Becoming Marie Antoinette [NOOK Book]

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Overview

This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.
 
Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was ...
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More About This Book

Overview

This enthralling confection of a novel, the first in a new trilogy, follows the transformation of a coddled Austrian archduchess into the reckless, powerful, beautiful queen Marie Antoinette.
 
Why must it be me? I wondered. When I am so clearly inadequate to my destiny?

Raised alongside her numerous brothers and sisters by the formidable empress of Austria, ten-year-old Maria Antonia knew that her idyllic existence would one day be sacrificed to her mother’s political ambitions. What she never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

Before she can journey from sunlit picnics with her sisters in Vienna to the glitter, glamour, and gossip of Versailles, Antonia must change everything about herself in order to be accepted as dauphine of France and the wife of the awkward teenage boy who will one day be Louis XVI. Yet nothing can prepare her for the ingenuity and influence it will take to become queen.

Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.

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From the Trade Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
The first book of a planned trilogy by Grey is another sympathetic take on the fascinating and doomed Marie Antoinette. Grey takes command early by giving Marie's most famous line to someone else and having Marie dismiss it as silly. "She should have gone out among the people and fed them," Marie says. Grey's Marie is kind to servants and close to her sister Charlotte, whose loveless marriage forces them apart. Marie's mother amasses power through her children's arranged marriages; Marie is 10 when promised to Louis Auguste of France. Grey chronicles the pains Marie goes through to become the dauphine, from intensive French lessons to mastering a ridiculously difficult walk. Grey's Marie is also a romantic: she longs for the love that her parents had. Once at Versailles, she commits a number of faux-pas as she grows into her title; her shy husband seems uninterested in her; the pressure to produce an heir is overwhelming. Grey's pseudo-antiquated style coupled with Marie's first-person perspective creates the occasional clunker ("and who would not prefer to caress the strings of a harp than dispose of someone else's urine?"), but the detailed litany of the young woman's travails makes for a good story, even if we all know how it ends. (Sept.)

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780345523877
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 8/9/2011
  • Sold by: Random House
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 336
  • Sales rank: 25,163
  • File size: 2 MB

Meet the Author

Juliet Grey
Juliet Grey
JULIET GREY has extensively researched European royal history and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette. She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Read an Excerpt

One

Is This the End of Childhood?

Schonbrunn, May 1766

My mother liked to boast that her numerous daughters were "sacrifices to politics." I never dared admit to Maman, who was Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, that the phrase terrified me more than she could know. Every time she said it, my imagination painted a violent tableau of Abraham and Isaac.

Unflinchingly pragmatic, Maman prepared us to accept our destinies not only with grace and equanimity but with a minimal amount of fuss. Thus, I had been schooled to expect, as sure as summer follows spring, that one day my carefree life as the youngest archduchess of Austria would forever change. What I never anticipated was that the day in question would come so soon.

In the company of my beloved sister, Charlotte, I was enjoying an idyllic afternoon on the verdant hillside above the palace of Schonbrunn, indulging in one of our favorite pastimes--avoiding our lessons by distracting our governess, the Countess von Brandeiss.

A bumblebee hummed lazily about our heads, mistaking our pomaded and powdered hair for dulcet blossoms. Charlotte had kicked off her blue brocaded slippers and was wiggling her stockinged feet in the freshly cut grass. So I did the same, delighting in the coolness of the lawn, slightly damp against the soles of my feet, although we'd surely merit a scolding for staining our white hose. Affecting a grim expression and pressing my chin to my chest until I achieved our mother's jowly appearance, in a dreadfully stern voice I said, "At your age, Charlott-ah, you should know better than to lead the little one into childish games."

My sister laughed. "Mein Gott, you sound just like her!"

Countess von Brandeiss suppressed a smile, hiding her little yellow teeth. "And you should know better than to mock your mother, Madame Antonia.

"Ouf!" Startled by the bee, which now appeared to be inspecting with some curiosity the ruffles of her bonnet, our governess began to bat the air about her head. Nearly tripping over her voluminous skirts as she leapt to her feet in fright, Madame von Brandeiss began to hop about in such a comical fashion that it was impossible for us to feel even the slightest bit chastised.

