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Marie Antoinette: The Journey
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Marie Antoinette: The Journey
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Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Audiobook20 hours

Marie Antoinette: The Journey

Written by Antonia Fraser

Narrated by Donada Peters

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

The national bestseller from the acclaimed author of The Wives of Henry VIII.  France's beleaguered queen, Marie Antoinette, wrongly accused of uttering the infamous "Let them eat cake," was the subject of ridicule and curiosity even before her death; she has since been the object of debate and speculation and the fascination so often accorded tragic figures in history. Married in mere girlhood, this essentially lighthearted, privileged, but otherwise unremarkable child was thrust into an unparalleled time and place, and was commanded by circumstance to play a significant role in history. Antonia Fraser's lavish and engaging portrait of Marie Antoinette, one of the most recognizable women in European history, excites compassion and regard for all aspects of her subject, immersing the reader not only in the coming-of-age of a graceful woman, but also in the unraveling of an era.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 5, 2006
ISBN9780739340073
Unavailable
Marie Antoinette: The Journey
Author

Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser is the author of many widely acclaimed historical works which have been international bestsellers. She was awarded the Medlicott Medal by the Historical Association in 2000 and was made a DBE in 2011 for services to literature. Her previous books include Mary Queen of Scots; King Charles II; The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England, which won the Wolfson History Prize; Marie Antoinette: The Journey; Perilous Question; The King and the Catholics; and The Wives of Henry VIII.  Must You Go?, a memoir of her life with Harold Pinter, was published in 2010, and My History: A Memoir of Growing Up  in 2015. Fraser's The Case of the Married Woman is available from Pegasus Books. She lives in London. 

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Reviews for Marie Antoinette

Rating: 3.9140624284722225 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is coming from someone who typically does not read noon-fiction. I have a hard time staying awake whenever I make the attempt. So please consider these notes in that light.

    This book is obviously well-researched. I can't imagine there isn't anything about MA that isn't covered in this book. Even I can tell this historian really knows her stuff. And the reading wasn't as dry as I had feared. She is a great writer.

    This book is great for not only learning and understanding about MA and her life, but also about life in the French court under Louis XV and Louis XVI, and the society, culture and politics of that time, both in France and between France and other countries.

    It's really sad. They did try to change things in their own way. Make things simpler. But forces around them proved too great to surmount.

    My only complaint is all the name dropping! This was my greatest struggle with this book.

    It was immediately apparent to me that no way was I going to be able to keep track of all the people she mentions - with all the titles; Duc, Madame, Duchess, Comte, Comtesse, Count, Marquis, Princess/Prince. And of course it seems like most of them are named Louis, Louise, Marie, Maria, Marianne, Christine, Caroline, Therese, Theresa, Joseph, Josepha - you get the point (not that the author can be blamed for that point). One paragraph I counted had at least 14 names, not counting MA's! It's good for someone really into doing research, but that's not me. After I kind of gave in and just let that go (which is something that is really difficult for me to do - I have a need to comprehend and understand every sentence I'm reading in a book), our became a little easier. I figured I would probably recognize the most important ones when I needed to. It was most definitely worthwhile sticking it out!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Super Book !!!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I have been interested in Marie Antoinette since I was a child and have read several biographies about her over the years. I particularly liked this one because Antonia Fraser attempts to tell the story as if we do not know the terrible ending--hence the subtitle, "The Journey." In other words, Fraser avoids allowing the events of the French Revolution and the specter of the guillotine to influence her interpretation of the earlier years of Marie Antoinette's life. Like the best biographers, Fraser beautifully renders the essential texture of life in 18th-century France; she writes in her introduction that she was immensely moved while doing research at the French National Archives, where she examined the tiny fabric swatches with pinpricks where Marie Antoinette had indicated her choice of a dress for a particular occasion. That attention to detail informs this book so that the reader feels immersed in Antoinette's life and times.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good overview of Marie Antoinette's life. It's easy to see how it's the basis of the 2006 movie. I would recommend it as a starting point for someone who doesn't know much about her and is interesting in learning more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I knew a little about Marie Antoinette, not loads but you know the usual - Austrian princess, unhappy marriage, decadence, blamed for the revolution, misquoted with the 'let them eat cake', beheaded, the end type knowledge that everyone knows. I mean, it went a little further, but no more than the stuff that got covered in an hour long documentary. With that in mind, I gotta confess that when I was reminded of how much that period intrigues me, I kinda jumped all over the chance at getting a bit more knowledge on the subject.

    I was a bit wary about reading a deeply historical biography but I was so pleasantly surprised at the way the author wrote it. There was a wealth of information, but I rarely felt like I was being purely bombarded with history. It was easy to read, with quotes and notes to back up facts and to provide background to events that weren't covered in depth.

