Marie Antoinette: A Portrait

by IanDunlop (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1995

  $3.30

  Presenting a sympathetic portrait of this beautiful, shallow and tragic Queen, Dunlop tells of the jubilant crowds which greeted her on her marriage to the Dauphin in 1773 and how, 20 years later she would appear before another exited crowd, this time baying for her blood. She was accused of adultery, despoiling the public purse and of being the arch-villain of the Old Regime. Her execution was met with delirious joy. Relying largely upon the words of Marie-Antoinette and her contemporaries, Dunlop tells of a child bride, a foolish and giddy 18-year-old Queen of France, spoilt and selfish but showing remarkable and unexpected courage and depth of character in the face of a crisis.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1993

  $3.30

  In October 1793, Marie Antoinette was executed by the Jacobins. To mark the bi-centenary of this event, Ian Dunlop offers a portrait of the unfortunate queen. He aims to present her as contemporaries would have seen her, sharply characterized against a vivid background. Dunlop describes her wedding festivities, taking readers behind the scenes. He also describes her husband's coronation and the queen's feelings about the Diamond Necklace hoax. The reader shares ceaseless rounds of visits to Fontainebleau, Compiegne, Marly, Choisy-le-Roi, La Muette and Trianon, and accompanies Marie Antoinette on the road to Varennes and back. Dunlop finally gives an account of Marie Antoinette's suffering and humiliations in the Temple, and a last glimpse of her through the eyes of Rosalie Lamorliere, in the Conciergerie.