Maman's scoldings were so easy to duplicate because they came with far more regularity than her compliments. From middle spring through the warm, waning days of September, she was a familiar presence in our lives, tending to affairs of state from the outskirts of Vienna in our summer palace of Schonbrunn, a grand edifice of ocher and white that resembled a giant tea loaf piped with Schlag, whipped cream. With scrubbed faces we were presented to her in the Breakfast Room, its walls, the color of fresh milk, partitioned into symmetrical panels by gilded moldings and scrollwork. Charlotte, Ferdinand, Maxl, and I looked forward to the day when we would be old enough to merit an invitation to join her, along with our older siblings, for a steaming pot of fragrant coffee and terribly adult conversation about places like Poland and Silesia, places I remained unable to locate on the map of Europe that hung on the wall of our schoolroom.

For the remainder of the year, when the prodigious Hapsburg family resided at the gray and labyrinthine Hofburg palace in the heart of Vienna, we, the youngest of the empress's brood, scarcely saw Maman more than once every ten days. We even attended daily Mass without her, a line of ducklings, dressed in our finest clothes, kneeling on velvet cushions that bore our initials embroidered in silver thread. Charlotte and I remained side by side as our pastel-colored skirts, widened by the basketlike panniers beneath them, nudged each other; our heads swam with the pungent aroma of incense while our ears rang with ritual--the resonance of the grand pipe organ and the bishop's solemn intonations in Latin.

And as the days grew shorter we began to forget the woman who had almost dared to have fun during those departed sunlit months. Mother became matriarch: a forbidding figure clad all in black, her skirts making her appear nearly as wide as she was tall. Marched into her study for inspection, we would stand still as statues--no fidgeting allowed--while she peered at us through a gilt-edged magnifying glass and inquired of our governess whether we were learning our lessons, eating healthy meals, using tooth powder, and scrubbing our necks and behind our ears. The royal physician, Dr. Wansvietten, was put through the same paces with questions about our general health. The answers were invariably in the affirmative, since no one would dare to admit any act of negligence or weakness, and so she dismissed us from her presence, satisfied that we were dutiful children.

I slid across the grass on my bottom, nestling beside our governess, adjusting my body so that I could whisper in her ear, "May I tell you a secret, Madame?"

"Of course, Liebchen." Madame von Brandeiss smiled indulgently.

"Sometimes . . . sometimes I wish you were my mother." The pomade in her hair, scented to disguise its origin as animal fat, smelled of lavender. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The fragrance was so pleasant, it nearly made me sleepy.

"Why, Madame Antonia!" The countess managed to appear both touched and alarmed, her cheeks coloring prettily as her gray eyes stole a reflexive glance to see who might be listening. "How can you say such a thing, little one--especially when your maman is the empress of Austria!"

Madame von Brandeiss tenderly stroked my hair. I could not remember whether my mother had ever done so, nor could I summon the memory of any similar display of warmth or affection. It was enough to convince me that they had never taken place. I felt my governess's lips press against the top of my head. Somehow she knew, without my breathing a word, that the empress's demeanor rather frightened me. "I'm sure your maman loves you, little one," she murmured. "But you must remember, it is the duty of a sovereign to attend to great and serious affairs of state, while it is a governess's responsibility to look after the children."

I wriggled a bit. My leg had become entangled in my underskirts and had fallen asleep. "Are you ever sorry you didn't have any of your own?" I asked the countess. Inside my white stockings I wiggled my toes until the tingling was gone.

"Antonia, you're being impertinent!" Charlotte said reproachfully. "What did Maman tell you about blurting out whatever comes into your head?" I loved and admired my next oldest sister more than anyone in the world, but she had the makings of quite a little autocrat--Maman in miniature in many ways. Already her adolescent features had begun to resemble our mother, especially about the mouth.

