In MARIE ANTOINETTE, Fraser's superb gifts of narrative, characterisation and eye for salient detail are deployed to greater effect than ever before - Mark Bostridge * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *įraser sets out to rescue Marie Antoinette from the shadow of the guillotine, and she does this with resounding success - Ruth Scurr * THE TIMES *įraser is at her best here, lucid, authoritative and compassionate - Miranda Seymour * SUNDAY TIMES * This is a fine book and a very good read - Desmond Seward * DAILY MAIL *

Antonia Fraser writes beautifully, with impressively shrewd judgement. Don't miss it - Andrea Stuart * INDEPENDENT *Ī sparkling new biography. This beautifully paced, impeccably written biography is destined to generate the same success as Antonia Fraser's previous work. MARIE ANTOINETTE is a heroic and tragic exercise in identification * DAILY TELEGRAPH * Publisher: Orion Publishing Co ISBN: 9780753813058 Number of pages: 656 Weight: 532 g Dimensions: 196 x 129 x 44 mm MEDIA REVIEWSĭrama, betrayal, religion and sex, it's all here, adorned by often fascinating, at times esoteric detail - Hazel Mills * GUARDIAN *Ī hugely well-researched work. Others are equally passionate in her defence: to them, she is a victim of misogyny.Īntonia Fraser examines her influence over the king, Louis XVI, the accusations and sexual slurs made against her, her patronage of the arts which enhanced French cultural life, her imprisonment, the death threats made against her, rumours of lesbian affairs, her trial (during which her young son was forced to testify to sexual abuse by his mother) and her eventual execution by guillotine in 1793. To many people, she is still 'la reine mechante', whose extravagance and frivolity helped to bring down the French monarchy her indifference to popular suffering epitomised by the (apocryphal) words: 'let them eat cake'. Marie Antoinette's dramatic life-story continues to arouse mixed emotions.

the definitive work on the ill-fated queen' CATHOLIC HERALD

'Fraser is at her best here, lucid, authoritative and compassionate' SUNDAY TIMES 'Drama, betrayal, religion and sex, it's all here.

Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser