Cover Image: Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

'Not to idolise, not to deify, but to humanise, is the supreme task of creative psychological study'

True to his intention to 'humanise', Zweig gives us an eminently readable account of Marie Antoinette, a woman he describes as 'one who had abundant capacity and very little will'. The tone is halfway between novel and historical biography so is perfect for anyone who struggles with the drier historians. The focus, too, stays on Marie Antoinette herself, without skimping on the political background and the Revolution. With an eye on her marriage, her love-life and her inner emotions, this offers up a fully-fleshed woman more than a queen. Hugely enjoyable.

Was this review helpful?

Received a free copy of this book from Netgalley, in return for a review.

This is a book that was originally written in German, and later translated to English. I wavered between 2 and 3 stars. I decided on 2, because most wouldn't enjoy reading it. However, the history is accurate. I finished about half the book.

The problem is the writing style. This book has a style popular in the period in which it was written, which is a rather beautifully ornamented style, sometimes including a touch of ironical social commentary. However, it's not a style comfortable to most modern readers, and if I were offering a recommendation for a biography of Marie Antoinette, it would not be this. Here's a passage about Marie Antoinette being handed over from the Austrian to the French nobility, which involved an elaborate ceremony.

"Soundlessly, with exemplary regard for the prescribed ritual, with ghostly magnificence, was this orgy of etiquette fulfilled, but at the last moment, the terrified girl found the chill ceremonial unendurable.... A touching scene, this, at the close of so much formality, it was one which the high mandarins of representation, whether they were French or whether they were Austrian, omitted to describe. In truth there were no places for sentiment, which is not tabulated among the logarithms of courtly procedure."

Was this review helpful?