    The book covers her childhood in Austria under such a strict mother, to her marriage and departure to France. The years that she spent as the beloved Dauphine, and then to Queen until her fall from grace via libelous propaganda (99% of which was untrue), rumour, scandal and eventual torment and death.

    It was funny, I read this obviously knowing how it goes to end but as I was reading it was hard for me to continue at times knowing what fate would bring. Marie Antoinette was flawed, but ultimately a good person. She had vices which at least contributed the background to her downfall in terms of giving people an opportunity to take her flaws and manipulate them to a far more sordid and vicious conclusion due to her frivolous nature, her gambling and her spending excesses. Lewd accusations about her relationships (both male and female) were made. This was never more sadly made obvious when one of her friends (Princesse de Lamballe) was violently murdered and her body desecrated by a mob with her head mounted on a pike and paraded outside the building where the crowd chanted for the queen to come out and place a kiss on the lips of her favourite.

    When you read the way the cards fell around her and her family, the stars aligning to make the dominoes fall in the most tragic way you can't help but, with the benefit of hindsight, wonder how no one saw it coming. It's a sad story, made doubly so when you watch her downfall and how the propaganda is produced to dehumanise her as she desperately tries to look after her family.

    If you have an interest in history, in particular that time in history I would highly recommend it. I'm hoping her biography on Mary Queen of Scots (another tragic queen) is as good as this as I plan on reading that at one point in the future.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was initially a good, fast read, but as I got further into the book I found myself tiring of Marie Antoinette and wanting to read something else. It became a bit of a chore. I was disappointed because I'd always had an interest in finding out more about her since I saw a documentary on Blue Peter was I was very young.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Well, she never said “Let them eat cake”, and was actually fairly kind to the poor for a person who had no idea how they lived. Her story is really rather sad – groomed from infancy to be a royal bride, she learned all sorts of court etiquette and the noble accomplishments – playing the harpsichord and virginal, embroidery, flirtation and diplomacy – but was never able to read or write with fluency. Her education apparently did not include the activities of the birds and the bees, since her brother (the Austrian emperor) had to visit the court of Versailles and have a long private talk with King Louis on bedroom activities before they had children. (One of the problems of royalty is total lack of privacy – diplomatic letters from Austrian agents in France detail exactly what the King was doing wrong, but nobody but a fellow ruler could explain it to him, and apparently Marie didn’t know what she was supposed to be doing either). About half the book takes place after the Revolution started; ironically King Louis more or less fell apart while Marie, belying her reputation as an airhead, pulled herself together and kept herself more or less intact until the end.
    Antonia Fraser is, as usual, excellent and does justice to Marie Antoinette’s life and reputation. I had no particular interest in her but picked up the book on remainder – I’m glad I did.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As a little girl, Marie Antoinette was an Archduchess of Austria. She later married Louis XVI, the future king of France. They ruled France in the late 18th century, but that came to an end via the French Revolution. They had to run for their lives, which in the end, they both lost. This is her biography, so it's nonfiction.This was very good. I must admit to not knowing a lot about her, the time period, or the other people involved, so I learned a lot. Because I don't know as many people, at times there were a lot of people to try to keep straight, but I think Fraser did a pretty good job of at least keeping clear the main “players”. It's a long book, but it was very good. And I think it's the first I've read by Fraser. I'm sure I'll pick up more and I'll likely read more about Marie Antoinette, as well.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Marie Antoinette is one of the most unfairly vilified women in history. She was a scapegoat, as so many women have been through the ages. I really liked this biography because it was a chance to get to know her for herself, not for her role, not for her reputation.

