What do you think?
Rate this book
Versailles
A fictionalized account of the life of Marie Antoinette follows her through such challenges as her early marriage to the future King Louis XVI, struggles with the expectations of her station, painful palace betrayals and politics, and interactions with such figures as Mirabeau, Du Barry, and Robespierre.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
37 people are currently reading
7555 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Davis
47 books182 followersKathryn Davis is an award-winning American novelist.
Davis has taught at Skidmore College, and is now senior fiction writer in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
She is a recipient of the Kafka Prize, the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 2006.
Davis lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with her husband, the novelist and essayist Eric Zencey.
Davis has taught at Skidmore College, and is now senior fiction writer in the Writing Program in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
She is a recipient of the Kafka Prize, the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999, a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 2006.
Davis lives in Montpelier, Vermont, with her husband, the novelist and essayist Eric Zencey.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews
January 17, 2023
My soul is a girl: she is just like me. She is fourteen years old and has been promised in marriage to the French Dauphin
An unconventional way of viewing and writing the experience of Marie Antoinette, this eschews traditional historical narratives and instead gives us something more modern and fragmented, embedded in the material extravaganza of Versailles while allocating Antoinette's voice to a disembodied soul after death.
The whole thing works marvellously, turning on the tensions between decadence and claustrophobia, and making fine use of the architectural structure of the palace which can no longer hold the spirit, as it once did the person, of Antoinette.
Part of what makes this such a delight is the disjunction between our expectations of eighteenth century restrictions and Antoinette's modern and sardonic voice. With chapters entitled, for example, 'The King's Penis' and sly observations that made me grin ('And in fact, for all his good looks and winning ways, the King wasn't particularly smart, his three specialties being coffee making, stag hunting, and knocking the tops off soft-boiled eggs'), this is both intelligent and disruptive of traditional ways of 'doing' history.
If you loved the Sofia Coppola film of Marie Antoinette with its post punk soundtrack, you may well appreciate this book.
September 1, 2024
ARC for review. To be published November 12, 2024.
Almost all the history teachers at my high school were the football coaches so all I ever did was color maps with colored pencils. Then, in college I was a double major in English and Political Science so I didn’t have to take any history classes. I am history deficient.
I’m not sure this book helped very much.
In it, fourteen year old Marie Antoinette (who, it appears, was maybe only ever called Antoinette? I can’t really tell..) is traveling from Austria to France to meet her future husband who will become Louis XVI and will rule France. For a time. Til it all goes wrong. But it’s not entirely his fault, because it seems like things were going south for quite some time, definitely from the time that his grandfather declared himself a god?
Neither Louis nor Antoinette were particularly well equipped for their roles and she, in particular, suffered under the weight of the responsibilities. She was never really accepted into his world and he was kind of a mess himself.
This book is a very dreamy look at her life. I have to say I enjoyed it much more after reading the author’s afterword. I won’t give away what she does, but I didn’t catch it at all, and it was quite interesting.
Also note that it appears this book was first published back in 2002, so it is certainly not new. I liked it, though, but it’s probably not for everyone. If you are looking for a fact-based accounting this is not the book for you.
Almost all the history teachers at my high school were the football coaches so all I ever did was color maps with colored pencils. Then, in college I was a double major in English and Political Science so I didn’t have to take any history classes. I am history deficient.
I’m not sure this book helped very much.
In it, fourteen year old Marie Antoinette (who, it appears, was maybe only ever called Antoinette? I can’t really tell..) is traveling from Austria to France to meet her future husband who will become Louis XVI and will rule France. For a time. Til it all goes wrong. But it’s not entirely his fault, because it seems like things were going south for quite some time, definitely from the time that his grandfather declared himself a god?
Neither Louis nor Antoinette were particularly well equipped for their roles and she, in particular, suffered under the weight of the responsibilities. She was never really accepted into his world and he was kind of a mess himself.
This book is a very dreamy look at her life. I have to say I enjoyed it much more after reading the author’s afterword. I won’t give away what she does, but I didn’t catch it at all, and it was quite interesting.
Also note that it appears this book was first published back in 2002, so it is certainly not new. I liked it, though, but it’s probably not for everyone. If you are looking for a fact-based accounting this is not the book for you.
November 4, 2016
I really wish I could have enjoyed Versailles more, but to say I waded through it would be an understatement. I'm thankful it was a relatively short book.
The writing style was the strangest I've ever read. It went back and forth among first person, third person limited, little script things for a play, and prose poetry. It was annoying. I feel like there was no plot. It was just... kinda pointless.
I do have a pretty good amount of knowledge on Marie Antoinette, but I still learned a few things. That's the one plus.
I'm giving this two stars because I appreciate the amount of research that must have gone into writing this book. Based solely on my enjoyment, I'd give it one though. It wasn't my cup of tea.
The writing style was the strangest I've ever read. It went back and forth among first person, third person limited, little script things for a play, and prose poetry. It was annoying. I feel like there was no plot. It was just... kinda pointless.
I do have a pretty good amount of knowledge on Marie Antoinette, but I still learned a few things. That's the one plus.
I'm giving this two stars because I appreciate the amount of research that must have gone into writing this book. Based solely on my enjoyment, I'd give it one though. It wasn't my cup of tea.
July 11, 2015
[from a 2006 blog post:] If you, like I, went to see Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, and then became, shall we say, a wee bit obsessed, I can recommend both Versailles by Kathryn Davis and Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund. Very different in construct, plot, style, yet both capture the mood just perfectly.
Versailles is short and choppy and a jumble of styles (prose, drama, dialogue), with an obsession with numbers and counting. Abundance is long and flowing and first-person narrative. Both were, simply put, page turners. Quite enchanting.
Versailles is short and choppy and a jumble of styles (prose, drama, dialogue), with an obsession with numbers and counting. Abundance is long and flowing and first-person narrative. Both were, simply put, page turners. Quite enchanting.
October 23, 2024
Kathryn Davis is a brilliant writer and this book is her at her best.. She uses many voices and different voices, smoothly pivoting amongst varying genres and characters.
I took many notes while reading in preparation for writing this review but when I sat down to write but when I sat down to write this review, I was overwhelmed by how much I had written. The text is rich and the prose beautiful.
Davis wrote an afterward which I found fascinating--it made me want to read the book all over again. She explains the why and a bit of the how--some of the decisions she made about how to write an historical novel in which there is no suspense since we all know how the story ends! But I also realized that she had achieved her purpose so well the afterward mostly affirmed my interpretations.
The book is about several things--primarily, of course, Marie Antoinette, but equally--as can be inferred from the title--about Versailles itself. The opulence, the decadence, the beauty--but also the ways in which it entraps the people who live in it. Versailles is a character in the novel--probably the most powerful presence in it.
Davis shows how the 14-year-old child Marie Antoinette was when she arrived in France from their enemy country Austria and her development into the woman we know about. Davis is neither sympathetic nor condemning. She shows the forces which helped shape the queen as well as the choices she made which contributed to her downfall.
There are many beautiful descriptive passages, settings in nature, in the highly ornamental and controlled palace grounds with vivid descriptions of the palace itself. Davis uses many voices--poetic, vulgar--and forms, as I said: poetic, dramatic (scenes written in the form of plays or opera) as well as the more expected types of narrative.
The book is carefully and exhaustively researched--I checked many of the details, all of which were accurte. I also googled pictures suggested by the text but I realized after a few times that in fact the writing itself gave me all the pictures I needed.
The book is a tour de force. I went to Versailles many years ago and was indifferent to its charms--now, in the light of this book, I wish I could return to see it through the eyes of Davis.
A brilliant work that I strongly recommend. I am grateful to Greywolf Press, NetGalley, and the author for providing me with a copy of this book.
I took many notes while reading in preparation for writing this review but when I sat down to write but when I sat down to write this review, I was overwhelmed by how much I had written. The text is rich and the prose beautiful.
Davis wrote an afterward which I found fascinating--it made me want to read the book all over again. She explains the why and a bit of the how--some of the decisions she made about how to write an historical novel in which there is no suspense since we all know how the story ends! But I also realized that she had achieved her purpose so well the afterward mostly affirmed my interpretations.
The book is about several things--primarily, of course, Marie Antoinette, but equally--as can be inferred from the title--about Versailles itself. The opulence, the decadence, the beauty--but also the ways in which it entraps the people who live in it. Versailles is a character in the novel--probably the most powerful presence in it.
Davis shows how the 14-year-old child Marie Antoinette was when she arrived in France from their enemy country Austria and her development into the woman we know about. Davis is neither sympathetic nor condemning. She shows the forces which helped shape the queen as well as the choices she made which contributed to her downfall.
There are many beautiful descriptive passages, settings in nature, in the highly ornamental and controlled palace grounds with vivid descriptions of the palace itself. Davis uses many voices--poetic, vulgar--and forms, as I said: poetic, dramatic (scenes written in the form of plays or opera) as well as the more expected types of narrative.
The book is carefully and exhaustively researched--I checked many of the details, all of which were accurte. I also googled pictures suggested by the text but I realized after a few times that in fact the writing itself gave me all the pictures I needed.
The book is a tour de force. I went to Versailles many years ago and was indifferent to its charms--now, in the light of this book, I wish I could return to see it through the eyes of Davis.
A brilliant work that I strongly recommend. I am grateful to Greywolf Press, NetGalley, and the author for providing me with a copy of this book.
May 27, 2016
This is one of the worst examples of historical fiction I've ever read. The entire story is disjointed and, at times, historically inaccurate. You're given no reason to feel anything for any of the characters. I found myself looking forward to their deaths, just so the story could end. I suppose the writing style was meant to be artistic, but, even knowing the history, the entire thing made little to no sense.
December 19, 2025
Versailles by Kathryn Davis is a lyrical, novelistic meditation on the life and inner world of Marie Antoinette, beginning with her journey as a fourteen‑year‑old Austrian archduchess traveling to France to marry the future Louis XVI and ending with her execution during the French Revolution.
Rather than offering a traditional historical narrative, the book blends poetic narration and impressionistic vignettes that vividly evoke the palace of Versailles, the pressures of courtly spectacle, the weight of public scrutiny, and the complex psychological landscape of a young woman shaped by roles she never chose. Davis’s portrait is witty, perceptive, and deeply human, capturing Antoinette’s experience of being watched, judged, and defined by others while she tries to understand herself and her place in history.
Reading Versailles feels like stepping into the mind of someone both shimmeringly alive and strangely trapped: Da Vinci’s famous queen isn’t just a legend here, she’s a person with wry observations, private anxieties, and a sharp sense of how performance shapes identity. What moved me most was how the novel makes Antoinette’s world feel emotionally resonant even as it remains stylistically unconventional; moments of luxury and confinement sit side by side so that the dazzling court becomes both playground and prison.
I found myself surprised by how relevant the themes felt about being constantly seen, judged, and turned into a story because they resonate far beyond eighteenth‑century France, inviting reflection on how we perform and are performed upon in our own lives. The writing itself is precise and evocative rather than plot‑driven, meaning Versailles is less about a sequence of events and more about the texture of a life under immense pressure.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. I’m giving Versailles four stars because its rich, poetic voice and deep emotional empathy offer a fresh way into a familiar historical figure, illuminating Marie Antoinette’s inner world with nuance and grace.
While the fragmented, atmospheric style might not satisfy every reader’s desire for straightforward storytelling, its vivid character work and the way it reframes history as an intimate human experience make it a compelling and rewarding read.
Rather than offering a traditional historical narrative, the book blends poetic narration and impressionistic vignettes that vividly evoke the palace of Versailles, the pressures of courtly spectacle, the weight of public scrutiny, and the complex psychological landscape of a young woman shaped by roles she never chose. Davis’s portrait is witty, perceptive, and deeply human, capturing Antoinette’s experience of being watched, judged, and defined by others while she tries to understand herself and her place in history.
Reading Versailles feels like stepping into the mind of someone both shimmeringly alive and strangely trapped: Da Vinci’s famous queen isn’t just a legend here, she’s a person with wry observations, private anxieties, and a sharp sense of how performance shapes identity. What moved me most was how the novel makes Antoinette’s world feel emotionally resonant even as it remains stylistically unconventional; moments of luxury and confinement sit side by side so that the dazzling court becomes both playground and prison.
I found myself surprised by how relevant the themes felt about being constantly seen, judged, and turned into a story because they resonate far beyond eighteenth‑century France, inviting reflection on how we perform and are performed upon in our own lives. The writing itself is precise and evocative rather than plot‑driven, meaning Versailles is less about a sequence of events and more about the texture of a life under immense pressure.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars. I’m giving Versailles four stars because its rich, poetic voice and deep emotional empathy offer a fresh way into a familiar historical figure, illuminating Marie Antoinette’s inner world with nuance and grace.
While the fragmented, atmospheric style might not satisfy every reader’s desire for straightforward storytelling, its vivid character work and the way it reframes history as an intimate human experience make it a compelling and rewarding read.
