A stunning new biography of the legendary French queen explores the scandal, intrigue, and regal extravagence surrounding her life, as well as the events leading up to her death on the guillotine. This highly readable translation of French historian Evelyne Lever's 1991 biography captures all the drama and pathos of Marie Antoinette's short life. Born in 1755, this carefree, fun-loving daughter of Austrian empress Maria Theresa inherited neither her mother's political shrewdness nor her sense of duty. She was married off at 14 to the stolid, clumsy French Dauphin, who would not fully consummate their marriage for another seven years, at which point he was King Louis XVI and their marital difficulties were the subject of public ridicule. She consoled herself by retreating to the artificial village she constructed at Trianon, where she could be free of the court etiquette she hated and indulge in expensive amusements that only increased her unpopularity. Her rare incursions into politics were just as ill judged; she alienated the French nobility with attempts to further Austria's diplomatic goals, and from the first rumblings of revolution in 1788, she influenced Louis to take a hard line on royal power when compromise might have saved the monarchy and prevented their executions in 1793. Lever does not soften Marie Antoinette's faults or downplay her poor judgment, but most readers will finish this absorbing narrative feeling very sorry for a pretty, goodhearted, but fundamentally frivolous woman thrown into a historical moment whose demands were beyond her. --Wendy Smith Lever is a noted French historian who has written several biographies on major players in the turbulent events of late 18th-century France, and this is her first book to be translated into English. She shines a penetrating light on the opulent Versailles subculture and the queen whose royal excesses served as a major catalyst for the revolutionary upheaval of 1789. Through the skillful use of memoirs and other primary documents, Lever creates an empathic picture of Louis XVI's headstrong wife. Marie Antoinette never grasped the nuances of French court politics. Her haughty manner, extramarital romances, and extravagant spending habits served as grist for the palace rumor mill and for the pamphleteers bent on destroying the monarchy. Yet Marie Antoinette also displayed courageous devotion to her family and the Royalist causeDeven as the guillotine blade dropped on her royal neck. This is an absorbing work of meticulous scholarship and easily supplants any recent biographies of the tragic queen (e.g., Carolly Erickson's To the Scaffold, LJ 3/1/91). Recommended for academic and public libraries. -DJim Doyle, Sara Hightower Regional Lib., Rome, GA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. "... No Queen of France has been more written about than Marie Antoinette and... Evelyne Lever's book is a valuable addition." -- Joan Rivière, The Eighteenth Century "...The author paints a psychological portrait that leaves no room for ambiguity." -- Paul Moriceau, Ouest France "...most important contribution to the subject since the studies of Pierre de Nolhac in the early part of this century..." -- John Rogister, The Times Literary Supplement "Ms. Lever restores the political dimension that has often been lacking in the biographies of the last queen of France." -- Bruno de Cessole, Figaro Madame "With this portrait, Evelyne Lever proposes a true 'de-caricature' of Marie Antoinette to her readers. It was long due." -- Francis Matthys, La Libre Belgique