Ignoring my sister, I tilted my chin and gazed earnestly into our governess's eyes. "If you could have, would you have had sixteen children, like Maman?" There were only thirteen of us now, owing to the ravages of smallpox. I'd contracted the disease when I was only two years old and by the grace of God recovered fully. Only a tiny scar by the side of my nose remained as a reminder of what I had survived. When I grew older I would be permitted to hide it with powder and paint, or perhaps even a patch, although Maman thought that women who covered their pox scars with mouches had no morals. "If you had a little girl, Madame, what would you want her to be like?"

Countess von Brandeiss swallowed hard and fingered the engraved locket about her neck. She was perhaps nearly as old as Maman; the brown hair that peeked out from beneath her straw bonnet and white linen cap was threaded with a few strands of silver. She tenderly kissed the top of my head. "If I had had a little girl, I would have wanted her to be just like you. With strawberry blond curls and enormous dark blue eyes, and a generous heart as big as the Austrian Empire." Tugging me toward her, she readjusted the gray woolen band that smoothed my unruly tendrils off my forehead. It wasn't terribly pretty but it served its turn, and was ordinarily masked by my hair ribbon. But that afternoon I had removed the length of rose-colored silk and used it to tie a bouquet I plucked from the parterres--tulips and pinks and puffy white snapdragons.

"Yes, Liebchen," sighed my governess, "she would be exactly like you, except in one respect." I looked at her inquiringly. "If I had had a little girl, she would be more attentive to her lessons!" Madame von Brandeiss gently clasped my wrists and disengaged my arms from her neck. Her eyes twinkled. "She would not be clever enough to invent so many distractions, and she would pay more attention to her studies. And, she would not ask so many"--she glanced at Charlotte, who was feigning interest in splitting a blade of grass with her pale, slender fingers--"impertinent questions.

"Now," she said, urging me off her lap and onto the lawn. "Enough games. Like it or not, ma petite, it is time for your French grammar lesson. You too, Charlotte." The countess clapped her hands with brisk efficiency. "Allons, mes enfants."

In the blink of an eye, a liveried footman handed Charlotte our copybooks.

Before I could stop myself, I pursed my lips into a petulant little moue. Our governess stuck out her lower lip, playfully mocking my expression. "You mustn't pout, Antonia. It was you, little madame, who convinced me to move your lessons out of doors today."

Rolling onto my belly and propping myself on my elbows, I lifted my face to the breeze and filled my nostrils with the scents of summer. The boning in my bodice pressed against my midriff and my skirts belled out above my rump like a pink soufflé. "But I'm not pouting, Madame. It's how God made me," I said brightly. In truth, what Maman calls "the Hapsburg lower lip" gives the impression of a permanent pout, even when I'm not sulking. Our entire family looks the same way; with fair hair, a pale complexion, and a distinctly receding chin, I resembled every one of my siblings and ancestors.

And yet, if I'd had a glass I would have appraised my appearance. Was I pretty? Maman thought I was a perfect porcelain doll, but I'd overheard whispers among the servants . . . something about the way I carried my head. Or perhaps it was my physiognomy. Then again, I was a Hapsburg archduchess. I had every reason to delight in my lineage. Still--I wanted everyone to love me. If there were a way to please them, I wished to learn it. "Do you think my chin makes me look haughty?" I asked Madame von Brandeiss.

"People who have nothing better to do will indulge in idle gossip," our governess replied. Charlotte placed her hand over her mouth to hide a smile. "Your chin makes you look proud. And you have every reason to be proud because you are a daughter of Austria and your family has a long and illustrious history. And," Madame von Brandeiss continued, beginning to laugh, "you are doing it again."

"Doing what?" I asked innocently.

"Doing everything you can think of to avoid your books. Don't think you can fool me, little madame."

She clapped her hands again. "Come now, you minxes, you've dawdled enough. Vite, vite! It's time for your French lesson." She shook Charlotte gently by the shoulder.

Charlotte rolled onto her back and sat up; she was diligent by nature, but if I began to dally, she could become as indolent as I when it came to our schoolwork. Our moods affected each other as if we had been born twins. Her grumble became a delighted squeal as something caught our eyes at exactly the same moment. "Toinette, look! A butterfly!" My sister shut her copybook with a resonant snap. Joining hands, we pulled each other to our feet and began to give chase. Without breaking her stride Charlotte swept up her net from where it lay in the soft grass with a single graceful motion.