April 28, 2011
I billed this book to my mom as a historical novel about Marie Antoinette, but not a stupid one. What I mean is that it's not fluffy, and it's not a bodice-ripper thinly disguised as something with redeeming value. Instead it's a meditation upon the life of Marie Antoinette, narrated by her ghost (spirit, shade, soul, whatever you want to call it. It's her speaking from beyond the grave, knowing how her life ends, not narrating events as they happen.)
The prose is lyrical and soothing to read. It reminded me quite a bit of Karen Blixen actually. In sections, she's broken the novel out into one-act plays, which I thought worked very well in conveying subtle social and political drama. It's not a long book, and not a happy one, but a very well-written and thought-provoking book, and one I would recommended.
The prose is lyrical and soothing to read. It reminded me quite a bit of Karen Blixen actually. In sections, she's broken the novel out into one-act plays, which I thought worked very well in conveying subtle social and political drama. It's not a long book, and not a happy one, but a very well-written and thought-provoking book, and one I would recommended.
December 21, 2024
I wouldn't recommend this if, like me, you know very little about Marie Antoinette and your objective is to learn more. It's not the right book for that. It is more like those dramedies that give the story their own modern twist. It has Antoinette behave and speak as if she were alive today. If you like this kind of thing, then this is certainly worth reading. It's also evidently well researched. But again, it's confusing if you miss the necessary background.
July 16, 2024
This doesn't teach you anything about Versailles or Marie Antoinette... in fact, the segments are so random, it is even difficult to understand them if you know a lot about the late queen. The only redeeming quality of this book is it length.
June 8, 2025
I really think I'm in the minority here when I say I really love the writing style, it's disjointed and weird and fucking beautiful to me. I can imagine if you go into this book expecting the Sofia Coppola version, it would be super hard to get through.
March 31, 2025
Loved the content, hated the writing style.
August 11, 2011
Really not my kind of book. Even though I love historical fiction and Marie Antoinette is one of my favourites.......this was just a bit too airy fairy for me. A short read....and this is probably the only reason I finished it.
July 28, 2020
There were some good things in this novel, but on the whole those acute observations and characterizations were sunk under the weight of the irritatingly self-conscious semi-poetical commentary of Marie Antoinette's soul, who (which?) is doing most of the talking. Particularly obnoxious were the chapters cast as dramas.
The description of Marie Antoinette's relationship with Alex Fersen is one of the high points of the book. Were they lovers, in a physical sense? "What possible difference could it possibly make to you?" Much more sensitively handled than in most biographies.
The novel was (fitfully) good at portraying what it was like to be hated by so many without being known by any (except possibly for Alex Fersen).
A reading group guide is included in the paperback edition; I did not find it endeared Ms. Davis or her project to me.
A very mixed bag.
The description of Marie Antoinette's relationship with Alex Fersen is one of the high points of the book. Were they lovers, in a physical sense? "What possible difference could it possibly make to you?" Much more sensitively handled than in most biographies.
The novel was (fitfully) good at portraying what it was like to be hated by so many without being known by any (except possibly for Alex Fersen).
A reading group guide is included in the paperback edition; I did not find it endeared Ms. Davis or her project to me.
A very mixed bag.
February 16, 2021
There was a lot going on in this seemingly small-in-scope novel. Unfortunately, I suspect a good portion of it was lost on me due to my truly abysmal knowledge of history. I’m tempted to read a few histories/biographies and come back to try again.
As usual, I love Kathryn Davis’ prose and multi-faceted narrative style, and the authors note really should have come before the novel — I found it really illuminated the perspective and approach she was taking on such a fully-spoiled, set-in-stone story.
I was also interested to learn that Choderlos de Laclos was involved in the revolution, specifically as a pamphleteer who denounced Marie Antoinette and rallied the people to overthrow the regency.
Lastly, I really enjoyed the sense of inevitability built with Marie Antionette’s posthumous narration and the references to future events (Napoleon, the Russian Revolution, etc.).
Overall, I’m left with a sense of curiosity regarding the time period, which may be the standard of success for historical fiction. Perhaps most pressing is one question, what happened to Eggplant?
As usual, I love Kathryn Davis’ prose and multi-faceted narrative style, and the authors note really should have come before the novel — I found it really illuminated the perspective and approach she was taking on such a fully-spoiled, set-in-stone story.
