What do you think?
Rate this book
A Day with Marie Antoinette
Featuring personal correspondence, lavish illustrations, and a wealth of unpublished material, this handsome slipcased volume reveals an intimate portrait of Marie Antoinette, her personal collections, and Versailles. Marie Antoinette was a mirror of her time. Never has a queen been so passionately admired and adulated, then hunted, vilified, and defamed. Spanning her tragically brief yet passionate life—from the young queen playing a shepherdess on stage, unaware of the turmoil in the capital, to France’s guillotined “martyr queen"—the author demystifies the legend, unveiling the woman behind the queen, and the wife and mother behind the sovereign.
Readers will experience the palatial luxury of the queen’s Versailles by tracing Marie Antoinette’s footsteps through the royal residence, as well as discovering her voice through rare letters and encountering little-known works in her private art collection.
Readers will experience the palatial luxury of the queen’s Versailles by tracing Marie Antoinette’s footsteps through the royal residence, as well as discovering her voice through rare letters and encountering little-known works in her private art collection.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published May 19, 2015
8 people are currently reading
314 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 6, 2018
Oooooh what a gorgeous book. Finally gave in and bought it. Lavish illustrations of everything Marie Antoinette-y. Text is pretty basic, but enjoyable. Most books of this ilk would be of the giant coffee table type that weigh 40 lbs and cost $85. I like that this is little and manageable. Adds to its cuteness.
June 2, 2016
The physical book is beautiful, arriving with a sturdy slipcase. The illustrations are profuse and varied. Delalex mixes modern images from the Coppola Marie Antoinette, photographs of haute couture and paintings, engravings and period fashion illustrations. All of this is done to demonstrate the Queen's continuing influence upon fashion. The book is also lavish in the photographs of the Petit Trianon, with several angles that make even familiar shots (the Hameau, for example) look fresh and interesting.
The pictures are the main selling point, but if you read Delalax's commentary, you won't be disappointed. She is critical of the excesses even as she displays the objects connected to them --- the fans, the pouffed hair, the "designer" gowns (Rose Bertin, the Coco Chanel of 1776), the coolly elegant interiors commissioned by Marie Antoinette to display her finished product. That too is a genius of the book. Marie Antoinette emerges in a cloud of flour, silk, perfumed gloves and costly jewelry as a French fashion icon.
As for the "love affair" with Axel Fersen, Delalax seems to side with the "not physically intimate" crowd. But they were certainly emotionally intimate, if we can believe the letters she wrote to him almost to the end of her life. And in 2014 one of these letters, written by the lovestruck Fersen, referenced that he had spent the night with Marie Antoinettesans Louis XVI. So there's that. And as Delalax points out, in the end it was the appearance of the love affair that damaged Marie Antoinette's reputation. This was a shallow society that confined itself to etiquette and surface behaviors.
All in all, a pretty book, more to be paged through than used as a work of scholarship. But Delalax's insights are frequently sharp, and the text always entertains. A definite read if you are planning a trip to Versailles, and especially to the Petit Trianon itself. If you're lucky, perhaps you will run into the ghost of the Queen flitting around. Hey, it's been known to happen.
The pictures are the main selling point, but if you read Delalax's commentary, you won't be disappointed. She is critical of the excesses even as she displays the objects connected to them --- the fans, the pouffed hair, the "designer" gowns (Rose Bertin, the Coco Chanel of 1776), the coolly elegant interiors commissioned by Marie Antoinette to display her finished product. That too is a genius of the book. Marie Antoinette emerges in a cloud of flour, silk, perfumed gloves and costly jewelry as a French fashion icon.
As for the "love affair" with Axel Fersen, Delalax seems to side with the "not physically intimate" crowd. But they were certainly emotionally intimate, if we can believe the letters she wrote to him almost to the end of her life. And in 2014 one of these letters, written by the lovestruck Fersen, referenced that he had spent the night with Marie Antoinettesans Louis XVI. So there's that. And as Delalax points out, in the end it was the appearance of the love affair that damaged Marie Antoinette's reputation. This was a shallow society that confined itself to etiquette and surface behaviors.
All in all, a pretty book, more to be paged through than used as a work of scholarship. But Delalax's insights are frequently sharp, and the text always entertains. A definite read if you are planning a trip to Versailles, and especially to the Petit Trianon itself. If you're lucky, perhaps you will run into the ghost of the Queen flitting around. Hey, it's been known to happen.
July 28, 2019
This book is utterly gorgeous! It isn’t a heavy history book (and certainly not a comprehensive biography of Marie Antoinette) but rather a glimpse into her everyday life - the palaces, the dresses, the balls, the paintings and the politics, all beautifully illustrated and littered with excerpts from contemporary letters. I loved it and would recommend to absolutely anyone!
March 26, 2025
Most beautiful book ever!
April 25, 2018
Beautiful photographs and artwork throughout the book tell a brief story of the days of Marie Antoinette and her time in Versailles. I was looking for something to get a bit of the story of the woman and the palace before I visit it next month and this was a nice primer. Not an extensive biography, just the highlights.