"Ach! Nein! Girls, your shoes!" Madame von Brandeiss exclaimed, rising and smoothing her skirts. Her boned corset prevented her from bending with ease; she knelt as if to curtsy and scooped up one of my backless ivory satin slippers.

"No time!" I shouted, clutching fistfuls of watered silk as I hitched up my skirts and raced past Charlotte. The butterfly became a blur of vivid blue as it flitted in an irregular serpentine across the manicured hillside, its delicate form silhouetted against the cerulean sky. It finally settled on a hedge at the perimeter of the slope. Charlotte and I had nearly run out of wind; our chests heaved with exertion, straining against the stiff boning of our stomachers. My sister began to lower her net. I raised my hand to stay her. "No," I insisted, panting. "You'll scare her off."

I held my breath. Gingerly reaching toward the foliage, I cupped my hands over our exquisite quarry. The butterfly's iridescent wings fluttered energetically, tickling my palms. "Let's show Madame," I whispered.

With Charlotte a pace or two behind me, limping a bit because she'd put her foot wrong on an unseen twig, I cautiously tiptoed back across the lawn, fearful of tripping and losing the delicate treasure cocooned within my hands. The rapid trembling of the butterfly's wings gradually slowed until there was only an occasional beat against my palms.

Finally, we reached the countess. "Look what I've got!" I crowed, slowly uncurling my fingers. The three of us peered at the motionless insect. Charlotte's face turned grave.

Catching the troubled expression in her pale blue eyes, "Maybe she's sleeping," I said softly, hopefully, stroking one of the fragile wings with my index finger. My hands were smudged with yellow dust.

"She's not sleeping, Toinette. She's . . ." Charlotte's words trailed off as she looked at me, her usually flushed cheeks now ashen with awareness.

My lips quivered, but the sobs became strangled in my throat. Drawing me to her, Charlotte endeavored to still the heaving in my shoulders, but I shrugged her off. I didn't deserve to be comforted. An enormous tear rolled down my cheek and landed on my chest, marring the silk with an irregular stain. Another warm tear plopped onto my wrist. I closed my hands again as if to shelter the butterfly in the sepulcher made by my palms, while the full weight of my crime settled on my narrow shoulders.

"I. Didn't. Mean. To. Kill. Her. I've. Never. Killed. Anything. I. Would. Never. Hurt . . ." My sobs finally came in big loud gulps, bursts of hysterical sound punctuated by apologies. With a look of sheer helplessness I threw myself into my governess's open arms.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 18 )

Rating Distribution

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(7)

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(5)

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Sort by: Showing all of 18 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted March 17, 2012

    Very enjoyable

    I am a huge fan if historical fiction, mostly Phillipa Gregory. I truly enjoyed this book not wanting it to end. I cant wait for the next book in May 2012

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 1, 2012

    Enjoyable

    Very enjoyable and easy to read. If yiu enjoy Philippa Gregory, you will like this

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  • Posted January 25, 2012

    more from this reviewer

    Great book!!

    This was great! Really well written, and it turns out to be a trilogy. It was very interesting to learn about what Marie Antoinette had to go through to become even "a suitable" candidate for the French dauphin's hand in marriage. A very detailed view into the pre-Versailles, and the early French life of France's most talked about Queen! A great read! Cannot wait for the rest of this series.

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  • Posted October 28, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Infectious confection

    Becoming Marie Antoinette starts at the beginning where Marie Antoinette is still balancing her courtly lessons with her desire to chase after butterflies. She hardly seems ready to reign and dance through the political webs of French court, especially with a husband equally ill-prepared. Juliet Grey brings this young woman to life and captures her voice so vividly that one cannot help but to love her. I especially enjoyed the moments when Marie tries to capture Louis's attention - their relationship seems so beautiful in its awkwardness. The only downside that I noticed was the ending. Granted, Becoming Marie Antoinette is simply Book 1 in a series, but I had wished it had continued a little bit longer just when the story starts to take off.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted October 14, 2011

    Is it ok

    I have to do a book project in historical fiction and i am wondering if i should get this book. I have read other books for younger readers about marie and she truly is an interesting subject. I really hope my teacher improves this book because i want to use it

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted October 7, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    How to Become a Perfect Queen!

