Flaunting, Extravagant Queen

French Revolution #3

by Jean Plaidy

At the age of fifteen, Marie Antoinette, beautiful and charming bride to the impotent Dauphin, is plunged into the intrigue of Versailles. Frivolous and reckless, she flouts the strict and demanding etiquette of the glittering court, and discovers the true nature of love, hate and jealousy.

But the clouds of revolution are overhead, and Marie Antoinette, who only wishes to enjoy life, learns too late that the price of her enjoyment is very high...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, France, 18th Century, Fiction, French Revolution, Romance

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Eleanor Alice Burford, Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.
-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Jahnavi Jha · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing style is the main downside of this book. The characterizations are surprisingly poor. The descriptions are very childish and the most shocking bit is that revolution is portrayed in the worst way possible. Overall, this book is quite disappointing, considering the fact that there are several, more well-researched historical fiction books out there. Most importantly, this book could not bring Marie Antoinette to life, it is confusion of holler than thou reactions. Expected better from the famed Jean Plaidy. Will surely not venture into any more of her works.

[Phil Syphe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read a biography of Marie Antoinette, I think this fictional account of this fascinating woman is a damn good read. Jean Plaidy has done a great job of bringing Marie Antoinette to life, along with Louis XVI.

The author focuses on many of the most important aspects of this frightening period of French history, mixing in some trivialities, which gives a more rounded story. In reality, Marie Antoinette's final few years were much more drawn-out and wretched than how they are portrayed here. That said, enough events feature here to still make the reader feel the utmost sympathy for Marie Antoinette and her family.

The author does a good job in showing the transition of the "Flaunting, Extravagant Queen" to a loyal wife and mother, who all her life is - in the eyes of lookers-on - damned in whatever she does, and damned in whatever she doesn't.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was written in 1957, but it is still an excellent book covering the period from when Marie Antoinette left Austria to become Louis' wife until her beheading. Overall a very sad story, from this recount of events she had so many enemies in court and beyond, mainly caused by jealousy. Not helped by a weak indecisive king - so many times when he could and should have taken control. I would now like to read one or two other versions of her story. Nice to return to Jean Plaidy, I cut my teeth in Historical Fiction with Jean Plaidy - she was a favourite of my mum's and her books were available in the house. In fact this copy was from then, and was passed onto me shortly before her death.

[Lucinda Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARDENT FAN
Sadly Jean Plaidy/Victoria Holt is no longer with us but her books live on taking us, in this case into the royal court of Marie Antoinette. What a great book, I loved the whole series and read all three in as many days.

[Katie Cowie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good personal look into the life of Marie Antoinette

[Josephine · Rating 2 out of 5]

A recent trip to Versailles had me downloading this book so fast but oh my goodness! I was just….bored. And given that the court of Louis Seize and Marie Antoinette was anything but boring, that says a lot! It read like a list of facts. There was zero characterisation and little plot, it was basically ‘just this happened so Antoinette felt like this and then this happened’ and too much tell with zero show. I just - this wasn’t for me.

[foolscap · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most riveting novel in the series. I am now in eager search of something similar after finding much to chew in Mantel's masterpiece.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Jean plaidy. Love her historical novels. Knowing the end made me impatient for the last third

[Isla]

Didn’t actually finish but will probably read at a later date

[Doodles McC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this historical novel about Marie Antoinette, when I read it as a child.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, I wasn't fond of the writing style - not because it wasn't modern but because it just didn't seem to lend itself to much depth. But by the end of the book, I felt it was well worth the read. The gradual evolution of Antoinette's character was well portrayed and the ending was very moving. I suppose the lack of depth in the beginning was merely because Antoinette herself lacked much depth until her world began to change.

I do have two complaints though. The same adjectives seemed to be used over and over again. Words like "dainty" and "frivolous" were used far too often to describe Antoinette when there are plenty of suitable synonyms. The same thing occured with other characters too. I just found it rather lazy coming from such a highly acclaimed author.

A minor complaint but I also didn't like the fact that Plaidy frequently used french words and terms without always explaining what they meant. Granted, the author was born and raised in England and I understand most English schools teach basic French. So it's understandable the author might assume her readers know enough French to know these basic words and terms. But in the US, most students choose to learn Spanish, not French and unfortunately I did not always have Google with me while reading. Sometimes, I could get the gist of it from what was going on but I still would have liked to know what was actually said.

From what I've read, Plaidy's work is considered very historically accurate and while it's not something I require from my historical fiction, it is certainly something I can appreciate (though I do struggle to understand how one woman could research and write as many books as she did in her life time - I worked out she would have to have written at least 2 books per year). I did not know a huge amount about Marie Antoinette and felt this was a good introduction. With her vast back catalogue, I'm eager to read at least a few more of Plaidy's novels.

[Jazelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifth book about Marie Antoinette that I've read and I liked it because it's written in a third point of view compared to the usual format that I've read, which was always first POV (Marie Antoinette's). I love the way this was written too because it served facts in a more objective and understandable way like the events concerning the diamond necklace.

In this book too, it was so much easier to imagine the "fall from grace" of the royal family since it also told the story AFTER the glorious days in Versailles whereas the other books focused mainly on Marie Antoinette's extravagant days... Anyhow, I really liked this book. Eventhough I already knew the sad ending awaiting this queen, I couldn't help but be hopeful whenever I read about the escape plans that just ended in tragedy.

[Anna Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly historically solid, and appropriately sympathetic but without any sort of whitewashing. (Though, I'm personally not a fan of this sort of passive narrative style of writing, so I found it hard to get into this book.)

[Hans · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I finally got to the part where the 14th July has arrived, I gave up on this book / series. It was passed over on 1 page. What a waste of time.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good and informative read that got me into wonderful debates with my husband about the marriage of figaro and the barber of Seville.

[Lynn Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published 1957 the story of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI of France and the events leading to the French Revolution and their own executions.