February 10, 2023
Rich with photos and artwork of Marie Antoinette's life and objects. The book itself is glossy and lavish as Versailles itself. A joy to read and a feast for the eyes.
April 4, 2018
This book is just gorgeous. 5 STARS FOR HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS!
It was also great for me to brush up on my Marie Antoinette and Versailles knowledge before going to Paris tomorrow!
It was also great for me to brush up on my Marie Antoinette and Versailles knowledge before going to Paris tomorrow!
August 4, 2016
This book is physically beautiful and I was very impressed when it shipped to my home. When I opened the cover however, I was not disappointed. Delalex does a magnificent job in telling the complete story of a Queen who was famous for her extravagance at the time and still to date. It is carefully divided into chapters based upon different periods of her life which makes it much easier to comprehend the evolution in style and personality. Delalex masterfully selects photos from a wide variety of sources. Her mixing of primary sources as well as modern interpretations from Coppola's 2006 film allows us to construct our own image of this infamous scene and compliments her writing beautifully. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Marie Antoinette, it is highly informative and visual.
July 10, 2016
I had wanted this book for so long, so opening the square present on my birthday, and seeing this book, I was ecstatic. In short, this is a stunning book. It offers a good overview of Marie's life. It's not the most detailed biography, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who would like the learn more about the Queen's life without having the delve into an 800 page biography. Though I would also recommend it to anyone who's read those more in-depth biographies, as this book as beautiful images, which adds Delalex's biography a fantastic visual charm that enchanted me.
December 11, 2017
Ce livre retrace l’histoire de cette reine de France par des iconographies, des anecdotes, des extraits de livres biographiques. On se plonge, non pas dans un jour avec Marie-Antoinette, mais dans une vie. Ce qui nous est dévoilé, c’est son influence sur l’art et l’élégance.
Analyse du livre Un jour avec Marie-Antoinette
Analyse du livre Un jour avec Marie-Antoinette
November 3, 2019
'She was fourteen when she arrived at the French court, too young to be capable of embodying the rigid constraints of court etiquette. At the end of her life, a prisoner in the Conciergerie, she was just thirty-eight but looked like an old woman. In the carefree insouciance of her teenage years, just as in the tragic unraveling of her reign as a queen, Marie Antoinette was constantly out of touch and out of step with a world that was in decline, that she disliked and that disliked her, but that she would nevertheless defend to the end. These are some of the paradoxes of the life of a queen who was oblivious to the fault lines that were about to rend French society apart and that lend the figure of Marie Antoinette the romance and enigma that still surround her to this day.'
I got this book when I visited Versailles, it's not really a biography of Marie Antoinette but an account of some of the highlights of her life starting from her birth and childhood in Austria, following her marriage to Louis, her arrival at the Palace, her beauty, taste and pleasures, her relationships with her husband, children, mother, friends and lover and ending with her demise and ultimate death in 1789.
The book includes numerous pictures of furniture and art pieces that can be found at Versailles to accompany the short text. It's gorgeous!!
November 12, 2023
I saw this book online somewhere and knew I’d prefer to read something like this rather than an extensive biography of that enigmatic character Marie Antoinette. It is collection of letters both to and from her and primary source descriptions of Marie’s life and home. We see many different portraits from throughout her life, photographs of actual dresses and accessories as well as both artistic and photographic depictions of the furniture and styling of her homes.
Not just that but we also get to peek a little bit into her mind and heart. She was an intriguing woman and the whole idea of making a little pretend village to imagine in with your friends while your own people are starving is complicated to process. As much as this isn’t literarily a masterpiece, I was always happy to pick this up, it was like learning from a collection of colorful museum placards which totally worked for me.
Not just that but we also get to peek a little bit into her mind and heart. She was an intriguing woman and the whole idea of making a little pretend village to imagine in with your friends while your own people are starving is complicated to process. As much as this isn’t literarily a masterpiece, I was always happy to pick this up, it was like learning from a collection of colorful museum placards which totally worked for me.
May 8, 2020
Es una recopilación de imágenes, fotografías y pinturas que de verdad te sumerge en la vida de Maria Antonieta, la edición es hermosa y vienen detalles muy interesantes.
Realmente no invertí mucho tiempo en su lectura porque era lo que solía leer antes de dormir o exactamente al despertarme y con 2hrs y media podría haberlo terminado pues esta lleno de imágenes descriptivas sobre lo que se esta hablando.
Lo compre hace algún tiempo cuando tuve la oportunidad de ir al castillo de Versalles y la realidad es que lo compre como un souvenir y porque no estaba muy enterada de la vida de Maria Antonieta y me sentí un poco fuera de lugar visitando un lugar tan lindo sin saber un poco más de su historia, aunque me tarde mucho en leerlo considero que es un libro excelente para informarte sin tanta profundidad en toda la historia de este hermoso lugar y de Maria Antonieta.
Realmente no invertí mucho tiempo en su lectura porque era lo que solía leer antes de dormir o exactamente al despertarme y con 2hrs y media podría haberlo terminado pues esta lleno de imágenes descriptivas sobre lo que se esta hablando.
