False Dawn: Women in the Age of the Sun King

by Louis Auchincloss

Traces the history, culture, and society of seventeenth-century Europe through the lives of such outstanding women as Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, Madame de Maintenon, Queen Anne, Queen Mary II, Abigail, Lady Masham, and others

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction

184 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1984

About the author

Louis Stanton Auchincloss was an American novelist, historian, and essayist.

Among Auchincloss's best-known books are the multi-generational sagas The House of Five Talents, Portrait in Brownstone, and East Side Story. Other well-known novels include The Rector of Justin, the tale of a renowned headmaster of a school like Groton trying to deal with changing times, and The Embezzler, a look at white-collar crime. Auchincloss is known for his closely observed portraits of old New York and New England society.

Reviews

[Yvonne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought I was going to love this book because of the characters in it. Fascinating women.
Mr. Auchincloss'es writing made it so difficult to wade through it, it is soporific. Luckily, it is 175 pages short. But all in all, I learned new things about the epoch.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a series of short biographies on prominent women in that era. French, English, Italian, Swedish. Mostly royal, or at least noble, but some climbed to their positions -- like Lady Masham, whose climb sprang from her being a servant to Queen Anne.

Interesting tales. Sometimes about their personal lives, sometimes about the great events they were involved in and affected -- the Fronde, the War of Spanish Succession, the Glorious Revolution, the Jansenist controversy in France.

Their interactions with the world they lived in and the social structures that held them all. The author compares a number of them with the heroines of Corneille's tragedies -- high-minded, proud of birth, ambitious, and capable of the most vicious jealousies.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing look at the women who flourished in the rays of the "Sun King"-- Louis XIV. These mini-bios give a fascinating look at women who had to carve out a place for themselves in the halls of power at a time when women were often treated like pawns in the political game, being married off to cement political alliances and having little say in the matter. Each of the fourteen women profiled here were able to play the hand life dealt them with wit, energy, intelligence. Some came to better endings than others, but each is complex person, not merely a pawn in a man's game.