    Marie Antoinette's life began as the youngest archduchess of Austria, her mother, Maria Teresa, the Empress of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria. Madam Antonia, as she is known until her marriage, is expected to excel in all academic subjects as well as social skills. For her mother is planning to unite the fortunes of Austria and France by wedding her daughter to the Dauphin, the son of King Louis XV. But Madame Antonia is just beginning her teen years when she discovers how she is to be remade in her mother's image of what a French Queen should be! Juliet Grey does a fine, fine job of conveying the stark and boring quality of this life by combining it with Marie's vivacious and humorous nature. If she keeps her spunk, a fine Queen she will be!

    The novel proceeds with the reader receiving descriptions of wondrous clothing, meals, and landscapes in Marie's childhood world, broken by the devastating death of one sibling and departure of another to be Queen in another land. Slowly but surely, Marie realizes and desires her role in life is to obey her mother and satisfy every demand for the sake of Austria. It's a heavy burden and one that prevents rebellion, given the alternative destiny of a break with France and more wars that accomplish nothing but death and destruction.

    An amazing ceremony occurs when Marie is finally wed by proxy and travels through Austria into France. There she discovers a dauphin who is phenomenally shy and totally uninterested in touching Marie, let alone consummating their marriage. In the light of the King's flagrant flaunting of his mistress and other "loose" behavior occurring in the King's court, this quandary is irksome but then soon changes to sympathy and actual liking of the Dauphin. For he is a "man of the people" in his heart and mind and totally uninterested in the boring, garish world of the elite, a fascinating characterization given what was the norm of royal behavior at the time, completely and elaborately described in these pages. Lovers of fashion and style can immerse themselves in pages of French couture and cuisine of Marie's 18th Century French court.

    Marie and her husband evolve into sympathetic characters but not without their detractors, as Marie begins to spurn court etiquette, threatening a way of luxury and splendor for the entire French court but endearing the young couple to the reader and common people.

    The novel ends on a hopeful note, where the Dauphin becomes King Louis XVI and Marie becomes the Queen of France. Each have a vision full of charity and benefit for the French people, the fulfillment of which will be presented in two forthcoming novels about their life. Juliet Grey's initial novel about the cursed Queen is quite innocent yet revealing. A young girl is forced to grow up fast and become the perfect "Queen," a sacrifice to politics as her mother would admit frequently. Her training is her childhood, one that terrorizes her more with fearful anticipation of failure than actual events that will someday be her nemesis. Etiquette is all and impression is everything! The machinations of a French court full of fawning and deception creates an atmosphere of distrust that is the norm rather than the exception. Congratulations, Ms. Grey, on your fine fictional account of this very real, audacious world and the transformation of a naive, unsure girl into a formidable worldly leader! Superbly done!

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  • Posted October 3, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Always Antoinette~Fall Reading At Its Best!

