What most people think of when they hear the name, Marie Antoinette, are opulent dresses, cluelessness at the plight of the impoverished ("Let them eat cake") and her ultimate fate under the guillotine."Marie Antoinete - The Journey", by Antonia Fraser portrays the French Queen less as a villain, but more sympathetically, as a carefree teenager whose response to the overwhelming pressures that she felt was to revel in her famously hedonistic lifestyle. She was vilified by the French as being sex-crazed and completely ignorant of the poor, but the author argues that she was actually the opposite -- she was prudish, and compassionate towards the impoverished.
I don't usually read a lot of histories, but this book kept me riveted with the strange goings-on in Marie Antoinette's life. Did you know that she and her husband, Louis XVI did not consummate their marriage until 4 years after they were married? Did you know there was a complete lack of privacy for the royals -- that lay people were free to wander around inside the palace, and had to be rooted out routinely? This book is just full of interesting tidbits.
As well as recommending the book, I recommend seeing the movie, Marie Antoinette, which is based on the aforementioned book. The film, which was directed by Sofia Coppola, is famous for blending the historical events of Marie Antoinette's life with a 90's pop soundtrack including the Cure, and Souxsie and the Banshees. I especially appreciated the riotous art direction with its sumptuous pastel gowns and endless pastries. I especially appreciated the scene in which Marie Antoinette, and her fellow young cohorts decide to party all night and stay up to watch the dawn. (This actually happened, according to the book.) In summary, the movie made me nostalgic for high school, Sofia Coppola did such a good job with portraying adolescence, albiet as French royalty.
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