Confessions of Marie Antoinette
Read Confessions of Marie Antoinette Online
Authors: Juliet Grey
Tags: #Fiction, #Historical, #Romance, #General, #Biographical
Praise for
BECOMING MARIE ANTOINETTE
and
DAYS OF SPLENDOR, DAYS OF SORROW
Novels of Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey
“This engaging voice, coupled with vibrant descriptions of clothing, palaces, masques, and dinners, really thrusts the reader into the story.… Exceptionally well done!”
—Historical Novel Review
“Grey has the gift of truly bringing Marie Antoinette to life. Many authors have written about the Queen of France, but no one has managed to give her such a voice as Grey.”
“In her richly imagined novel, Juliet Grey meticulously re-creates the sumptuous court of France’s most tragic queen. Beautifully written, with attention paid to even the smallest detail,
Becoming Marie Antoinette
will leave readers wanting more!”
—M
ICHELLE
M
ORAN
, bestselling author of
Madame Tussaud
“A thoroughly enjoyable novel, brimming with delightful details … Grey writes eloquently and with charming humor, bringing ‘Toinette’ vividly to life as she is schooled and groomed—molded, quite literally—for a future as Queen of France, an innocent pawn in a deadly political game.”
—S
ANDRA
G
ULLAND
, bestselling author of
Mistress of the Sun
and the Josephine Bonaparte trilogy
“A great read that is sure to be requested by lovers of historical fiction, especially those who enjoyed Michelle Moran’s
Madame Tussaud
and other novels about the French Revolution.”
—
Library Journal
“Everything is so vividly described that you feel as though you are right there experiencing it all. This novel is very well written and it captivates you from the very beginning.”
—Peeking Between the Pages
“A sympathetic and engaging read that presents the French queen in a manner seldom found in other novels … Readers will see Marie Antoinette in a whole new light. Anyone interested in French history will savor every page of this novel.”
—BookLoons
“A lusciously detailed novel of Marie Antoinette’s rise to power and the decadent, extravagant lifestyles of eighteenth-century Versailles.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Well researched and lovingly written with sparkling details—this new trilogy is not one to be missed by any lover of historical fiction.”
—Stiletto Storytime
“This novel was by far the best I have read that tackles such an interesting and misunderstood queen. Grey weaves fun scandals into the history we all know.”
—Mostly Books
“A lively and sensitive portrait of a young princess in a hostile court, and one of the most sympathetic portrayals of the doomed queen.”
—L
AUREN
W
ILLIG
, bestselling author of the Pink Carnation series
“Wonderfully delectable and lusciously rich, an elegant novel to truly savor. Juliet Grey’s Marie Antoinette is completely absorbing.”
—D
IANE
H
AEGER
, author of
The Queen’s Rival
“I really appreciate that Juliet Grey has decided to take a trilogy to tell Marie Antoinette’s story, instead of simply a single novel, because it really helps readers understand how and where her world went so terribly wrong. Not only are Marie Antoinette’s motivations—particularly for her party girl ways early in her queenship—more easily understood, but so are the reasons for the French Revolution. In fact, I think only in non-fiction have I seen the causes of the French Revolution so well laid out.”
—Devourer of Books
“This is a beautiful novel that opened the gilded gates of Versailles for me. More important, it opened the gates of Marie Antoinette’s soul.… A vibrant novel that illustrates the blindness of politics and tradition.”
—A Writer’s Life: Working with the Muse
“Lavish in details of Marie Antoinette’s elegant court and beautiful attending ladies, this book will whet the appetites of those who love to gather every little crumb about their favorite French queen. Juliet Grey knows how to tempt the mind’s eye with descriptions of Antoinette’s glorious hair confections, the glories of her petite little cottage and grounds with its sumptuous silks and pastel colorings, and the fabulous games of cards and masquerades. I can never get enough of Marie Antoinette no matter how many times I read about her, but Grey’s novel is unique in its storytelling.… This is a book historical fiction lovers will die to read!”
—A Bookish Libraria
“Another solidly impressive journey into the life of Marie Antoinette … Grey again proves … that she is a skilled writer, able to evoke time, place, and characters with equal vivacity.… Juliet Grey delivers a solid, engrossing, completely entertaining sequel.”
—Ageless Pages Reviews
“I read this book in one day. I simply could not put it down.”
—A Chick Who Reads: Historical Fiction
“Juliet Grey does an exceptional job of helping the reader understand Marie Antoinette’s faults and the reasons for them, especially when it comes to feeling sympathy for her.… It’s also a reminder of how welcome this trilogy is, as it does a better job of portraying an entire life than a single book could. Marie Antoinette’s life was complex and changing. This whole trilogy is a very well-done, evocative portrait of the French court during the reign of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, and does a fantastic job of getting inside the famous queen’s head and positing what might have motivated her to act as she did.”
—Medieval Bookworm
“I really wish these books were around when I was learning about the French Revolution in college. But the best part of the book is how much the story humanizes Marie Antoinette and her husband, Louis XVI.”
—A Library of My Own
“Highlighting Marie’s strengths and her weaknesses, Grey paints a sympathetic portrait of France’s last queen, successfully showcasing how she matured as both a person and a monarch.”
—Confessions of an Avid Reader
“Juliet Grey has a way of making this period new and exciting for me.”
—The Maiden’s Court
“Grey leaves no detail to chance and combines impeccable research with an easy and enjoyable writing style.… This was the first time that I felt that [Marie Antoinette] was presented as a human being, rather than a one-dimensional character.”
—Luxury Reading
“Ms. Grey has captured the essence of who Antoinette was. A figure that has been much maligned in history who was actually a caring soul and someone who was loyal to her husband and to the country to which she became a transplant. While reading, I was transported to that time and place. The book really makes the reader feel as if she is part of the book. The characters are so engaging and the dialogue is natural.”
—The True Book Addict
“This second book of Juliet Grey’s Marie Antoinette trilogy exceeded—by far—all my expectations. In the author’s first book,
Becoming Marie Antoinette
, we read about Antonia and how she, at a very young age, becomes Queen of France—a most delightful read from beginning to end—so much so that I named it my favourite read of 2011. So how was
Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow
going to compare, or better yet, give me more to get excited about? Every little detail in this book is delectable, and I savoured it thoroughly. Written in good taste, nothing is amiss, and everything is possible. A work of fiction, yet written with such precise historical details,
Days of Splendor, Days of Sorrow
is much more than just another Marie Antoinette story! I can’t wait for the next and final book of this amazing trilogy. Excellent!”
—Enchanted by Josephine
Confessions of Marie Antoinette
is a work of historical fiction. Apart from the well-known actual people, events, and locales that figure in the narrative, all names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. Any resemblance to current events or locales or to living persons, is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Books eBook Edition
Copyright © 2013 by Leslie Carroll
Reading group guide copyright © 2013 by Leslie Carroll
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
BALLANTINE and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
RANDOM HOUSE READER’S CIRCLE & Design is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Grey, Juliet.
Confessions of Marie Antoinette : a novel / Juliet Grey.
pages cm
“A Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Original”—T.p. verso.
eISBN: 978-0-345-52391-4
1. Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755–1793—Fiction. 2. Nobility—France—Fiction. 3. France—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3607.R4993C66 2013
813′.6—dc23 2013004316
www.randomhousereaderscircle.com
Cover design: Jeff Miller/Faceout Studio
Cover images: © Newscom (Marie Antoinette) and
© AKG (burning carriage)
v3.1
Contents
Chapter One: Adieu, Splendor
Chapter Two: Mayhem
Chapter Three: The Bakers’ Procession
Chapter Four: The Tuileries
Chapter Five: Red Heels and Red Bonnets
Chapter Six: And So We Must Dissemble
Chapter Seven: Saint-Cloud
Chapter Eight: The Lion Lies Down with the Lambs
Chapter Nine: La Fête de la Fédération
Chapter Ten: Safety Is Merely an Illusion
Chapter Eleven: Go?
Chapter Twelve: An Old Friend Returns
Chapter Thirteen: Delay
Chapter Fourteen: Flight
Chapter Fifteen: Caught
Chapter Sixteen: The Long Ride Home
Chapter Seventeen: Entrances and Exits
Chapter Eighteen: Tribulation First Makes: One Realize What One Is
Chapter Nineteen: Resté Là
Chapter Twenty: Invasion
Chapter Twenty-one: The Wolves Return
Chapter Twenty-two: The Second Revolution
Chapter Twenty-three: Hideous Adieux
Chapter Twenty-four: Citoyens Capet
Chapter Twenty-five: The Widow Capet
Chapter Twenty-six: “Everything Leads Me to You”
Chapter Twenty-seven: What More Can You Do to Break My Heart?
Chapter Twenty-eight: The Devil’s Catechism
Chapter Twenty-nine: Nothing Can Hurt Me Anymore
Chapter Thirty: The Conciergerie
Chapter Thirty-one: Carnations and Deprivations
Chapter Thirty-two: I Will Not Let Them Break Me
Chapter Thirty-three: Adieu À Tout le Monde
Tribulation first makes one realize what one is
.
—Marie Antoinette to the comte de Mercy-Argenteau
Posterity should pay no heed to those secret legends which are spread about a Prince in his lifetime out of spite, or a mere love of gossip, which a mistaken public believes to be true and which, in a few more years, are adopted by the historians who thus deceive themselves and the generations to come
.