Farewell, My Queen
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A woman whose function it once was to read books aloud to Marie Antoinette is haunted by the memory of her last days at the French court of Versailles, when Louis XVI's magnificent palace succumbed to the irrepressible forces of revolution. Now exiled in Vienna, Madame Agathe-Sidonie Laborde looks back twenty-one years to the legendary opulence of Versailles and, overcome with nostalgia and remorse, discovers the full measure of her fascination with the Queen she served. Madame Laborde takes the reader within the palace, meticulously reconstructing the 14th, 15th, and 16th of July 1789feverish days when the servants have disappeared and many of the courtiers are fleeing. Versailles' miniature universe, sparkling with every outward appearance of happiness and beauty, is brilliantly juxtaposed with the chaos that erupts. We witness the unraveling of the palace's dawn-to-dusk ritual and the rising panic of the court as Versailles edges closer and closer to collapse. With the revolutionaries virtually at the gates of the palace, Madame Laborde herself flees the night of the 16th, escaping with members of the once-powerful de Polignac family. Transporting us to revolutionary France with the knowledge and insight of an historian and with the skill of a consummate storyteller, Thomas evokes this historical moment more powerfully than any historical analysis can.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The final days of the French Revolution are viewed from a curious perspective in this graceful, exquisitely detailed novel, narrated by Marie-Antoinette's reader ("deputy reader, I should say"), Madam Agathe-Sidonie Laborde. Ensconced in her Vienna apartment 20 years after the downfall of Louis XVI and his queen, the 65-year-old Laborde recalls her life with Marie-Antoinette during the pivotal power shift in July of 1789. An introductory chapter sets the scene, portraying the opulence of court life in Versailles, but also its epidemics and miasmas. Built on a swamp, it is plagued by invasions of insects and rats, and their swarming foreshadows the looming collapse of the monarchy. Events come to a head over the course of three days July 14 16, 1789 and Thomas concentrates her account on their span. Court life is so insular that the nobles react with disbelief as rumors spread about the storming of the Bastille. When the news becomes impossible to ignore, Marie-Antoinette finally makes her aborted attempt to leave Versailles, even as Louis XVI pulls his troops from the city in an effort to defuse the rebellion. As the end nears for the regime, Laborde makes a desperate effort to escape Versailles. The story of Marie-Antoinette's final days is well known, so the delights of this rendition lie in the details. Laborde is a keen observer of the queen's moods and appearance, and her attempts to cheer her mistress with well-chosen passages gives her story extra depth. Like the tiny enamel painting of Marie-Antoinette's bright blue eye that inspires Laborde's reminiscences, this is a cunning, gemlike miniature.