The Queen's Embroiderer: A True Story of Paris, Lovers, Swindlers, and the First Stock Market Crisis

by Joan DeJean

Overview

From the author of How Paris Became Paris, a sweeping history of high finance, the origins of high fashion, and a pair of star-crossed lovers in 18th-century France.

Paris, 1719. The stock market is surging and the world's first millionaires are buying everything in sight. Against this backdrop, two families, the Magoulets and the Chevrots, rose to prominence only to plummet in the first stock market crash. One family built its name on the burgeoning financial industry, the other as master embroiderers for Queen Marie-Thérèse and her husband, King Louis XIV. Both patriarchs were ruthless money-mongers, determined to strike it rich by arranging marriages for their children.

But in a Shakespearean twist, two of their children fell in love. To remain together, Louise Magoulet and Louis Chevrot fought their fathers' rage and abuse. A real-life heroine, Louise took on Magoulet, Chevrot, the police, an army regiment, and the French Indies Company to stay with the man she loved.

Following these families from 1600 until the Revolution of 1789, Joan DeJean recreates the larger-than-life personalities of Versailles, where displaying wealth was a power game; the sordid cells of the Bastille; the Louisiana territory, where Frenchwomen were forcibly sent to marry colonists; and the legendary "Wall Street of Paris," Rue Quincampoix, a world of high finance uncannily similar to what we know now. The Queen's Embroiderer is both a story of star-crossed love in the most beautiful city in the world and a cautionary tale of greed and the dangerous lure of windfall profits. And every bit of it is true.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632864765
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	810,351
File size:	80 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Joan DeJean has been Trustee Professor at the University of Pennsylvania since 1988. She previously taught at Yale and at Princeton. She is the author of eleven books on French literature, history, and material culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including most recently How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City (2014); The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual--and the Modern Home Began (2009); The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour (2005). She lives in Philadelphia and, when in Paris, around the corner from the house where, in 1612, this story began.
Joan DeJean is Trustee Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of ten books on French literature, history, and material culture, including most recently The Age of Comfort: When Paris Discovered Casual and the Modern Home Began and The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. She lives in Philadelphia and, when in Paris, on the street where the number 4 bus began service on July 5, 1662.

Table of Contents

Magoulet Family Tree viii

Map of Paris in the Early 18th Century x

Timeline xiii

How This Began xv

Chapter 1 The Queen's Embroiderers 1

Chapter 2 Star-Crossed 10

Chapter 3 Upward Mobility 1: Salt and Taxes The Chevrots: 1604-1698 20

Chapter 4 Upward Mobility 2: Purveyors to the Crown The Magoulets; 1638-1678 36

Chapter 5 Salad Days The Magoulets: 1679-1698 52

Chapter 6 Annual Income, Annual Expenditure The Magoulets: 1677-1691 61

Chapter 7 Secrets and Lies The Magoulets: 1692-1704 78

Chapter 8 A Person of Consequence The Chevrots: 1692-1708 96

Chapter 9 The Great Winter The Chevrots: 1708-1716 106

Chapter 10 The Deadly Years The Magoulets: 1706-1718 118

Chapter 11 The Gold Rush Jean Magoulet: 1718-1719 136

Chapter 12 The Invention of Money Louise Magoulet Louis Chevrot: 1319 145

Chapter 13 Personation Clément Magoullet: 1669-1719 166

Chapter 14 "The Incredible Madness of the 20th Year of the Eighteenth Century" Louise Magoulet Louis Chevrot: 1320 179

Chapter 15 Aftershocks Everyone: 1721-1723 195

Chapter 16 Total Eclipse Everyone: 1323-1324 210

Chapter 17 "A Diabolical Person" Clément Magoullet: December 1724-May 15, 1732 228

Chapter 18 The Remains of the Day The Chevrots: 1725-1736 239

Chapter 19 The Prince's Embroiderer, The Prince's Designer The Magoulets: 1728-1761 254

Chapter 20 The King's Prosecutors Louise Magoulet: 1729-? 276

Aftermath 283

Chapter 21 To the Islands Marie Magoulet: Early 1740s-1848 285

Chapter 22 A Royal Wedding The Magoulets: 1717-1790 292

Chapter 23 The Noise of Time The Chevrots: 1736-1790 301

Afterword A Father's Love 316

Coda The Bourbons 318

Acknowledgments 321

Appendix: Price Index 325

Notes 327

Archival Documents Consulted 337

Bibliography 347

Illustration Credits 355

Index 359

Editorial Reviews

"A fascinating true story based on formidable detective work in the archives." - Valerie Steele, Director and Chief Curator, Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology

