The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette

(Paperback)

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Imagine that, on the night before she is to die under the blade of the guillotine, Marie Antoinette leaves behind in her prison cell a diary telling the story of her life - from her privileged childhood as Austrian Archduchess to her years as glamorous mistress of Versailles, to the heartbreak of imprisonment and humiliation during the French Revolution.Carolly Erickson takes the reader deep into the psyche of France's doomed queen: her love affair with handsome Swedish diplomat Count Axel Fersen, who risked his life to save her; her fears on the terrifying night the Parisian mob broke into her palace bedroom intent on murdering her and her family; her harrowing attempted flight from France in disguise; her recapture and the grim months of harsh captivity; her agony when her beloved husband was guillotined and her young son was torn from her arms, never to be seen again.Erickson brilliantly captures the queen's voice, her hopes, her dreads, and her suffering. We follow, mesmerised, as she reveals every detail of her remarkable, eventful life - from her teenage years when she began keeping a diary, to her final days when she awaited her own bloody appointment with the guillotine.

Reviews

"I read THE HIDDEN DIARY OF MARIE ANTOINETTE in two days, and when I finished it, I reread the final pages, as hungry for more as a child scraping the last crumbs of chocolate cake off her plate with her fingers. I thrilled to Marie Antoinette's every incarnation.... A very human and multi-textured portrait of a queen who all too often has been reduced to a historical on-liner." Judith Warner, The New York Times Book Review"

Author Bio

Carolly Erickson is a distinguished biographer and author of The First Elizabeth, Her Little Majesty and Alexandra, among many other prize-winning non-fiction books. She is currently at work on the forthcoming novel, The Last Wife of Henry VIII. She lives in Hawaii.