Memoires des courtiers online.
Book Lovers
Merci beaucoup! I have seen the Baronne d'Oberkirch quoted many places, I look forward to reading her memoirs now!!
Forum Activity for @marie-antoinette-dautriche
Book Lovers
Merci beaucoup! I have seen the Baronne d'Oberkirch quoted many places, I look forward to reading her memoirs now!!
France: Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette
Book Lovers
Oooooohh you're right! I discovered my error was that I'd been looking a while ago on amazon.ca, which often has more limited choices, but now that I have my Kindle - yay!
France: Louis XIV, Louis XV, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette
Book Lovers
Well, with Antoinette, of course, Antonia Fraser. I actually don't own this book as it (surprisingly to me) is only available in German for the Kindle, which is how I've bought new books lately. But I've had it several times from the library. I agree with you, Tat, on the movie - maybe it's because of knowing the story, maybe it's because of Kirsten Dunst's California girl accent, but it's hard to not start "watching" the background and the clothes! Although I *adore* Steve Coogan as Mercy and I actually really liked Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI, I thought he caught the slightly bumbling yet regal and essentially kind nature of the man.
There is also Carolly Erickson's To the Scaffold. She is more terse and doesn't go on about some things the way Lady Antonia does, though at times I actually wanted more detail, ah well. If you've read any of her Tudor-era bios, you'll know what to expect.
Queen of Fashion is fascinating and I have read it several times as well as dipping into it over and over; it's because of her documentation that I have the dauphine ride astride and in men's riding clothes at the hunts! I think at times she claims a little too much for Antoinette (did ladies adopt the gaulle *because* she wore it? um - I don't think so, it was a little more complex than that ...), however, there is no question that Antoinette's style choices and, especially, her real and then imagined expenditures on and obsession with clothing and jewels, were a huge part of her public profile and remained so even years after she moderated her habits, even after the family was removed from Versailles. I would also have liked to have had more information on what the fashions looked like, I think Weber could have done a much better job of illustrating this. To really understand women's dress of the period, I recommend several books below.
With Antoinette I also recommend the memoirs of Campan and Mme de la Tour du Pin (which is just a fascinating memoir in its own right, unfortunately not currently in print in English), to get the flavor of the world around her. Campan can be a bit self-aggrandizing and dramatic, and the Marquise is not a big fan of Antoinette, but both women were close to her and observed her, and the courtiers around her, minutely and left interesting records behind them.
For costume, to understand the outfits that people wore, my absolute favorite book is Costume in Detail: Women's Dress 1730-1930. This book has gorgeous line drawings that show clearly how gowns were constructed and then held together on top of ladies' bodies. Janet Arnold is also very good, and a fun book for considering how you might actually structure a wardrobe is Whatever Shall I Wear? A Guide to Assembling a Woman's Basic 18th C. Wardrobe; this book is aimed at lower- and middle-class North American Revolutionary-era reenactors but the basics of wardrobe were the same, an upper class woman would just have dozens of pairs of stockings, in silk, instead of a few of cotton or wool, francaises in silk and anglaises in polished cotton, a huge variety of hats, a number of fans and other accoutrements, and grands habits if they went to court. Of course, for real eye candy, there is Dangerous Liasons, the companion book to a wonderful show put on by the Metropolitan Museum of Art some years back. I highly recommend it to see both ladies' and gentlemen's clothes as they were worn, in period settings. Nom nom. There are tons of others if you start looking on Amazon, including Dress in France in the 18th Century, which I haven't read but it looks wonderful.
Re: Louis XIV, again, Antonia Fraser has a fun book out, The Life and Loves of Louis XIV, which includes my personal favorite member of the House of Habsburg, Anne d'Autriche, Louis XIV's mother and his regent after he ascended the throne at the age of 5. If you can get your hands on it, Nancy Mitford's "The Sun King" (sadly out of print) is also a great read. And for a fascinating drama that swirled around Paris in the 1770s and 80s and reached up to the king himself, in the person of his mistress Mme de Montespan, there is The Affair of the Poisons, a book which is very scholarly but also deeply, deeply interesting and very illustrative of court intrigues as well as the relationship between Paris and the court.
Tat, the books featuring Halard's photography look gorgeous and I will try to get my hands on them. The book on the Domaine must be a dream!!
Maria, I have tried to find Liasions Dangereuses in English, no luck. It seems odd to me, but, there we are!! :(
What are you Reading?
Book Lovers
Oooohh I need to read this, I just read Mme la Marquise's memoirs in June. Thank you for the recommendation.
What are you Reading?
Book Lovers
Ohhh with a prologue by Vargas-Llosa?? Did you like that?? I read an abridged Quijote in 5th year Espanol, besides enjoying the book it was very nice because I was able to read it without "translating" in my brain ... but as you know, that is a long time ago for me. ;) Bueno, maybe I should try to work back to that, no?
What are you Reading?
Book Lovers
Hee hee I was just eyeballing GWTW today, I will probably take it down once I feel better. I know I have read it all the way through, in a battered paperback, five times, as a teenager (because I put a mark inside the cover each time I did so), though lately I will read an eighth or a quarter at a time. It does read so fast, as it's hard to put down. The film was a great adaptation, but there is just so much in the book, it would have been hard to fit it all in, I know what you mean though. - Did I tell you I really liked "Rhett Butler's People"? It's a modern book, by which I mean as much by a modern novelist as GWTW was by a writer of Mitchell's time, but I think a very fascinating look at Butler and a good novel on its own.
What are you Reading?
Book Lovers
I'm rereading Marie-Antoinette by Hilaire Belloc. Written in 1909, it's nevertheless very compelling and, I think, informs my portrayal of her more than anything else. I keep looking for new books and information on her, but I think this bio - while very candid about her shortcomings, Belloc is nonetheless extremely sympathetic - comes closest to accurately describing her, herself, the world she lived in, and why things happened the way they happened. I have it on my Kindle, which is an easy way to get older books without having to order them, as long as the text file used is in good condition!
I also loved The Help; I read it while on vacation with my family and left it for my mother and sister to read. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie as the movie is told strictly from the point of view of Aibileen, the older maid. FYI. Also FYI: Myrlie Evars-Williams, Medgar Evars' widow, gave the film a thumbs-up at an NAACP screening (his murder is referenced in the novel). She's not Roger Ebert, but at least I'm not worried now about it being too "yay everything is all okay now".
Trefusis Designs-Releases Two Marie Antoinette Gowns.
Marketplace Archive ** CLOSED **
YAY!!! I'm very glad to hear!
Trefusis Designs-Releases Two Marie Antoinette Gowns.
Marketplace Archive ** CLOSED **
As you know from the note (and pics!) I sent you, I adore these gowns, the time and talent that went into them is obvious, they are lovely and move beautifully, really gorgeous - Antoinette gives you A+ for both!!
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General Discussion
Eeeeks. Your mileage definitely may vary - but I only put a minimum of programs on my machine *in general* and I would probably do less if I'd actually worked in IT. I'm on a Mac but it doesn't make me lazy ... umm, not too much, anyway. (rolls eyes at her lazy-Mac-self)