Queen of Broken Hearts

Bet you can't guess what this post is going to be about!

Earlier this month, I finally finished 'Marie Antoinette: The Journey' by esteemed historical biographer Antonia Fraser.

'Marie Antoinette: The Journey' is a hefty tome which examines the life of the last queen of France

'Marie Antoinette: The Journey'
by Antonia Fraser
(Phoenix, 2002)

and seeks the truth behind the many myths that surround her.  Daughter of the matriarchal Queen-Empress Maria Teresa, Marie Antoinette was born to be a pawn the game of European dynastic power.  Unfortunately, she was ill-suited to political machinations and unprepared for the cruel popularist media that thrived in the lead up to the French Revolution.  Innocent of much she was accused of and made a scapegoat by power-hungry politicians, this is the tragic story of a woman whose life became so unbearable, the guillotine's blade came as a relief.

I began reading this about seven years ago after finishing a book about Marie Antoinette's second son Louis-Charles ('The Lost King of France' by Deborah Cadbury).  It too was a heart wrenching story, but, as is often the case with history, reading about one person led to another.  Since studying A Level French I'd always wanted to know more about this period, partly because I couldn't believe the language assistant's claim that the whole French royal family had simply been wiped out.

'Marie Antoinette: The Journey' is excellent in that it is focussed, well researched and refrains from huge leaps of supposition, but this does mean it lies more at the textbook than popular history end of the spectrum.  In itself, this isn't a bad thing, it just means that it's not an easy ready.

Although, given the subject matter, it was never going to be an easy read.  I suspect that one of the reasons why it's taken me so long to finish this book is that I knew where it was going to end.  Marie Antoinette was no angel, but she was still a human being and no-one deserved the vilification that she received at the hands of the media and her captors.  Throughout this book, she comes across as the wrong person cast in the wrong role and you can't help wondering what would've happened if she and Louis XVI had been born in a different class at a different time and in a different place.  Thinking back over representations of the Queen I've encountered on TV and in films, it makes my stomach turn to realise that more than 200 years later old prejudices still rule.

So, overall, this book is not for the faint hearted, in terms of content or style.  It is interesting and informative, however, so I would recommend it for anyone who wants an insight into this almost legendary monarch.  Just be prepared to work at it.

Now, what next...

Happy Birthday and So Forth

You may have noticed that I've been a bit quiet lately. I know what you're thinking.  "Good fourth blog birthday bash, eh?  Suffering more than a book hangover afterwards?  Nudge, nudge, wink, wink?"  Well, tut, tut and how dare you!  There's only so much jelly and ice cream one person can eat and the clown was rubbish (Bit too Stephen King perhaps..?)!

After a really good year last year, I suddenly went through a bad patch, finding it hard to settle and flitting from book to book like a moth with a paper penchant.  I couldn't get into anything and in the end I had to accept I needed to take a bit of a break so I didn't inadvertently lose my love of reading by making it a chore.

But all that seems to have changed now and the episode has given me the impetus to work on a new mini-project.

As you know, I've been trying to read sets of books so I can reach mini-goals and feel like I'm making progress even though reading all 500ish books seems a long way away.  This has been quite successful and I've now read most of Philippa Gregory's Cousins War series (although she keeps ruining it by writing more. Surely that's cheating?).  I've also read all of Bernard Cornwell's Anglo Saxon books and I'm a good way through Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, which I'm enjoying very much.  I would've started reading the fifth Poldark by now, but got a bit distracted by the BBC series.  I kept accidentally giving away the plot, which didn't go down too well with my co-viewers, so decided to not make it any worse.  I'm unlikely to hold out until the next series though!

In a pile by the bookcase is another set of books, but one with a very specific link.  They're by different authors, of various genres and, on the face of it, have no particular connection.  Open one at random, however, and you'll find they're being used to store bookmarks.  Or, to put it another way, I started but didn't finish reading them.  So I've decided the next 'set' of books I should tackle are these, the Ones that Got Put Away.

They include Alexandre Dumas' 'The Three Musketeers', a feminist book called 'Wifework', Robert Harris' 'Lustrum', 'Angels and Demons' by Dan Brown, Charles Dickens' 'Little Dorrit' and a biography of Queen Isabella by Alison Weir.  Unlike the books I've given up on, I really do want to finish these and can't actually remember why I stopped reading them.

So, earlier this month I made a re-start on 'Marie Antoinette: The Journey' by Antonia Fraser.  The last time I remembered reading this was seven years ago and it's bloomin' massive, so it could've been arm strain that made me stop reading it,  Anyway, yesterday, I made it to the end (also known as page 548), so my next post will be all about that.

I hope that you'll be happy to join me on this new stage of my journey towards book 500. Then we can party!

Previously from the Girl Who Loves Books...

May
'Mr Briggs' Hat: A Sensational Account of Britain's First Railway Murder' by Kate Colquhoun
'Live and Let Die' by Ian Fleming

June
'A Host of Voices' by Doris Stokes
'Dr No' by Ian Fleming
'The Psychic Tourist' by William Little
'The Essential Marx' by Groucho Marx, selected by Stefan Kanfer

July
'All My Friends are Superheroes' by Andrew Kaufman
'The Art of Being Brilliant' by Andy Cope and Andy Whittaker
'Warleggan' by Winston Graham
'My Baby Shot Me Down' by Blinding Books

August
'Wake' by Anna Hope
'Octopussy, the Living Daylights and Other Stories' by Ian Fleming
'Moranthology' by Caitlin Moran

September
'The Illustrated Man' by Ray Bradbury
'Thunderball' by Ian Fleming
'Love and Treasure' by Ayelet Waldman
'Warm Bodies' Isaac Marion

October
'Office Politics' by Oliver James
'We Bought a Zoo' by Benjamin Mee
'The Tiny Wife' by Andrew Kaufman

November
'How to Read a Graveyard' by Peter Stanford
'Moonraker' by Ian Fleming

December
'The Miniaturist' by Jessie Burton

January
'The Empty Throne' by Bernard Cornwell

February
'So, Anyway' by John Cleese
'From Russia with Love' by Ian Fleming
'The Victorian Chaise-Longue' by Marghanita Laski

March 
'Goldfinger' by Ian Fleming
'Living Dolls' by Natasha Walter

April
'When I Met You' by Jemma Forte
'So You've Been Publicly Shamed' by Jon Ronson

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