Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey

Grey writes with a passion for her subject and with a love for a child who was basically thrown to the wolves.

What this poor child went through in the name of politics is just appalling. They even put braces on her teeth – and that description about turned my stomach! She was pretty but a late bloomer into womanhood. It was not an easy process for Maria Antonia was not one for lessons – she was quick witted but not interested in the history of her new country. It tells the tale of all the political machinations that went on to secure an alliance between France and Austria through the marriage of two young people – regardless of their feelings.īut don’t think that for one minute that this is a dry, boring book because it is not! It starts with a young, carefree girl and shows how her mother and the ambassador from France molded her into what they felt would be an appropriate dauphine of France.

This first book of a trilogy starts with a young Austrian archduchess, before she became Marie Antoinette. But as her life is researched by contemporary authors much of what is known about her has been proven to be false. So many “facts” have come down through history about Marie Antoinette. She and her husband divide their time between New York City and southern Vermont. Juliet Grey has extensively researched European royal history and is a particular devotee of Marie Antoinette. Filled with smart history, treacherous rivalries, lavish clothes, and sparkling jewels, Becoming Marie Antoinette will utterly captivate fiction and history lovers alike.

Becoming Marie Antoinette by Juliet Grey