    Any book that starts with "Marie Antoinette" has my immediate reaction. My hand springs out to grasp it, and it's mine forever. It could be the worst written book on earth, but it's destined for my library just the same! Fortunately, I'm very pleased to report this book, "Becoming Marie Antoinette," is not the worst book written about her; rather, it's one of the best novels I've read! From the early sentences in which we're introduced to the voice and mind of Antoinette to the final wishes of her heart and mind, Juliet Grey captured her essence and my imagination. This is a gorgeously covered book I'm delighted to have on my library shelf. Marie's childhood with its transformations and enlightenment are subtlely rendered in this beautifully written novel. Without any doubt, her all-consuming desire to please her oft-times distant and withholding mother plays a primary role in Marie's life. She spends her life in isolation from the mother, desiring only to make her proud, longing for her love and communication. This aspect of Antoinette's life has always been tender and pitiful to me. What child hasn't wished the same. But, in a world where these relationships are put aside for the greater duties, it seems cruel and heartbreaking. Ms Grey deals with the situation marvelously. Antoinette's loneliness and shunning at Court is well integrated, also. Court descriptions: decor, the required manners and sly "niceities" of the French aristocracy, and insights into the Dauphin are drawn in a new and interesting way by Grey. That's difficult to do, given all that's been written on the subject! I also, as always, love to read about the fashions and finery that accompanied Marie Antoinette. These things just never bore me. I'm not ordinarily a huge fan of contemporary "historical fiction" in the weighty "romance" genre; but, you will find the highest quality of the original intent for this fiction in Juliet Grey's novel. I found it well-researched, not over-blown with melodrama and too grand dialog or gratuitous sex scenes! Thankfully. The inner dialog and narration of Antoinette is pitch perfect. It captivated me. This is a kindly and humane painting of the young girl that is sympathetic and lovely to read. I like Ms Grey's style. She's an easy author to enjoy. I have only one reservation to report: I learned German growing up in Nurenburg and Munich. (Marie's original tongue!) I've had no French lessons except those my French-speaking children taught me! One of the things that broke the rhythm for me in this novel was the use of many french words. This sort of thing always causes me to stop and struggle over trying to decipher the meaning, since I can't pass up an intellectual challenge. I'll even put a book down to run for a dictionary. I would suggest, perhaps, a feature in her next book that provides an easy source of translation. Ms Grey doesn't want readers putting her book aside for any reason! This book is the first in a trilogy. So, you may want to get your copy now. I think you'll find it's good reading for a cozy Fall season. 4 1/2 twinkling French stars

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  • Posted September 28, 2011

    history that is never boring...

    The most I know of Marie Antoinette is that she was a worldly queen who got beheaded for her extravagance. Reading Becoming Marie Antoinette has not only proven me wrong, but has also given me enough interesting views of her life and true character to keep me yearning for more. Was she really as complacent and uncaring as popular history had depicted her, or had she simply been misunderstood, falling prey to the blaming fingers of her French subordinates, being a foreign queen and all?

    Maria Antonia, youngest archduchess of Austria, was a typical young girl who loved to play and frolic instead of burying her nose in books and lessons of import. Her life changed drastically when she was forced to mature beyond her years to marry the dauphin of France, Louis Auguste, therefore sealing a most important alliance between two countries previously at war with each other. Becoming Marie Antoinette is about this young girl's transformation from a frolicking hoyden with not much womanhood to speak of into the most charmingly delightful woman in the French court. The journey was never easy, and even as her formal lessons were over, she found out she still had so much to learn, so much to become, before she could finally fit into her new home in Versailles, France. The fact that her husband didn't seem to want to touch her was only making matters worse. And with elders constantly telling her to do this and that, sometimes even contradicting themselves, Maria Antonia felt like a helpless pawn in the chessboard of politics and royalty.

    But she managed to remain resilient and idealistic of her role as the future queen of France, although a few missteps could not have been prevented. Becoming Marie Antoinette provides its readers with an extensive look at the routines and habits of two different courts, and how their very contrasting values will help shape the morals and ideals of the last queen of France-reputed to be one of the most misunderstood royalties in history.

    Reading this novel felt easy, although at times I couldn't help feeling annoyed at whole French sentences suddenly springing out of nowhere. I understand they are supposed to help give sort of a genuine feel to the story, but they really have a way of throwing off non-French speaking readers like me. Aside from that, the narrative was fairly accessible, the narrator's plight wholly relatable, and the story interesting enough to warrant a sequel or two.

    After all, any story about Marie Antoinette never ends until the heads start rolling-for which I intend to know the real reasons why...

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  • Posted September 22, 2011

    Good historical fiction

    This was the first fictionalized book of Marie Antoinette I have read, and it's been many years since I learned anything about her in school, so I was fortunate to read and enjoy with a "blank slate" mind-set. So, I learned a lot. The troubles she had with her mother believing she wasn't good enough really touched me. I was astonished at the lengths they went to in order to make her a "suitable" bride for the French prince.