I was also interested to learn that Choderlos de Laclos was involved in the revolution, specifically as a pamphleteer who denounced Marie Antoinette and rallied the people to overthrow the regency.
Lastly, I really enjoyed the sense of inevitability built with Marie Antionette’s posthumous narration and the references to future events (Napoleon, the Russian Revolution, etc.).
Overall, I’m left with a sense of curiosity regarding the time period, which may be the standard of success for historical fiction. Perhaps most pressing is one question, what happened to Eggplant?
November 11, 2024
Historical Fiction telling the story of Marie Antoinette, the mostly misunderstood queen of France. The story begins with 14 year old Antoinette travelling to France from Austria to unite with her bethroted Louis XVI of France. A match based on strategic geopolitics rather than love or compatibility. The book is written in a very unique style, part narrative, part stream of consciousness and part what reads like screenplay. I would suggest going into it knowing the story of this unfortunate royal couple and the history of France at the time. Otherwise it can get highly confusing. While I liked the premise of the novel, I would have preferred a more in depth and linear narrative.
Thank you NetGalley and Graywolf Press for the ARC
Thank you NetGalley and Graywolf Press for the ARC
January 29, 2025
Obscure and artsy- I liked it, didn’t love it, primarily because it was hard to follow. Davis wanted the story to be told from Antoinette’s disembodied soul, which was something I haven’t experienced in fiction for a while. However, little playets (as Davis calls them) are dispersed through the narrative and kind of stall out all the momentum because I was left wondering who these people were, why they had anything to do with the story, and who they were even discussing. I was only able to follow the story because I’m familiar with the sequence of events and important figures (thanks to the PBS drama series and several other works of fiction)
July 15, 2022
Okay. I finished it, but I've read better...
May 21, 2025
meh bonus star for reading it outside in the sunshine
November 15, 2024
*I received a copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this opportunity*
VERSAILLES is a book that attempts to capture the elusive spirit of Marie Antoinette and the opulence of Versailles at its peak. A fluid combination of poetry, screenplay, first-person and third-person perspective, I never really knew what was going on while I was reading but I could sense the emotion of the story.
Reading it felt like a fever dream mixed with an interpretive dance (or maybe like when you're a child with the flu and are passing in an out of consciousness with the History Channel playing on the tv)-- not quite suited to my tastes, but maybe you're up for the challenge?
VERSAILLES is a book that attempts to capture the elusive spirit of Marie Antoinette and the opulence of Versailles at its peak. A fluid combination of poetry, screenplay, first-person and third-person perspective, I never really knew what was going on while I was reading but I could sense the emotion of the story.
Reading it felt like a fever dream mixed with an interpretive dance (or maybe like when you're a child with the flu and are passing in an out of consciousness with the History Channel playing on the tv)-- not quite suited to my tastes, but maybe you're up for the challenge?
June 19, 2025
beautiful prose … written from the soul of Maria Antoinette … excited to compliment this with the film <3
May 3, 2012
1. Writing style. Prose-poetic. Not my thing. If this kind of writing annoys you, stay away.
2. Lots of allusions to the physical world of Versailles, but few real descriptions. Basically, if you haven't been there, there's a chance you'll have NO IDEA what she's talking about. Which is too bad, because the palace is such a perfect symbol of royal excess.
3. I probably would have given this 3 stars, because I admire things about the book that I don't necessarily like, but then I made the mistake of reading the stupid, indulgent author essay the publisher saw fit to include at the end. (I should NEVER read these, seriously.) Did you know Kathryn Davis went to Paris and just FELL IN LOVE WITH IT? I'm shocked. I'm pretty sure that never happens to anyone.
2. Lots of allusions to the physical world of Versailles, but few real descriptions. Basically, if you haven't been there, there's a chance you'll have NO IDEA what she's talking about. Which is too bad, because the palace is such a perfect symbol of royal excess.
3. I probably would have given this 3 stars, because I admire things about the book that I don't necessarily like, but then I made the mistake of reading the stupid, indulgent author essay the publisher saw fit to include at the end. (I should NEVER read these, seriously.) Did you know Kathryn Davis went to Paris and just FELL IN LOVE WITH IT? I'm shocked. I'm pretty sure that never happens to anyone.