"A convincing recreation of a feverish period in French history . . . DeJean guides the reader sure-footedly through the labyrinth of financial and family law, low and high politicking and general skulduggery that characterised the era . . . A fascinating and original book whose central importance is to have captured the turmoil, confusion and sometimes sheer wickedness that accompanied the formation of early modern capitalism." - Financial Times

"The tale of two 17th- and 18th-century French families, a story that begins as a fairy tale and ends as a nightmare." - Kirkus

"[The Queen’s Embroiderer] features guild-hopping, inheritance fraud, domestic abuse, eloping to England, sending toddlers to their deaths, locking the gates against the poor, and the occasional escape from a chain gang. There's an impressive depth of research—this is, as much as anything else, a mystery about the manipulation of record-keeping and identity . . . Some aspects of the wider upheaval are striking, as DeJean builds a credible picture of the mania of a nation becoming an empire: Monarchy as economy, war as opportunity, slavery as profit margin. . . . That there are so few loose ends in this two-century saga is a testament to DeJean's research." - NPR.org

"Joan DeJean tells the strange story of the Magoulet and Chevrot families, who rose to prominence as financiers and embroiderers to the French court . . . and shows how love and money made uncomfortable bed-mates." - Recommended Reads, New Statesman

"This exceptional and thoroughly researched book follows two prominent Parisian families from the 1600s to the French Revolution (1789-1799)." - Piecework

"As richly and intricately wrought as a French tapestry. Beautifully written and highly recommended." - Historical Novel Society

"DeJean is, in many ways, the perfect guide to the lives of Jean and Louise Magoulet and the darkly glittering, labyrinthine city in which they lived . . . Were it not for her, the full range of Magoulet’s crimes would remain unknown. Her command of the period and the most minute details of its social, cultural and economic life is masterful . . . DeJean is a spirited observer of the past." - Literary Review

"The Queen's Embroiderer reads like a riveting page turner ripped from today’s headlines." - New Orleans Magazine

"A tale of intrigue and finance in 18th-century France. And what a story it is! . . . Reading The Queen’s Embroiderer is a bit like listening to a fascinating, erudite lecture or examining an elaborate piece of needlework. . . . If your plans for springtime in France haven’t materialized, don’t despair. Just open The Queen’s Embroiderer and you’ll find yourself transported." - Bookpage.com

"In this twisted tale of two French families, DeJean interweaves the rise and fall of the Magoulets and the Chevrots, who took divergent paths to wealth, power, and ignominy . . . the fascinating details of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Parisian fashion, politics, and feuds will reward persevering readers." - Booklist Online

"Wittily written and impeccably researched . . . DeJean nimbly demonstrates the city’s postcard-perfect charm owes much to the vision of two savvy monarchs." - New York Times Book Review on HOW PARIS BECAME PARIS

"This lively history charts the growth of Paris from a city of crowded alleyways and irregular buildings into a modern marvel." - New Yorker on HOW PARIS BECAME PARIS

From the Publisher

2018-02-20
The tale of two 17th- and 18th-century French families, a story that begins as a fairy tale and ends as a nightmare.The families Magoulet and Chevrot tied their stars to the court of Louis XIV. The Magoulets were master embroiderers who also made leather cases to transport fragile treasures. The king's wars, winter, famine, and poor economics eventually curtailed their work and livelihood, but Jacques Magoulet caught the eye of Louis' finance minister and became the tax collector for the nation. One of DeJean's (Romance Languages/Univ. of Pennsylvania; How Paris Became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City, 2014, etc.) main narrative elements involves men who knew no rules. They wanted to be rich and noble, and lying and cheating become their primary methods. The Chevrots, however, took another approach. They chose to make money from money, eschewing conspicuous consumption and devoting all their energy to purchasing positions from the crown to advance their standing. The fastest way to amass money was to marry into it, and the Chevrots played the game well—except for the Romeo and Juliet of their families, who fell in love and vowed to marry. Louis appointed John Law, an Englishman, to control the largest economy in Europe, and he introduced paper money, dividends, the first ever investment fever, and, finally, the bursting bubble. Unfortunately, most of the book concerns economics, which is not the author's forte, and the title is misleading. Money controlled the drive of these two families, and many of them were liars, forgers, imposters, and abusers. The narrative is intermittently interesting but difficult to follow as the stories jump around in time and between families. Times were difficult, but these two families drove themselves to ruin by pure, unadulterated greed.Of interest for students of French history or the history of finance, if they can tie it all together.

Kirkus Reviews