Becoming Marie Antoinette

I thoroughly enjoyed Juliet Grey's take on the young Maria Antonia, Archduchess of Austria, married off to the French Dauphin Louis Auguste at the tender age of fourteen. Grey obviously has great affection for her main character, and she turns someone who is typically a one-dimensional historical character into a three-dimensional, likeable young woman.

I admit I know next to nothing about Marie Antoinette, born Maria Antonia into the Austrian (Hapsburg) dynasty - a dynasty famous for marrying for power rather than going to war. In order to be acceptable to the French, she goes through all sorts of preparation, both educational and physical (the description of 18th century braces is horrifying). Once she arrives in France, she is overwhelmed by a French court that was almost nothing like she expected, where courtiers urinate in the hallways and fight for the honor of handing her her nightgown. That the dauphin is more interested in hunting and cabinet-making than in getting a baby on his new wife makes her even more miserable in her new home.

It takes Marie Antoinette a while to figure out the intrigues of the French court, which is so very different from the less showy and more morally upright court of Austria. But she eventually finds her way, and she and Louis Auguste come to be friends, and more.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Becoming Marie Antoinette