    The book is very meticulously researched, and so you can sometimes get lost in a thicket of dukes and counts, all of whom have more names than they know what to do with. But it’s still quite riveting. I would recommend it to any history buff, or to anyone who wants to know what the unluckiest queen of France was really like.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Excellent. Fascinating insight into the French royalty before and during its transient fall.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is a nice, thick non-fiction about the life of the French queen, from birth through to her execution. It's my first bio of Antoinette so even though Fraser writes from an almost completely sympathetic angle, and that isn't to say a skewed angle, I learned so much. I didn't even know that the woman wasn't French but Austrian!After reading hundreds of pages, seeing her go from a rather neglected Austrian princess to a neglected French princess, living through the early years of her marriage to Louis XVI, who seems to have pretended she was invisible for about the first ten years until they became so attached to each other, it really was sad to read of how they and their children were treated by the men who drove the revolution.Bios can seem a little dry in the beginning, but I never had my interest lag in this one, and now I actually understand what led up to the French Revolution. And no, she never said, "Let them eat cake."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fraser’s biography is often described as sympathetic to Antoinette, which at once tells us that this is something notable enough to somehow distinguish it. Marie Antoinette is still a figure who is loved and hated. When Sofia Coppola’s film based on this book first premiered in Cannes both cheers and boos were heard from the audience. It may be true that Fraser does give us a portrait that focuses more on the sinned against than sinning aspects of her life, but I would think anyone, especially the mothers among them, would find it hard not to feel sorry for Antoinette throughout most of the book.Even though the queen spent the last four years of her life in captivity, it seems as if her life was not her own from birth. She was unlucky in many ways and was made a scapegoat for some of the massive problems France faced at the end of the eighteenth century. Fraser tells us that Antoinette’s tomb is behind black metal bars with the French fleur de lis surmounting them. If any sight could claim to summarise Marie Antoinette’s life, Fraser’s well compiled biography suggests that there is no better one than this.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked this book a lot. I had to put it down and come back to it quite often as I had so much going on in my life at the time. I also wouldn't recommend trying to read it before bed each night... Sometimes the overwhelming detail and mass of information would make my eyelids heavy :) However, the book was very informative and enlightening. I might reread some sections again later just to refresh my mind of some of the chain of events that led to the French Revolution. I feel Antonia Fraser was a just historian in presenting all sides of the story - In some respects, I feel Ms. Fraser has vindicated Marie Antoinette from some of the harsh and undue criticism still thrown at her today while also presenting the situations and decisions that set Marie Antoinette up to be the scapegoat of the aristocrats in the French Revolution, some of which were her own doing. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves well-written and well-research history.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a very enjoyable and understandable biography of a time, a place and a woman. It's very accessible to non-history minded people, but would be good for history buffs as well.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As always Antonia Fraser has delivered an interesting and well-researched insight into her subject. Marie Antoinette must be one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented historical figures.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Antonia Fraser does a great job of making history interesting. Not only does she tell the story of Marie Antoinette but she relates it to what else is going on in the world at the time and what may have caused certain events, etc.She adds some speculation to things, but I found it easy to tell when she was taking artistic license as opposed to telling the history outright. She relates anecdotes and her resources are impressive.I read the book because I saw the movie (starring Kirsten Dunst) and am very glad it brought me to the wonderful works by Antonia Fraser.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There are many history books and novels about Marie Antoinette, but Antonia Fraser is always better. She has the ability to write history with intelligence and accuracy yet most books are quite readable. If you would like to start reading some history in addition to historical fiction, Antonia Fraser is a great place to start.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good book, very factual. Can be a bit dry but full of information. I felt it focused a little too much on the social aspects of Marie Antoinette's life, rather than the political problems of the time which made parts of the book hard to follow. It took me a long time to read but i am glad i saw it through to the end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As a kid, I really enjoyed biographies, but I have only just gotten back into reading them recently. I have particularly fallen in love with Claire Tomalin, whose biographies of Jane Austen and Samuel Pepys captivated me over the past few years. Antonia Fraser didn't grab me with that same intensity, but her biography of Marie Antoinette was solid, if light on in-depth analysis and broader context.Fraser paints an extremely sympathetic portrait of Marie Antoinette, a caring family woman who was dreadfully wronged and maligned in her time and for the over 200 years since her violent death. While I would have preferred a more balanced look at the Queen's life (while she surely wasn't the sole, or even a major, cause of France's economic woes in the latter part of the 18th century, Marie Antoinette's lavish spending and her attempts to forward Austria's interests in French politics certainly didn't help matters), I appreciated the side of the story I did get. Married off to the French Dauphin at the age of 14, the youngest Archduchess of Austria was sent by carriage away from her beloved family, home, and friends to a 16-year-old husband who vastly preferred hunting to being with his new wife. Living in a highly ritualized, rigid court existence where her every move was watched--some to copy, and others to condemn--Marie Antoinette endured the humiliation of seven years of unconsummated marriage that was earnestly discussed by everyone from her mother (in scolding letters to her) to the pamphleteers (who speculated, wrongly, on her finding sexual consolation with many of the men and women of her inner circle). Is it any wonder she turned to an increasingly frantic party lifestyle?When Marie Antoinette and the mild, indecisive Louis XVI finally became truly man and wife three years or so into his reign, and (most importantly) started producing heirs, their domestic tranquility would have turned them into no more than a brief paragraph in French history if not for the Revolution. It was only under extreme adversity that Marie Antoinette came into her own, showing strength and courage through four long years of terror.Fraser's epilogue lays out the analysis that I longed to have ongoing in the book, which was filled instead with too many portents of doom ("In her enjoyment of Figaro, Marie Antoinette could not imagine the consequences to her personally of the piece's wild popularity . . .") for my taste. And I longed for a timeline and a "Cast of Characters" to help me keep everything straight. All in all, though, Ms. Fraser's exhaustive research makes this a worthwhile read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this for my book club. Otherwise I don't think I would have tackled it. I found it way too detailed in some areas and not detailed enough in others. There was so much about court life, but not enough about the pressure and stress of the people. I felt somewhat bewildered at how Marie became the scapegoat and a victim of such absolute hatred and violence.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The French queen who emerges from the pages of Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette: The Journey is a sympathetic figure, a well-meaning yet flawed woman tragically caught up in political and social forces beyond her control. In this biography, Fraser achieves an effective mixture of exhaustive research and engaging storytelling, weaving together the documentary evidence to produce a rich narrative of the Austrian archduchess who became a French queen. A reading of this work enhances the viewing of Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette, based rather closely on the first two-thirds of Fraser's book, up to the day when the royal family was forced to decamp from Versailles to Paris; symbiotically, a viewing of the Coppola film brings many of the characters and events described by Fraser vividly to life, illustrating key episodes in Marie Antoinette's reign as dauphine and queen consort of France.One failing of Fraser's biography arises from the very complexity of its subject. Even though the author includes a number of supplementary aids to understanding the history – genealogical charts, a map of 18th-century Europe, a detailed index – the sheer number of characters and the overwhelming complexity of French revolutionary politics sometimes make events difficult to follow. Additional appendices, for example a list of major historical figures and a simplified timeline of events, would help the reader in making sense of all the details of the narrative. But even without them, Fraser has skillfully accomplished a remarkable feat. She breathes new life into a legendary historical figure who lost hers over two centuries ago, and in doing so she makes the story of Marie Antoinette and the history of her times as compelling as any adventure novel, as touching as any romance.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    France's iconic queen, revered and reviled in her lifetime, has been the object of debate, speculation, legend. This portrait excites compassion and regard for the queen and offers a perceptive analysis of her times. Poor Antoinette was in a lose-lose situation from the day she set foot on French soil at the age of 14. There were many points at which things might have gone differently and yet did not, so that one senses almost the element of fate at work as in a Greek tragedy. Impressive were her unfailing grace under fire and bravery, even equanimity, when friendless and alone at the end. A true queen, and not in name only.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is an awesome book, written on such an intriguing person in history. Marie Antoinette has gotten a bad rap throughout the years, the whole French revolution has been blamed on her, which is wrong. There are MANY MANY reasons why the revolution happened, and many don't have anything to do with her. It's a great book and the movie by S. Coppolla is also great (if you liked Clueless, you'd like this because it has an innocent air to it). The Marie Antionette in this book comes off a little more sympathetic because the reader is able to see how young and vulnerable she was. We must remember she became Queen of France at such a young, immature age and it's no wonder she had all those lavish parties. This is a great book by a great author and I highly recommend it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A little hard to get through at points, but a good solid read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A thoroughly engrossing read, this was a much-needed reconsideration of a much-maligned personage. Occasionally, Fraser indulges in the tabloid rumour-mongering that she professes to deplore (i.e. particularly where Fersen is concerned, and his true relationship with the Queen), however ignoring these 'juicy' tidbits that are offered, the evidence-grounded look at Marie Antoinette's life is certainly refreshing and successfully looks beyond the myth of the icon to create a more rounded and truer account.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fascinating. And not as much hard work as I thought it would be! Fraser presents an objectively researched account, in a very readable manner. I read about lots of things I knew, lots of things I THOUGHT I knew, and lots of things I didn't. Made watching the Sofia Coppola film more interesting too.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In terms of royal biographers, it doesn't get much better than Antonia Fraser, and this book is no exception. Skillfully painting Antoinette's life in a way that makes her a real person and not the surreal legend she's become, Fraser's biography shows us a woman in the wrong place at the wrong time. Having comitted the crime of not being a natural-born leader (unlike her formidable mother) and marrying a man not cut out to be king, Antoinette is introduced as a simpler, more relatable woman that popular history potrays. "The Journey" is an excellent read and a wonderful biography.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Antonia Fraser is a biography machine; I mean that in the best possible way. Her output is prodigious and she manages to turn out a pretty consistently high quality product.Her interpretation of Marie Antoinette avoids the cartoonish depictions of her as an uncaring monsterous slut who bled France dry for her own pleasure; nor does Fraser portray the queen as a innocent victim of circumstances, who had little or no part in her ultimate downfall. Instead Fraser skillfully charts a middle course and shows Marie Antoinette as a girl and woman who despite her advantages suffered from human temptations and failing, and despite her failings showed eveidence of real character.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A well researched and interesting look at a controversial 18th century figure. Heavy sledding in the early going, this book felt like it skimmed over Marie Antoinette's latter years too lightly for my taste, although this may be due to a combination of paucity of sources and lack of activity during her imprisonment. An interesting work, but not a light read.