review: This book is very anti-french and pro-aristocratic and makes much effort to present the past in such light. It is incredibly tedious with overwhelming amounts of detail. The truth usually lies somewhere in between and that is certainly not what is presented here. Antonia Fraser made fiction from historic materials.
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Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This book, I believe, touched to the heart of Marie Antoinette.
Ms. Fraser has done more than wonderful a job on this book. I have been so tired of seeing poorly researched books written (The Wicked Queen by Chantal Thomas, Julie Rose.. horrible!) of Marie Antoinette, that are based on heresy of a population that I believe used her as a scapegoat for all their misery and much misunderstanding on both parts. Perhaps Marie Antoinette was a victim not only of the French Revolution and the facts leading thereof, but of her own naivete as well as Louis XVI.
I found the book touching, and even though I knew what was to come in the end, Ms. Fraser kept me hoping the Royal Family would escape harm.
I am not a historian, but an avid reader of women in history. Marie Antoinette has always been one of my favorites. As an average reader, I believe readers alike will find this book to be highly enthralling, a page turner. As a mother, I believe readers will find a tear or two escaping. (I know I did!)
I loved this book! It is now on my 'favorites' shelf.
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Summary: great, but has one historical faux-pas
Review: This is a wonderful, wonderful book, but Ms. Fraser makes a mistake when she states that Isabella of Castille was a queen from the Habsburg dynasty. Isabella was a Trastamara, daughter of Enrique de Trastamara, king of Castille; it was her daughter, Juana, who married a Habsburg, Philip the Fair. From Juana on, the Spanish regnant family was Habsburg, until the XVII century. Aside from this, Ms. Fraser, you are the best!!
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Summary: A First-Rate Historical Biography!
Review: This is only the second book that I've read by Antonia Fraser, the other one being her last, Faith and Treason. Although I enjoyed that book well enough (for Fraser is a very capable writer, able to both capture and hold the reader's attention), I was more than a little uncomfortable with the obvious bias that shone through an otherwise excellent treatment of England's Gunpowder Plot. I was hesitant, therefore, about purchasing this one; but as it turned out, I thoroughly enjoyed this 488-page hardcover (with 429 pages of actual text). I found it to be enthralling, captivating, eye-opening, informative, and insightful, making it a joy to read and a book that I could not wait to get back to. Additionally, it is amply illustrated (48 pages, mostly colour), and I found Fraser's treatment to be fairly thorough (though perhaps not quite so thorough as I've come to expect with Alison Weir's books). Most importantly, I came away from the book with not only a greater knowledge and understanding of (not to mention sympathy for) one of the most famous women in history, but a much deeper understanding of the French Revolution and of the various factors leading up to it. Fraser does write in a manner that is sympathetic to Antoinette. I do feel authors of historical subjects ought to be as objective as possible; perhaps, though, it is as Fraser says: "[I]s [looking without passion] really possible with regard to the career and character of Marie Antoinette?" (p. 422). This was a woman who, in her lifetime, was either greatly admired or vehemently loathed (sentiments which don't seem to have softened much with the passage of time). More significantly, however, this was a woman who was clearly maligned. Like the rest of us, she had her faults (which are certainly not glossed over by Fraser), but surely no one who has even an ounce of compassion (whether he or she be detractor or admirer) could think that this woman deserved the callous treatment she received and the abject humiliations to which she was subjected. Antoinette appears, in spite of her faults, to have been primarily a compassionate and kind-hearted (if not overly intelligent) woman. Nevertheless, she had the misfortune of being by accident of birth of royal blood (and Austrian blood at that) and, by the machinations of a domineering mother, queen consort to the king of France at a time when the French court was, in essence, an opulent fish bowl. As a result, Antoinette had the additional misfortune of being at the mercy of libelists intent on her destruction (at a time when there were obviously no libel laws). With reference to Louis XVI, Fraser makes a comment equally applicable to Antoinette: She was hated, not for what she did, but for who she was (ie. a foreigner and a representative of the old order). Any legitimate faults she may have had were, it would seem, merely surplus to requirement for a woman who already had more than enough black marks against her. Those who think that horror and tragedy are the domain of novelists would be well advised to think again. Just as fiction can scarcely approach the horror of recent world events, there is nothing in the realm of fiction that can even come close to the attitudes, injustices, abominations, and humiliations that occurred during the French Revolution to humankind in general and French royalty in particular. If you've steered clear of history books before for fear that they must, by necessity, be dry and boring, I can't recommend this book highly enough. And if you've enjoyed it, I strongly recommend Stephen Coote's highly-readable Royal Survivor (on the life of England's Charles II) or anything by Alison Weir. For me, this book has awakened a hunger to learn more about late 18th century Europe and some of Antoinette's more colourful contemporaries (such as England's George III and Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire).
Rating:
Summary: Thoroughly engrossing biography
Review: True or false? 1) Marie Antoinette was a frivolous princess who became a clever, manipulative queen 2) She ruled France through her weak husband 3) She said of the bread-less French, "Let them eat cake." 4) In her spare time, she enjoyed dressing as a milk maid and wandering around a fake farm she had built at Versailles. If you answered "true" to any of these questions, you will want to read Antonia Fraser's detailed, engrossing biography of Marie Antoinette. Fraser's work is well-documented and scholarly, but it is neither dry nor slow reading. She provides sufficient background information to put the historical events in context, but does not allow the facts to hinder the flow of the story. Her writing has an immediacy that pulls the reader so deeply into the story, it is easy to forget that we already know the ending of this historical life. (When the royal family attempts to escape their French captors, Fraser allows us to think-to hope-they might get away.) Through Fraser's eyes, we first sympathize, and then empathize with the princess who only became queen by accident. In addition, Frazer gives us a thorough education in the social order at Versailles, the complex bureaucracy (and attendant jobs) of the French court, and the political infighting that ultimately was the downfall of the entire system. This is a thoroughly engrossing biography-a keeper.
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