Lo compre hace algún tiempo cuando tuve la oportunidad de ir al castillo de Versalles y la realidad es que lo compre como un souvenir y porque no estaba muy enterada de la vida de Maria Antonieta y me sentí un poco fuera de lugar visitando un lugar tan lindo sin saber un poco más de su historia, aunque me tarde mucho en leerlo considero que es un libro excelente para informarte sin tanta profundidad en toda la historia de este hermoso lugar y de Maria Antonieta.
June 21, 2021
Not a biography but more of an overview of Marie Antoinette and her iconic lifestyle. It’s a fast read because there’s not a lot of information but it is chock full of pictures and I loved the visual references. Honestly I think even thorough biographies should contain as many pictures as possible to help give context. I really enjoyed this as an overview of who she was and it’s almost a teaser to now go and read something more in depth.
February 16, 2019
I love everything about this book. It’s beautiful, with beautiful depictions of Marie and life at Versailles. And I loved the way it was laid out and how it told the story of her life using both words and pictures which gives to book and her story more weight and makes it more relatable and real. I love Marie Antoinette and this was one of the better biographies about her life.
February 6, 2023
I really enjoyed this book. Although I did find the title to be a bit miseleading, because it gives the impression that it's going to be a description of a typical day in the life of Marie Antoinette. (When it's more along the lines of a shorter biography of her entire history)
August 1, 2023
This book is pure eye candy! If you love Marie Antoinette or want to get the inside scoop on the details of Versailles, this book is for you. It's so beautiful I go back to it again and again for inspiration. It also includes many interesting facts about Marie Antoinette!
May 9, 2019
What a beautiful book! Sumptuous in fact.
I had read most of the information before, but I did find the parts about von Fersen and the Queen’s Hamlet especially interesting.
I had read most of the information before, but I did find the parts about von Fersen and the Queen’s Hamlet especially interesting.
May 24, 2022
Delalex beautifully captures moments which are open-ended of Marie Antoinette as if to say "here is your legacy, it's here when you're ready to recapture it, and us, again."
January 1, 2023
Magnifique ce livre !!! Un vrai petit trésor 🤩
January 1, 2024
what a beautiful book 💗🤍🩵
September 30, 2016
A beautiful book brimming with photographs of everything MA and more. There are portraits, details of furniture and furnishings, clothing and accessories, buildings and grounds. What is lacking is any depth of her story, regardless of how much there is in terms of learning about the artifacts we have. As opposed to "a day in the life" or "life of," this book presents a day spent at the museum, so to speak, on the grounds of Versailles, et al. My major disappointment is that oftentimes we are presented detailed images but lacking context - I'd love the detailed shots to accompany those that are of the item as a whole - and even in context of the larger space - pictures of rooms as a whole from varying angles. It would have been nice to have had plans of Petit Trianon and her Hamlet (some of us might never be so lucky as to travel to France). Overall, though, I truly enjoyed this one - and it is a lovely keepsake (although I do agree with other comments in regards to the inferior binding). This is probably 4 - 4.5 stars, but I think I will round it up to a Goodreads 5 because it excels at what it aims to be.
December 6, 2015
A Day With Marie Antoinette by Hélène Delalex is a beautifully crafted, intimate look at the life and legend of Marie Antoinette as told through the objects, places and people that defined her story: the furniture, paintings, etchings, lavish rooms and gardens of Versailles where she spent most of her ultimately tragic life are highlighted in this concise, charming overview of Marie Antoinette.
(I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.) Full review: http://vivelaqueen.blogspot.com/2015/...
(I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.) Full review: http://vivelaqueen.blogspot.com/2015/...
January 2, 2016
Doesn't really do her justice, but it is nice enough.
Very brief glimpses at everything. Do not expect lavish images of Versailles. Overall, it feels like there's very little about her clothes for my taste. Maybe if it did focus on just one day, or a series of important dates? It crams in a lot about her entire life.
The best I can say is it is like the those little paperback Abrams Discoveries books. I have a soft spot for those.
Has a slipcase, but is overpriced at 34.95. Binding isn't that great.
Very brief glimpses at everything. Do not expect lavish images of Versailles. Overall, it feels like there's very little about her clothes for my taste. Maybe if it did focus on just one day, or a series of important dates? It crams in a lot about her entire life.
The best I can say is it is like the those little paperback Abrams Discoveries books. I have a soft spot for those.
Has a slipcase, but is overpriced at 34.95. Binding isn't that great.
August 9, 2016
Gorgeous book!!!
December 17, 2016
Ce livre est magnifique avec de très belles photos.
September 12, 2017
I loved the detail in the writing and the photos and quotes, from very good sources.
January 21, 2019
Not a bad book, but not what it says on the cover. I thought it would be explaining a day in the life of Marie Antoinette, instead, it is more of just an explanation of the whole life time of the queen separated into sections like fashion and then motherhood etc. If you are interested in history it is still worth a read though, but I got through it in an evening.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews