Munro Price
She Wasn’t Just in It for the Dresses
Marie-Antoinette: The Making of a French Queen
By John Hardman
Yale University Press 376pp £20 order from our bookshop
After Napoleon, Marie Antoinette is probably the most famous French historical figure in Britain, even though she was originally Austrian and he was Corsican. At an early age, however, both left home for France (Marie Antoinette at fifteen, Napoleon at nine), and both were defined by the most extraordinary event in its modern history, the French Revolution – Napoleon as its beneficiary, Marie Antoinette as its victim. After so many books and so much polemic about the queen and her fate, is there anything more to say?
The answer, as this fascinating biography proves, is emphatically yes. As the author of the standard biography of her husband, Louis XVI, John Hardman has every qualification for turning his attention to Marie Antoinette. Of course, that alone does not guarantee that this biography will provide a major contribution to the subject. What ensures this is the particular approach Hardman takes. He chooses to focus on the political role Marie Antoinette played, from becoming queen of France in 1774 to her execution in 1793. At first sight, it may seem bizarre that this aspect of her life needs underlining, given the part she played in that political upheaval par excellence, the Revolution. Yet although she has been the subject of some excellent biographies by the likes of Stefan Zweig and Antonia Fraser, not a lot has been written specifically on her political views and actions. Up until now, the most important work on this topic has been a PhD thesis written by Jeanne Arnaud-Bouteloup in 1924, ‘Le Rôle politique de Marie-Antoinette’, which Hardman builds on to good effect.
Why this neglect? The answer probably lies in recent historical trends. In the last thirty years a substantial cottage industry has developed, focusing almost exclusively not on what the queen did but on how she was perceived. Above all, it has concentrated on the flood of pornographic libels
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma
'We nipped down Mount Pleasant ... me marvelling at London all over again because the back of a Vespa gives you the everyday world like nothing else can.'
Ali Smith writes this month's diary.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/temple-of-vespa