January 4, 2016
I'm really torn between 2 and 3 stars. I went with 2 because if I hadn't already read some biographies about Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution I would have been lost with this novel. It is written in a few different styles. First person, third person and some chapters are written as a play. It jumped forward in time without much explanation and I thought didn't give you much time to dwell on what was happening. It also didn't give me a clear picture of who Marie Antoinette was and what she went through. I didn't get the feeling of how much courage she had, her love for her children didn't come through either. I did think the last chapter while she was alive was well done and captured her captivity.
June 26, 2007
Versailles is a beautiful slim novel narrated by Marie Antoinette's spirit, ghost, disembodied being. Don't be confused and think this is a book version of the movie or Vogue fluff about her that's been going around--this is a mesmerizing exploration of what it was like to be in her head. If you've never read anything by Kathryn Davis, you've missed out on one of the best contemporary writers--she uses language in a very and creative compelling way.
December 1, 2009
Meh. This felt like an experiment rather than a book. It reimagines the story of Marie Antoinette and doesn't do much new with it. There is a lot of formal experimentation like shifting of perspectives, embedded one-act plays, etc., but it doesn't add anything factual or emotional to a historical episode that is already very well-trodden ground.
June 16, 2015
I think I'm going to use interesting in a way that means I didn't really like it. It meandered through the story of Marie Antoinette, jumping over vast swathes of time to drop you somewhere new, expecting you to know what was going on and why this was happening.
A curious re-imagined story but ultimately not for me.
A curious re-imagined story but ultimately not for me.
September 15, 2009
I'm intrigued by the story of Marie Antoinette but I found the style of writing too distracting for the storyline. Perhaps I should just look into her biography...?
Read
September 2, 2011I read half of this. I don't get it. I quit.
April 19, 2019
I picked up this book from my local library, having greater expectations! I should have brought some sort of list of expectant reading with me before I just randomly chose a story which seemed interesting to me, at the time of discovery. Usually, I pick up Charles Dickens books like Oliver Twist for instance, which I did this time along with Versailles. This story was disappointing, but the ending would of had to have been the most alluring, the nearest to pleasurable, an end to which Antoinette died emotionally yet fearlessly. I saw that this was a work of pure fiction, though I'm not exactly certain of how many (if any) facts were laid into the book. I thought to myself, "Well, there must've been some facts. I mean really, how else would one write a work of fiction without doing at least some sort of research on the subject of Versailles and all of its royal blooded people? Surely, there must have been some truths to everything since Versailles was a real event, not matter how truly surreal it was, grand but bloody." The book starts out with the childhood beginnings of Marie Antoinette, small and always curious. Shortly after, we learn of her being taken away from her home where she spoke fluent German in Austria, to become Queen of France, being married to an honorable prince there at the age of fourteen. Towards the middle of her life, everything becomes quite sensual and private. Large parties of the royals are held at the palace, beautiful people with interesting personalities, explorations of the abundant royal gardens, talk of troubles with having children though eventually Louis getting his operation to help him become somewhat achievable of getting his wife pregnant. They have four children, but only two, a boy and a girl, survive through the ending of beheading of their mother and father King/Queen of France. There had seemed to be some sort of a famine late 1700's with the French and later on Marie Antoinette is accused of stealing food and doing the unspeakable with her son, among other terrible atrocities which she denies fervently and pridefully. Louis, Antoinette's husband, goes first, after time and time again having made-up escape plans with her. Marie is shortly after locked inside of a jail cell with a straw bed and a hook in the walls where she hangs an expensive watch she keeps from a precious family member. Everyone in France seemed to rejoice of the Queen's passing in such a horrid way influenced by the people. One can't help but feel the pressure and tribulations this poor woman went through, although many times she had been rude and careless. I suppose that I'm most likely to never read this same story again. It was just, "one of those books." If you know what I mean. A book you read begrudgingly and never come back to again simply because you didn't like it. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I was actually able to finish all of the reading material. That rarely happens, mainly with Christian books. If anyone were to ask me, "Are you happy that you actually read the book?" I would say yes, even though I didn't like it as much as I feel I should have. I just feel as if the author could have added a lot more effort into it, as far as the writing style went and quality of deep, noble peoples. There just wasn't enough depth to the entire story. I may be alone in this but I saw the star rating and went, ah-ha! So, A LOT OF PEOPLE MUST FEEL THE SAME WAY I DO ABOUT KATHRYN'S BOOK. There isn't much left to say. I hope that this review helps a lot of people to decide whether this book would be either a waste of time for them or a good touch on history, no matter how fictional it may be. If you are that curious, I would say "Good-Luck to you."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 150 reviews