Publish Date: August 8, 2006 Website: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6597.Carolly_Erickson
ISBN: 9780312361501
List Price: $13.95
My Rating: 5 out of 5
Jacket Synopsis:
Imagine that, on the night before she is to die under the blade of the guillotine, Marie Antoinette leaves behind in her prison cell a diary telling the story of her life—from her privileged childhood as Austrian Archduchess to her years as glamorous mistress of Versailles to the heartbreak of imprisonment and humiliation during the French Revolution.
Carolly Erickson takes the reader deep into the psyche of France’s doomed queen: her love affair with handsome Swedish diplomat Count Axel Fersen, who risked his life to save her; her fears on the terrifying night the Parisian mob broke into her palace bedroom intent on murdering her and her family; her harrowing attempted flight from France in disguise; her recapture and the grim months of harsh captivity; her agony when her beloved husband was guillotined and her young son was torn from her arms, never to be seen again.
Erickson brilliantly captures the queen’s voice, her hopes, her dreads, and her suffering. We follow, mesmerized, as she reveals every detail of her remarkable, eventful life—from her teenage years when she began keeping a diary to her final days when she awaited her own bloody appointment with the guillotine.
My Comments:
I love historical fiction! This is the fictional story and embellished "replica" of Marie Antoinette's diary. It details her experience from childhood to the chopping block. Her lover, her children, the love for her husband, Louis, were all captured in this entertaining story. It is interesting to watch her character delicately balance fear, hate, love, and companionship right up until her death. I cried! Love it, would read it again. With this book, I have picked up several other of Carolly Erickson's books. Her writing is great and so vivid!
