Marie Antoinette: The Journey by Antonia Fraser
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Book Reviews of Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Book Review: A deeply moving and historically fascinating book
Summary: 5 Stars
Antonia Fraser's book is historically fascinating, well written and reasearched--but it also is a moving and unforgetable story. It is highly recommended for any serious reader. You will never hear the name of Marie Antoinette again without deeply feeling the last sad and proud moments of her life, and feeling how tragically and wrongly history has judged her. The tragedy of her life is a haunting one that cannot go away after you read this book. This is not a book for those who want light reading--yet its rewards are deep for those who have a love of history and want to understand the human condition, both for its good and bad attributes. The book is a masterpiece at showing how people are products of their times, and yet because of historical events move on to personal achievements. This book encompasses what writing about history is all about--a true achievement for Ms. Fraser.Book Review: Fantastic trip Back In History!
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw the movie first,was not impressed by it and it did not give me a different opinion of Marie than what I was taught in grade school--including that she did say the famous, "Let Them Eat Cake." Looked it up the book, ordered it and read it in three days. It is an incrediable read for anyone that loves history and all it's details. It read as if her life happened just yesterday. Incrediable detail and research. It gave me a complete different view of Marie. She became Queen but what did that really give her? It cost her life and the life of her husband and son. The real story is NOTHING like they taught us in America when I was in grade school in the 70's. Thanks to this author for all her hard work and telling the real story. I have much respect for Marie and all she indured with the true grace of a Queen. Once again, a fantastic read for history buffs like me.Book Review: Deeply Moving
Summary: 5 Stars
I normally read history looking for battles and excitement (Napoleon bios for example), or looking for funny stuff. In this case I bought the book because of the charming picture on the cover, and was surprised to find myself so deeply moved. Marie Antoinette was flawed, as Fraser tells us often enough, but she was also good and lovable. To see her slowly, inexoribly moving toward what we know is going to be a horrible fate is quite gut-wrenching, but compelling all the same. Fraser has also done a fine job of setting up the social atmosphere of the period (and I couldn't care less if she got a few details wrong). Whichever reviewer said that it should be a TV movie was right! This modern take on a traditionally maligned woman could easily capture the hearts of millions of North American television--or movie--viewers.Book Review: The real Marie Antoinette
Summary: 5 Stars
Antonia Fraser does a wonderful job of describing what Marie Antoinette was like as a person. She shows how the young girl, who was only fifteen when she married, became the Queen of France and grew into a mature woman while in the strange environment of the Court of Versailles where privacy was unknown for the Royal family, even to the point of reports being made of her sex life with the King and when her menstrual periods occurred. It seems everyone in the court knew everything, in embarrassing detail, about the young Queen. The book explains well, however, how the Queen coped with this life on display, especially during the early years of her marriage when many ridiculed her for not producing an heir, and gives one a sense of knowing her personally. That makes the book a captivating read.
Book Review: Deeply Moving
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book! With every page I really felt for Marie Antoinette and realized what a brave woman she was - so very different from the popular view of the silly girl skipping about in a shepherdess dress. Antonia Fraser showed so clearly the development of Antoinette's character - how she grew from being a victim to a woman who chose to stand by her husband when everything was against her. I was truly horrified by the descriptions of the cruelty of the revolutionaries, and the accounts of the accustations made by the son she loved were almost too unbearable to read - what transformed that horror in this book, for me, was Antonia Fraser's beautiful writing and the sense that she cared deeply about her subject.
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