    While reading other reviews, I noticed that a lot of readers noticed how Marie would constantly refer to herself as not educated, yet speak with a highly educated tongue. This dichotomy can be over-looked; however, many words used in the book were either actually french, french-related, or referred to some obscure item/subject from that era. This makes a book hard to read if you don't know what those things are.

    Overall, it was an enjoyable book. A reader can learn a lot about the royal courts and Marie Antoinette's life before she was queen. The book is rather long and not a particularly fast read, but well worth it.

    *Disclaimer: I received this book for free from the publisher, Random House, through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review.

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  • Posted September 20, 2011

    Highly Recommended.. This book is really awesome

    I have been interested in MA's life for a long time. I believe I have read everything ever written about her life. This book is so detailed and (although factual) fun and easy to read. I absoulutly can not wait for the next installment of Her Royal Highness's life and times. The author hit perfect. BTW.. I would not mine at all to preview your next installment.

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  • Posted August 28, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    I Became Marie Antoinette....if but for a time....

    Historical fiction. That is a genre of writing that I fell in love with when I started blogging. All kinds of historical fiction make their way to my shelves and Nook. So, it was without hesitation that I signed up to be a reviewer for this new novel by Juliet Grey. Both the novel, and the author are new to me, and I couldn't wait to crack the spine on this one. I was not disappointed in any way with this amazingly written, richly detailed, history filled novel.

    Juliet Grey did a fascinating job on this creation of this story. Maria Antonia, Austrian princess. What an amazing person. I absolutely loved each detail the Grey put into her. I could feel her emotions, and her struggles as she grew from Maria Antonia to Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. I can't imagine going through the things she, being married off at 14 years old, and dealing with French court while still a child. It amazes me to see how vivid Grey made the French court. I felt as if I, myself, was a member of Marie Antoinette's society and court. Wow!

    Not only did I love Maria Antonia and her transformation, I loved the setting of the story, I loved the fact that this is the first in a trilogy. It's a fantabulous start and one that will be forever on my bookshelf. It's a story that will keep you up late into the night, and turning the pages, wanting, NEEDING to know what young Marie was dealing with.

    I highly, highly recommend this with a high 5 Book Rating. You'll be instantly transported to another place in time, and you'll put on the amazingly detailed dresses of the era, and walk the courts along side this Queen. But, be warned: this is a book to be read when you have LOTS of free time, as you'll become completely lost in the writing of Ms. Grey. I can't wait until the second book in this trilogy releases!

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  • Posted August 20, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Captivating!

    Maria Antonia had a privileged upbringing as a member of the Austrian royal family. Her days were filled with the lessons and pastimes that any child of the time would enjoy. At the age of 10, she is betrothed to the future king of France, and so her transformation into a woman who is worthy to be Queen begins.

    It is refreshing to read a book so well researched that it gives you a completely different view of the person you are reading about. We all know Marie Antoinette as history largely presents her; a vapid, out of touch monarch who never knew anything outside of her own little world. This first book of a three book series takes you to her childhood and transforms your opinion of this infamous historical figure.

    From the beginning, you are drawn into the world of the Hapsburg court and into the political atmosphere of the day. This might seem like something that would overwhelm the story, but it sets the scenery against which Toinette's world is presented. What you find is that she wants nothing more than any other child; to be loved by her mother and her siblings. You quickly see that there is a heavy burden on her young shoulders.

    As she prepares to go to France, she is physically (think 18th century braces) and intellectually transformed for the sake of being "worthy" of the French monarchy. I felt nothing but sympathy for this girl, and she is a girl. A the age of fourteen I was worrying about what brand of jeans I was wearing. When Marie Antoinette was fourteen, she was getting married. To a stranger.

    The description of the two courts, the complicated social etiquette, the people and the dresses (I'm never complaining about spanx again) are completely enthralling. Although this is written as a work of fiction, every person and event was researched and so the two blend seamlessly. Although we all know how her story will end, I am looking forward to the next two books.

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    Posted April 17, 2012

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