Publishers Weekly
09/16/2019
Hardman (The Life of Louis XVI) attempts to redeem Marie Antoinette’s much maligned reputation in this dense portrait of the queen’s adult life in France. Hardman begins by detailing her profligate spending and personal vendettas in the years after her husband, Louis XVI, ascended to the throne in 1774. The French court inherently distrusted the Austrian-born “Madame Deficit,” as she came to be known, despite the fact that she eventually assimilated to the point where she had to relearn her native German language. But when the king sank into despair after the 1787 Assembly of Notables failed to endorse comprehensive tax reforms, it was the queen, Hardman argues, who promoted the constitutional monarchy through her dialogue with revolutionary leader Antoine Bravard. Drawing on Marie Antoinette’s letters to Bravard and her lover Axel von Fersen, Hardman suggests that she effectively ran the French government for a short period in 1791. Hardman’s willingness to accept the contemporary notion that Marie Antoinette’s “frigidity” played a part in the royal couple’s early fertility problems somewhat undermines his revisionist arguments, as does his admission that the queen was “largely unprepared” for the task of “turn the tide of revolutionary fervour.” Academics well-versed in the French Revolution will appreciate Hardman’s diligent marshaling of the period’s many twists and turns, however. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Marie-Antoinette: The Making of a French Queen presents [Marie-Antoinette] as much more than a symbol whose meaning is in the eye of her beholder. In Hardman’s telling she is neither martyr nor voluptuary but rather a serious participant in politics.”—Lynn Hunt, New York Review of Books“Hardman utilises years of researching the fall of the French monarchy, weaving in accounts by those who knew, loved or loathed Marie Antoinette, to offer a broadly convincing portrait of a woman who ‘inspired loyalty in strangers who were willing to risk their lives for her, even when the chances of success were slight.’ It is a thought-provoking portrait of a brave, well-intentioned, if often misguided queen.”—Gareth Russell, Times (UK)“Splendid. . . . Masterly. . . . A wonderfully gripping biography.”—Allan Massie, Wall Street Journal“Hardman’s erudite and elegantly written biography deserves to take its place as the definitive academic biography of Marie-Antoinette, a worthy companion to his biographies of Louis XVI. Hardman brings Marie-Antoinette to life as political player who carved out a sphere of real authority in a political culture that denied the queen legitimate influence in matters of state.”—Jennifer M. Jones, H-France Review“For the first time, Hardman demonstrates exactly what influence Marie-Antoinette had and when and how she exerted it. In short, Hardman, whose biography is only the second by an academic in the past one-hundred years, provides the reader with a valuable insight into the world and the thought of Marie-Antoinette. . . . Hardman’s book is one that any serious scholar or student of 18th-century French history cannot go without.”—Charles Coutinho, newbooksnetwork.com“No one has contributed more to the study of court faction in the late Old Regime and the ministerial politics of the early Revolution than John Hardman.”—Thomas E. Kaiser, Journal of Modern History“[A] well-illustrated and well-annotated volume. . . . Hardman has returned to the archives and the memoirs of [Marie-Antoinette’s] contemporaries to analyze her role as a politicial actor.”—Jeffrey Merrick, New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century“John Hardman’s new biography crowns the existing panoply of biographies detailing the life of this tragic princess. . . . [It is] an exciting and rewarding volume that will blow open quite a few windows where before we had only ‘peeps through a keyhole’ or the surmises and conjectures of hearsay evidence.”—Nashville Public Library blog“Hardman is far more than a biographer, his works are key to understanding the politics of the reign of Louis XVI. Steeped in the original sources and well able to decode the plots and schemes of the factions, this is both an entertaining and convincing new interpretation of the tragic Queen.”—Peter Campbell, author of Power and Politics in Old Regime France“Superb. Hardman draws upon his vast knowledge of the period to present a new, deeply researched and compelling portrait of a much-maligned queen.”—Julian Swann, author of Exile, Imprisonment, or Death“A fresh perspective grounded in robust scholarship, Marie-Antoinette offers readers new insight into the political role of the last Queen of France.”—Will Bashor, author of Marie Antoinette’s Darkest Days
